Month: March 2024

By MARK KENNEDY AP Entertainment Writer NEW YORK (AP) — The Broadway musical “Aladdin” is celebrating its 10th anniversary this year and the Genies who have led it on tour and on Broadway are looking back. James Monroe Iglehart, who won a Tony Award in the role, says it “made me the actor I am

By MICHAEL GOLDBERG and EMILY WAGSTER PETTUS Associated Press JACKSON, Miss. (AP) — Sentencing continues for two more of the fired officers in Mississippi who pleaded guilty last year to breaking into a home without a warrant and torturing two Black men with a stun gun, a sex toy and other objects. Brett McAlpin and

STOCKHOLM (AP) — A Swedish land owner has won a legal battle to keep a 14-kilogram (31-pound) meteorite after an appeals court ruled that such space rocks should be considered “immovable property” and part of the land where they are found. The property on which the meteorite landed contains iron and the meteorite is made

LJUBLJANA, Slovenia (AP) — Slovenia has ordered a Russian diplomat to leave the European Union country within seven days. Its Foreign Ministry said on Thursday that the Russian diplomat is being expelled for “activities incompatible with the diplomatic status.” It provided no further details. Slovenia and Russia already have reduced the number of staff working

By PAUL WISEMAN AP Economics Writer WASHINGTON (AP) — The number of Americans signing up for unemployment benefits fell slightly last week, another sign that the labor market remains strong and most workers enjoy extraordinary job security. The Labor Department reported Thursday that jobless claims dipped by 2,000 to 210,000. The four-week average of claims,

By DAMIAN J. TROISE AP Business Writer NEW YORK (AP) — Sweet Easter baskets will likely come at a bitter cost this year for consumers as the price of cocoa climbs to record highs. Cocoa futures have roughly doubled in 2024 after surging 61% overall in 2023. Rising temperatures and weather conditions have stressed and

PRAGUE (AP) — Four Central European countries remain deeply divided over how to resolve the Russian war against Ukraine. A meeting of their foreign ministers on Thursday showed that Hungary and Slovakia are not ready to change their strict refusal to provide arms to Ukraine. They declined to contribute to a Czech plan to acquire

By MARÍA TERESA HERNÁNDEZ Associated Press BUENOS AIRES, Argentina (AP) — Forty-seven years ago, before her hair turned white and she had no need of a wheelchair to march around Argentina’s most iconic square, Nora Cortiñas made a promise to her son who disappeared: She would search for him until her last breath. Her commitment

ANKARA, Turkey (AP) — Turkey’s central bank has raised its key interest rate by 5 percentage points, resuming a policy of rate hikes aimed at combating soaring inflation that is causing households severe economic pain. In a surprise decision Thursday, the central bank said it was raising its benchmark one-week repo rate to 50%. The

By The Associated Press President Vladimir Putin has thanked Russians for casting ballots in a presidential vote in which he cemented his grip on the country for another six years after the harshest crackdown on dissent since Soviet times. Any public criticism of Putin or his war in Ukraine has been stifled, independent media have

BERLIN (AP) — The German parliament has welcomed its first deaf lawmaker, who took her place in a moment that the house’s speaker described as historic. Heike Heubach narrowly missed out on a seat in parliament’s lower house, or Bundestag, in Germany’s 2021 election. But she joined the house this week as the replacement for

By JILL LAWLESS Associated Press LONDON (AP) — The world has always loved a golden couple, especially when there are hints of trouble in paradise. Decades before millions tracked every move of Harry and Meghan, William and Kate or Taylor Swift and Travis Kelce, it was the turbulent union of actors Richard Burton and Elizabeth

GENEVA (AP) — The Swiss National Bank says it’s trimming its key interest rate, a surprise move that makes Switzerland the first major financial center to announce a cut in recent months. Outgoing SNB chairman Thomas Jordan on Thursday credited the central bank’s push to rein in inflation in the wealthy Alpine country. The cut

By ASHOK SHARMA Associated Press NEW DELHI (AP) — India’s main opposition Congress party is accusing Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s government of stifling democracy and crippling the party by freezing its bank accounts in a tax dispute ahead of national elections. India’s 6-week-long general election will start April 19, with most polls predicting a victory

By HYUNG-JIN KIM Associated Press SEOUL, South Korea (AP) — South Korea is poised to start suspending the licenses of thousands of striking junior doctors as a punitive measure against their weekslong walkouts that have shaken hospital operations. The government says it will start informing the striking medical interns and residents next week of its

