Month: March 2024

By MELANIE LIDMAN Associated Press JERUSALEM (AP) — Tens of thousands of people have celebrated the Jewish holiday of Purim in Jerusalem, though the traditionally boisterous celebrations have been muted this year by the Israel-Hamas war. Although many cities across Israel decided to cancel their Purim celebrations due to the ongoing conflict, Jerusalem held a

By FATIMA HUSSEIN Associated Press WASHINGTON (AP) — The IRS is warning taxpayers that they may be leaving more than $1 billion on the table. The federal tax collector said Monday that roughly 940,000 people in the U.S. have until May 17 to submit tax returns for unclaimed refunds for tax year 2020, which total

By DUSAN STOJANOVIC Associated Press BELGRADE, Serbia (AP) — An opposition group in Serbia has launched a petition against a real estate development project that would be financed by the firm of Donald Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner. The project would be at the site of the former Serbian army headquarters destroyed in a NATO bombing

By BARBARA ORTUTAY and DAVID KLEPPER Associated Press A federal judge has dismissed a lawsuit by Elon Musk’s X Corp. against the non-profit Center for Countering Digital Hate, which has documented the increase in hate speech on the site since it was purchased by the Tesla owner. X, formerly known as Twitter, had argued the

By MARIA SHERMAN AP Music Writer LOS ANGELES (AP) — The last few years haven’t been kind to Shakira. In 2022, after 11 years and two children together, she separated from soccer player Gerard Piqué, leading to what she calls the “dissolution” of her family. She faced charges of tax evasion in Spain; in November

LONDON (AP) — Farmers are driving dozens of tractors in a slow-motion convoy towards Britain’s Parliament to protest post-Brexit rules and trade deals that they say are endangering livelihoods and food security. Supporters of the campaign groups Save British Farming and Fairness for Farmers of Kent drove from southeast England on Monday, bound for Parliament

By STEFANIE DAZIO Associated Press LOS ANGELES (AP) — A girl has died from a self-inflicted gunshot wound after she entered a Los Angeles County sheriff’s station and grabbed a deputy’s gun. That’s according to the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department. The department has provided no video of the incident nor specific information about whether

NEW YORK (AP) — Boeing keeps hitting more and more turbulence. The American plane maker has been under intense pressure since early January, when a panel blew off a brand-new Alaska Airlines 737 Max midflight. That’s spotlighted a lengthy series of safety and manufacturing problems that have piled up for Boeing over the years —

By SAM METZ Associated Press RABAT, Morocco (AP) — Orange blossoms are among Morocco’s quintessential fragrances. Moroccan women are welcoming spring by collecting the waxy white blossoms in copper pots used to distill the scent that’s folded into honey-laden pastries, sprinkled on mint tea and used in religious ceremonies as an ode to paradise. The

By BRIAN MELLEY Associated Press LONDON (AP) — A London court is due to rule whether WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange gets one final appeal in England to challenge extradition to the United States on espionage charges. Two judges are scheduled to issue a judgment Tuesday morning in the High Court that could put an end

By BRUCE SCHREINER Associated Press FRANKFORT, Ky. (AP) — Gov. Andy Beshear says an aluminum company has singled out northeastern Kentucky as its preferred site for a new aluminum smelter. The project could bring about 1,000 permanent jobs to a region hard hit by the loss of coal and steel production. Plans by Century Aluminum

By GREG BEACHAM AP Sports Writer LOS ANGELES (AP) — Shohei Ohtani is set to make his first public comments Monday since his former interpreter, Ippei Mizuhara, was fired following allegations of illegal gambling and theft from the Los Angeles Dodgers star. Mizuhara was fired by the Dodgers last week when the team opened the

HUNTINGTOWN, Md. (AP) — Prosecutors in southern Maryland say three 13-year-old middle schoolers have been charged with hate crimes after they displayed swastikas, performed Nazi salutes and made derogatory remarks about a classmate’s religion. Officials with the Calvert County State’s Attorney’s Office say the harassment began in December and the students refused to stop despite

By MARK SCOLFORO Associated Press HARRISBURG, Pa. (AP) — Police investigating the killing a pregnant Amish woman in rural Pennsylvania say they seized six guns, a variety of ammunition and a pair of sneakers that may match tread marks left at the crime scene during searches of the suspect’s home and vehicle. Search warrant documents

By JIM HEINTZ Associated Press TALLINN, Estonia (AP) — The four men charged with the massacre at a Moscow theater have been identified by authorities as citizens of Tajikistan, some of the thousands who migrate to Russia each year from the poorest of the former Soviet republics to scrape out marginal existences. Along with grinding

By FATIMA HUSSEIN Associated Press WASHINGTON (AP) — The U.S. is imposing sanctions on a collection of mostly Russian fintech firms and people accused of enabling sanctions evasion. Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control announced Monday that it was sanctioning 13 firms and 2 people. Five of the firms are owned by someone who is

By EDGAR H. CLEMENTE Associated Press TAPACHULA, Mexico (AP) — About 2,000 migrants have begun walking in southern Mexico in what has become a traditional demonstration during Holy Week before Easter to draw attention to their plight. They left a town near the Guatemalan border and are heading to Mexico’s capital. They want to highlight

By CHINEDU ASADU Associated Press KADUNA, Nigeria (AP) — Authorities in Nigeria say an executive of global cryptocurrency exchange Binance has escaped custody in the West African nation where a criminal investigation has been launched against the platform accused of being used for money laundering. It was not clear how the Binance executive fled custody.

