Month: February 2024

By DAVID McHUGH AP Business Writer FRANKFURT, Germany (AP) — Multinational beer and beverage company Anheuser-Busch InBev, maker of Budweiser, Bud Light, Stella Artois and Corona, has reported a 7% increase in operating profit for last year, even as as sales sagged in the United States due to a decline in demand for Bud Light.

By ILLIA NOVIKOV Associated Press KYIV, Ukraine (AP) — Russian forces are pushing hard against more Ukrainian towns and villages in eastern and southeastern Ukraine as Moscow tries to press its current advantage in weapons and troops, Kyiv officials said Thursday. Despite Russia’s apparent offensive momentum on the ground, Ukraine claimed it has shot down

BRUSSELS (AP) — The European Union’s powerful Commission says it will begin releasing billions of euros to Poland that were frozen over the previous government’s policies that the bloc said amounted to widespread backsliding on fundamental democratic principles. The move had been expected after Commission President Ursula von der Leyen promised “good news” last week

By SYLVIA HUI Associated Press LONDON (AP) — Dave Myers, best known as one half of Britain’s adored “Hairy Bikers” TV chef duo, has died after a battle with cancer, his co-star and long-time friend Si King said Thursday. He was 66. Myers and King found fame in the U.K. and beyond with their “Hairy

By LLAZAR SEMINI Associated Press TIRANA, Albania (AP) — The leaders of five Western Balkan countries met Thursday in an effort to push ahead a European Union plan that promises financial aid and a faster road to membership in return for economic reform. Brussels’ plan calls for 6 billion euros to be sent to the

COPENHAGEN, Denmark (AP) — A freight train has hit and killed three people at a railway crossing at a station in central Sweden after they got off another train. Police say the victims crossed the tracks without seeing the freight train approaching. The crossing only has lights to warn of oncoming trains. In 2017, a

By BABACAR DIONE Associated Press DAKAR, Senegal (AP) — Officials in Senegal say at least two dozen people have died off Senegal’s northern coast and many were injured when a boat carrying migrants capsized. The boat was bound for Europe and capsized Wednesday near the town of Saint-Louis where bodies washed up on shore. The

By BASSEM MROUE Associated Press BEIRUT (AP) — Human Rights Watch says Turkey bears responsibility for some of the abuses and possible war crimes committed in Syria, mostly against Kurdish residents in northern Syria. The New York-based watchdog said on Thursday that the abuses were committed by Turkish forces and also armed factions backed by

BERLIN (AP) — Police say a hand grenade and other dangerous objects have been found in searches of the Berlin apartment where a suspected former member of the left-wing militant Red Army Faction group was arrested this week after more than three decades in hiding. Daniela Klette was arrested on Monday. She is accused of

By JILL LAWLESS Associated Press LONDON (AP) — Prime Minister Rishi Sunak says Britain is descending into “mob rule” because of the pressures created by protests against the Israel-Hamas war. His words were criticized as alarmist by a human rights group. Sunak told a meeting of police leaders that “increasingly violent and intimidatory behavior” is intended

By MATTHEW DALY Associated Press WASHINGTON (AP) — The Biden administration will investigate potential national security risks posed by Chinese-made “smart cars” that can gather sensitive information about Americans driving them. The probe could lead to new regulations aimed at preventing China from using sophisticated technology in electric cars and other so-called connected vehicles to

By DAVID KEYTON Associated Press STOCKHOLM (AP) — Legendary pop icon Cyndi Lauper, who rose to fame in the 1980s with hits such as “Time After Time” and “Girls Just Want To Have Fun,” has entered a partnership with the Swedish masterminds behind the immersive virtual concert ABBA Voyage. The partnership announced Thursday by the

By DAVID KOENIG AP Airlines Writer The Biden administration is announcing proposed new rules that officials say will help passengers with disabilities. The Transportation Department is proposing Thursday that it is proposing to make it easier for the government to fine airlines for damaging or misplacing wheelchairs. The department is also proposing that airlines provide

By KELVIN CHAN AP Business Writer LONDON (AP) — You were walking next to a swimming pool when you slipped and dropped your phone into the water. Or it slipped out of your hand when you were next to a filled bathtub or toilet. However your smartphone got wet, you now need to dry it.