WASHINGTON (AP) — The government wants to know how airlines handle personal information about their passengers. And whether the airlines share that personal information — and make money in the process. The U.S. Department of Transportation said Thursday that it will review privacy policies at the 10 biggest airlines. The department isn’t making allegations about

BRUSSELS (AP) — Over 30 leaders and delegations from around the world are backing the idea to use nuclear energy to help achieve the goal of a climate-neutral globe while giving more countries an added sense of economic and security independence. Such a summit would have been unthinkable a dozen years ago in the wake

BRUSSELS (AP) — European Union leaders gathered Thursday to consider new ways to help boost arms and ammunition production for Ukraine and to discuss the war in Gaza amid deep concern about Israeli plans to launch a ground offensive in the city of Rafah. Ukraine’s munition stocks are desperately low, and Russia has more and

By EVELYNE MUSAMBI Associated Press NAIROBI, Kenya (AP) — Kenyan doctors have stopped providing emergency services at public hospitals, as they escalated a national strike that entered its second week. Thousands of doctors have stayed away from hospitals since last Thursday over poor pay and working conditions, despite a court order calling for talks between

By ISHTIAQ MAHSUD Associated Press DERA ISMAIL KHAN, Pakistan (AP) — Officials say a roadside bomb has exploded near a security convoy in northwestern Pakistan, killing two soldiers and 15 others. A police official says the attack happened Thursday in Dera Ismail Khan, a former stronghold of the Pakistani Taliban in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province bordering

By NINIEK KARMINI Associated Press JAKARTA, Indonesia (AP) — A runner-up in Indonesia’s presidential election has filed a complaint with the Constitutional Court, alleging widespread irregularities and fraud at the polls. Former Jakarta Gov. Anies Baswedan, who received nearly 41 million votes, or 24.9%, told reporters that by contesting the official results he hoped to

By STEPHEN WADE, RONALD BLUM AND TONG-HYUNG KIM Associated Press SEOUL, South Korea. (AP) — Shohei Ohtani’s interpreter and close friend Ippei Mizuhara has been fired by the Los Angeles Dodgers following allegations of illegal gambling and theft from the Japanese star. Othani is playing in Seoul, South Korea, this week in a two-game series

KYIV, Ukraine (AP) — Ukraine’s capital was attacked by Russia for the first time in 44 days as Kyiv residents woke early to loud explosions. Ukraine’s Emergency Service said 13 people were wounded, including one child, and dozens of people were evacuated from their homes early Thursday. Officials said around 30 cruise and ballistic missiles

By BARRY HATTON Associated Press LISBON, Portugal (AP) — A center-right alliance led by the Social Democratic Party has won Portugal’s general election by a slender margin. It is set to form a minority government that could have a difficult term in office as a radical-right populist party that came third in the voting tries

By ANIRUDDHA GHOSAL Associated Press HANOI, Vietnam (AP) — A Communist Party newspaper says Vietnam’s Vice President Vo Thi Anh Xuan will be acting president after the previous president’s resignation. Xuan became vice president in 2021 and she will be serving as acting president for the second time. Analysts said a permanent candidate was unlikely

ISLAMABAD (AP) — A suicide bomber has carried out an attack at a private bank in Kandahar city in southern Afghanistan, killing at least three people and injuring 12 others. Taliban government officials say all of the victims of Thursday’s attack were people who had gathered at the branch of New Kabul Bank to collect

By YURI KAGEYAMA AP Business Writer TOKYO (AP) — Asian benchmarks were mostly higher on Thursday after U.S. stocks rallied to records following the Federal Reserve’s i ndication that it expects to deliver interest rate cuts later this year. Japan’s benchmark Nikkei 225 jumped 2.0% to finish at a record high 40,815.66 after the government

MEULABOH, Indonesia (AP) — An Indonesian search and rescue ship has located a capsized wooden boat that had been carrying dozens of Rohingya Muslim refugees, and began pulling survivors who had been standing on its hull to safety. An AP photographer aboard the rescue ship said Thursday that 10 people had been taken aboard local

By KELVIN CHAN and ALI SWENSON Associated Press LONDON (AP) — AI fakery is quickly becoming one of the biggest problems confronting us online. Deceptive pictures, videos and audio are proliferating as a result of the rise and misuse of generative artificial intelligence tools. With AI deepfakes cropping up almost every day, depicting everyone from