WARSAW, Poland (AP) — The Polish Foreign Ministry says the Russian ambassador to Poland did not appear for a meeting despite being summoned after a Russian missile violated Polish airspace on the weekend. The Russian missile entered Polish airspace for 39 seconds early Sunday amid a Russian attack targeting western Ukraine, just across the eastern

By SCOTT McFETRIDGE Associated Press The stars have aligned in the lottery universe like never before, with two jackpots totaling nearly $2 billion. With an estimated $1.1 billion Mega Millions prize and an estimated $800 million Powerball jackpot, it’s the first time the two nearly national lottery games have each grown so large at the

Trump Media & Technology Group, whose flagship product is social networking site Truth Social, will begin trading on the Nasdaq stock market on Tuesday. Shareholders of Digital World Acquisition Corp., a publicly traded shell company, approved a deal to merge with the Trump’s media business in a Friday vote. The common stock of Trump Media

By REZA SAIFULLAH and EDNA TARIGAN Associated Press BANDA ACEH, Indonesia (AP) — Local authorities say six more bodies of Rohingya refugees have been found at sea off Indonesia after a boat with more than 150 people aboard capsized last week. The bodies of the six women were found off the coast of Aceh province.

NAIROBI, Kenya (AP) — Authorities in Kenya say that an explosion at a small hotel located near a police station in the northeast of the country has killed four people. Three of the victims were police officers. The blast in the town of Mandera on Monday wounded several others. The town is on the border

MOSCOW (AP) — A Russian spacecraft with three astronauts has successfully docked at the International Space Station. The Soyuz MS-25 spacecraft carrying NASA astronaut Tracy Dyson, Russian Oleg Novitsky and Marina Vasilevskaya of Belarus reached the station after Saturday’s blastoff from the Russian-leased Baikonur launch facility in Kazakhstan. The launch followed an aborted attempt two

ORLANDO, Fla. (AP) — Florida insurance companies made money last year for the first time in seven years. That is thanks to investment income and a mild hurricane season. That’s according to an an S&P Global Market Intelligence analysis released last week. A group of 50 insurers reported $147.3 million in net income for 2023

By QASSIM ABDUL-ZAHRA and ABDULRAHMAN ZEYAD Associated Press BAGHDAD (AP) — Officials in Iraq say that an Iraqi police officer previously sentenced to death for the murder of a prominent security analyst critical of powerful Iran-backed militias has been released from prison following a retrial. An intelligence official with the Ministry of Interior said Ahmed

By CHINEDU ASADU Associated Press KADUNA, Nigeria (AP) — More than 130 Nigerian schoolchildren rescued after more than two weeks in captivity have arrived in their home state in northwestern Nigeria ahead of their anticipated reunions with families. That follows the latest in a series of mass school abductions in the West African nation. The

TALLAHASSEE, Fla. (AP) — Florida will have one of the country’s most restrictive social media bans for minors — if it withstands expected legal challenges. Republican Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis signed a bill on Monday that will ban social media accounts for children under 14 and require parental permission for 15- and 16-year-olds. It was

By DAVID McHUGH Associated Press SPRAKEBUELL, Germany (AP) — These are turbulent times for wind and solar energy. High interest rates needed to finance renewable projects are coming on top of long waits to buy equipment. And those headwinds are blowing at a time when investment needs to massively ramp up to meet ambitious climate

By GEIR MOULSON Associated Press BERLIN (AP) — Italy has followed France in stepping up security following the attack on a suburban Moscow concert hall and the claim of responsibility by an affiliate of the Islamic State group. The attack renewed attention in Europe on the risk from the extremists. France on Sunday increased its

WARSAW, Poland (AP) — Poland’s defense minister says that two military engineers have died following the detonation of TNT during a training exercise at a military facility in southern Poland. The minister tweeted Monday that two sappers with a chemical regiment died in Solarnia in the southern region of Silesia. The deaths follow another training

By DASHA LITVINOVA Associated Press Calls mounted on Monday to harshly punish those behind the Russia concert hall attack that killed more than 130 people as authorities combed the burned-out ruins of the shopping and entertainment complex for more bodies. Four men, charged with carrying out a terrorist attack, appeared in court Sunday night and

LONDON (AP) — Radical British preacher Anjem Choudary has pleaded not guilty in a London courtroom to two terrorism-related charges. The 57-year-old Choudary pleaded not guilty Monday to membership in a banned organization and addressing meetings to encourage support for the radical Muslim group al-Muhajiroun. The U.K. government outlawed Al-Muhajiroun in 2010. The group has

By MOGOMOTSI MAGOME Associated Press PRETORIA, South Africa (AP) — South African prosecutors say they intend to charge the Parliament speaker with corruption. They allege she took $135,000 and a wig in bribes from an unnamed person over a three-year period while she was defense minister. Prosecutors announced their intention in a court hearing. Speaker