By BASSEM MROUE Associated Press BEIRUT (AP) — Austria’s foreign minister has urged Israel and Lebanon’s militant Hezbollah group against escalating the conflict along the volatile Israel-Lebanon border and said he hopes for a pause in the fighting in Gaza in time for the start of the Muslim holy month of Ramadan in March. Alexander

MOSCOW (AP) — President Vladimir Putin on Thursday hailed Russian national unity amid the fighting in Ukraine in a state-of-the-nation address ahead of next month’s election he’s all but certain to win. Speaking to an audience of lawmakers and top officials televised live nationwide, Putin said that Russia was “defending its sovereignty and security and

By WAFAA SHURAFA and KAREEM CHEHAYEB Associated Press RAFAH, Gaza Strip (AP) — An apparent Israeli strike on a crowd of Palestinians waiting for humanitarian aid in Gaza City on Thursday has killed and wounded dozens, according to a local hospital official. Dr. Jadallah Shafai, the head of the nursing department at Shifa Hospital, told

By ROD McGUIRK Associated Press MELBOURNE, Australia (AP) — A Filipino immigrant who helped a small Outback town keep its volunteer fire brigade was celebrated in the Australian Parliament on Thursday during a special sitting to welcome Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos Jr., who is on a state visit. Prime Minister Anthony Albanese praised Samson Bocul

MOSCOW (AP) — A Russian rocket has successfully put an Iranian satellite into orbit, a launch that underlines increasingly close cooperation between Moscow and Tehran. Russia’s state-run Roscosmos corporation said that a Soyuz rocket blasted off Thursday from the Vostochny launch facility in the country’s far east to carry the Iranian satellite and 18 Russian

COPENHAGEN, Denmark (AP) — A helicopter flying between an offshore oil platform and mainland Norway has crashed into the North Sea, killing one person and injuring five others. Norwegian news agency NTB cited police as saying the Sikorsky S-92 helicopter was on a training mission for state-owned oil and gas company Equinor ASA when it

Baseball star Shohei Ohtani announced on his Instagram account that he is married. The two-way star joined the Los Angeles Dodgers in December on a $700 million, 10-year contract. He wrote on Instagram in Japanese: “The season is approaching but I would like to announce to everyone that I have gotten married.” He said his

ORLANDO (AP) — Police in Orlando, Florida, say at least one person is dead and several others were injured Wednesday following a shooting. WFTV reports that at approximately 11:00 p.m. officers from the Orlando Police Department responded to the area of Iron Wedge Drive and South Lake Orlando in reference to several shots fired. Upon

By MEGAN JANETSKY Associated Press MEXICO CITY (AP) — The United Nations has accused Nicaragua’s government of committing “serious systematic human rights violations, tantamount to crimes against humanity.” That’s according to findings released Thursday from an investigation into the country’s expanding crackdown on political dissent. The government of President Daniel Ortega has gone after opponents

By MUNIR AHMED Associated Press ISLAMABAD (AP) — Pakistan’s National Assembly swore in newly elected members on Thursday in a chaotic scene, as allies of jailed former Premier Imran Khan protested what they claim was a rigged election. Lawmakers from Khan’s Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf party repeatedly chanted “Vote-thief!” as Shehbaz Sharif, who’s expected to form the

By ELAINE KURTENBACH AP Business Writer BANGKOK (AP) — Shares were mixed in Asia on Thursday after a lackluster day on Wall Street, where selling of technology stocks pulled benchmarks lower. U.S. futures were flat and oil prices also were barely changed. Tokyo’s Nikkei 225 index was down 0.1% at 39,166.19 after data showed factory

By JANIE HAR Associated Press SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — A billionaire-backed proposal to build an eco-friendly California city from scratch is off to a bumpy start in qualifying its voter initiative for the Nov. 5 ballot. Thursday is the deadline for the Solano County counsel’s office to give California Forever the ballot title the company

By GABE STERN Associated Press/Report for America RENO, Nev. (AP) — Counties across Nevada are struggling to find poll workers in a pivotal election year. Secretary of State Cisco Aguilar is proposing that the legal community be tapped to help address the problem. Aguilar wants lawyers who volunteer at the polls to be able to

By ROD McGUIRK Associated Press MELBOURNE, Australia (AP) — Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. has told Australia’s Parliament that the strategic partnership between the two nations is more important than ever with the rule of law and peace in the region under threat from China. Marcos told a special joint sitting of the two chambers

By PHILIP MARCELO Associated Press NEW YORK (AP) — Between bridge and tunnel tolls and parking fees, it can already cost a mint to drive a car into Manhattan. Is forking over another $15 enough to get people out of their cars and onto mass transit? That’s the hope among some New York officials. The

By NICHOLAS RICCARDI Associated Press The biggest day of this year’s primary campaign is approaching. Fifteen states — plus American Samoa — vote in contests known as Super Tuesday. The election promises to provide all sorts of clues to political junkies about the presidential race in November. Will Donald Trump keep rolling? Will Nikki Haley

By OLGA R. RODRIGUEZ and SCOTT SONNER Associated Press Forecasters say a Pacific storm packing powerful winds and heavy snow is headed for parts of Northern California. It is predicted to push toward the Sierra Nevada mountains with potential blizzard conditions and up to 10 feet (3 meters) of snow in the mountains around Lake

By HYUNG-JIN KIM Associated Press SEOUL, South Korea (AP) — South Korea’s government made a last appeal to junior doctors to end a walkout, with hours left to go before the Thursday deadline on its threats to suspend medical licenses and prosecute the strikers. Thousands of medical interns and residents have been on strike for

By SEAN MURPHY and JIM VERTUNO Associated Press CANADIAN, Texas (AP) — A cluster of wildfires that scorched the Texas Panhandle included a blaze that grew into one of the largest in state history, with flames moving with alarming speed and blackening the landscape across a vast stretch of small towns and cattle ranches. An

By LOLITA C. BALDOR Associated Press WASHINGTON (AP) — Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin will face Congress publicly for the first time Thursday to explain his failure to quickly notify the president and other senior leaders about his hospitalization last month for complications from prostate cancer surgery. He is expected to hear some sharp questions and

By NASSER KARIMI Associated Press TEHRAN, Iran (AP) — With flashy celebrity ads and promises of deep discounts, a shop in Iran’s capital had offered consumers in the Islamic Republic one of the hottest products in the country — an iPhone that came out in 2021. But instead of getting their hands on the handsets,

By COLLEEN LONG, SEUNG MIN KIM and JILL COLVIN Associated Press WASHINGTON (AP) — President Joe Biden and his likely Republican challenger Donald Trump both head to the U.S.-Mexico border in Texas on Thursday in a sign of how central immigration has become to the 2024 election and how much both candidates want to use

By REBECCA BOONE and GENE JOHNSON Associated Press KUNA, Idaho (AP) — For nearly an hour, Thomas Eugene Creech lay strapped to a table in an Idaho execution chamber as medical team members poked and prodded at his arms and legs, hands and feet, trying to find a vein through which they could end his

By SEAN MURPHY and LISA BAUMANN FRITCH, Texas. (AP) — The small town of Fritch is again picking through the rubble of a Texas wildfire, a decade after another destructive blaze burned hundreds of homes and left deep scars in the Panhandle community. Residents in and around Fritch and other rural towns fled for safety

By STEPHEN GROVES and LINLEY SANDERS Associated Press WASHINGTON (AP) — A new poll from The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research finds that U.S. adults have become fractured along party lines in their support for military aid for Ukraine. Russia is making battlefield advances in the conflict, but a politically divided Congress is

By MARI YAMAGUCHI Associated Press TOKYO (AP) — Japan’s beleaguered Prime Minister Fumio Kishida is set to stand before a political ethics committee at Parliament in a bid to showcase his leadership. Kishida is struggling to survive his governing party’s corruption scandal that has sent his support ratings to new lows. The scandal, considered the

TEGUCIGALPA, Honduras (AP) — Authorities in Honduras say two buses collided head-on in a village in the Central American country’s west, and 17 people were killed and 14 were injured, four of them seriously. Officials say witnesses in La Montañita reported the two buses were traveling at a moderate speed when the accident happened Wednesday.

By HILARY FOX Associated Press LONDON (AP) — Kate Winslet is running things — on and off the set of her new TV show, “The Regime.” In the HBO show premiering Sunday, she plays Elena Vernham — also known as The Chancellor, the ruler of a fictional country in Europe, possibly near Poland. Winslet is

By DAVE CAMPBELL AP Sports Writer MINNEAPOLIS (AP) — Caitlin Clark has another career record on her astounding resume: the most points by any major college women’s player to ever take the court. Iowa’s superstar guard scored 33 points to lead the sixth-ranked Hawkeyes to a 108-60 romp of Minnesota, pushing her past Lynette Woodard

By MORGAN LEE Associated Press SANTA FE, N.M. (AP) — Jurors in a trial over the fatal movie-set shooting of a cinematographer by Alec Baldwin have heard in courtroom testimony that a manager increased oversight of firearm safety but was only partially aware of misfires in the days leading up to it. The testimony by

By BERT WILKINSON Associated Press GEORGETOWN, Guyana (AP) — Caribbean leaders say embattled Haitian Prime Minister Ariel Henry has agreed to hold general elections by mid-2025 as the international community pushes to raise money for a foreign armed force to fight gang violence in the Caribbean country. Members of a regional trade bloc known as

By LISA MASCARO and MARY CLARE JALONICK Associated Press WASHINGTON (AP) — Long before Sen. Mitch McConnell surprised colleagues by announcing he would be stepping down as the Republican leader this fall, he knew the time had come. McConnell leaves the Senate, and the Republican Party itself, at a crossroads. Wednesday’s announcement comes before the

By SIMINA MISTREANU Associated Press CHENGDU, China (AP) — For a few days in October 2023, the capital of the science fiction world was Chengdu, China. Fans traveled from around the world as Worldcon, sci-fi’s biggest annual event, was held in the country for the first time. It was a rare moment when Chinese and

By MARCIA DUNN AP Aerospace Writer CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. (AP) — The first private U.S. spacecraft to land on the moon broke a leg at touchdown before falling over, according to company officials who said Wednesday it was on the verge of losing power. Intuitive Machines, the company that built the lander, released new photos

By SIMINA MISTREANU Associated Press CHENGDU, China (AP) — For a few days in October 2023, the capital of the science fiction world was Chengdu, China. Fans traveled from around the world as Worldcon, sci-fi ’s biggest annual event, was held in the country for the first time. It was a rare moment when Chinese

DEMING, N.M. (AP) — Authorities say a missing teen with autism has been found in New Mexico — about 200 miles away from his home in southern Arizona. The 13-year-old turned up at a Walmart in Deming on Tuesday after going missing the night before from his family’s home in Tucson. In hopes of identifying

By JENNIFER SINCO KELLEHER Associated Press HONOLULU (AP) — An upcoming bribery trial against Honolulu’s former top prosecutor won’t be delayed despite an ongoing investigation into allegations that a defendant threatened the judge who had been presiding over the case, which prompted his unexpected recusal last month. The new judge ruled Wednesday there will be