By MOGOMOTSI MAGOME Associated Press JOHANNESBURG (AP) — Thousands of South Africans are lining up for water as the country’s largest city, Johannesburg, confronts an unprecedented collapse of its water system affecting millions of people. Residents rich and poor have never seen a shortage of this severity. While hot weather has shrunk reservoirs, crumbling infrastructure

By JACK JEFFERY Associated Press JERUSALEM (AP) — A 12-year-old boy in east Jerusalem lights the fuse of a long firework and hoists it in the air. Then, just before it explodes and illuminates the night sky with a burst of red, he is shot in the chest by Israeli police and falls to the

By PAN PYLAS Associated Press LONDON (AP) — The Bank of England is expected to indicate that interest rates could be cut in the coming months following news that inflation across the U.K. is falling faster than expected. The central bank is expected to keep its main interest rate unchanged Thursday at the 16-year high

By ADAM BEAM Associated Press SACRAMENTO, Calif. (AP) — California wants to pay doctors more money to convince them to see more Medicaid patients. Medicaid is the government-funded health insurance program for people with low incomes or disabilities. Democrats have greatly increased the number of people eligible for Medicaid in California. But the rates Medicaid

By GENE JOHNSON and MARK THIESSEN Associated Press Authorities are still searching for a white supremacist Idaho prison inmate and an accomplice who fled after the accomplice shot and wounded corrections officers as they were transporting the inmate from a Boise hospital, according to police. Police said Nicholas Umphenour is suspected of shooting two corrections

By EDITH M. LEDERER Associated Press UNITED NATIONS (AP) — The General Assembly is set to vote on what would be the first United Nations resolution on artificial intelligence. The goal is ensuring the powerful new technology benefits all nations, respects human rights and is “safe, secure and trustworthy.” The United States, which sponsored the resolution,

SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — An infant whose parents and brother were killed when an SUV plowed into a San Francisco bus stop over the weekend has died. Supervisor Myrna Melgar confirmed the child’s death on Wednesday. She represents the area where the crash occurred. The baby’s father and 1-year-old brother were killed when the SUV

By JOHN HANNA and DAVID A. LIEB Associated Press TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) — Kansas lawmakers are joining fellow Republicans in other states in trying to restrict diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives on university campuses, but they’ve drafted their proposals to avoid having to agree on how to define DEI. The Kansas House planned to vote

By MARC LEVY Associated Press HARRISBURG, Pa. (AP) — For Democrats trying to defend the White House and Senate majority, Democratic Sen. Bob Casey of Pennsylvania is emerging as the tip of the spear in trying to reframe the election-year narrative around inflation. It’s a key soft spot in 2024 for Democrats and President Joe

By JESSE BEDAYN Associated Press/Report for America COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. (AP) — The owners of a Colorado funeral home where nearly 200 decaying bodies were found last year are set to enter pleas in court on Thursday. Jon and Carie Hallford are accused of falsifying death certificates and sending fake ashes to grieving families. Investigators

By GRAHAM LEE BREWER and AMELIA THOMSON-DEVEAUX Associated Press WASHINGTON (AP) — With abortion rights poised to be one of the major issues in the 2024 election, a new poll shows that Asian Americans, Native Hawaiians and Pacific Islanders in the United States are highly supportive of legal abortion, even in situations where the pregnant

By HALLIE GOLDEN and CLAIRE RUSH Associated Press SEATTLE (AP) — Boarding houses were a staple for low-income, single blue-collar or temporary workers across the U.S. in the early 1900s. A century later, that same concept of small single rooms with a shared kitchen or bathroom is reappearing — now with the trendy name of

By JAMIE STENGLE Associated Press DALLAS (AP) — For decades, their mission in World War II was top secret. With inflatable tanks, trucks and planes, combined with costume uniforms and acting, American military units that became known as the Ghost Army helped outwit the enemy. Now, they are being awarded the Congressional Gold Medal. Three

By SCOTT McFETRIDGE Associated Press The winning numbers for a nearly $1 billion Mega Millions lottery prize will be drawn Friday night, offering sudden riches for any lucky player who matches them and almost certain disappoint for everyone else. The Mega Millions jackpot has grown to an estimated $977 million thanks to more than three

By REGINA GARCIA CANO Associated Press MEXICO CITY (AP) — As Venezuela’s government would have it, President Nicolas Maduro and members of his inner circle have been the target of several conspiracies since last year that could have left them injured or worse. Few details have been released about the alleged plots. But the socialist-led

By MICHAEL LIEDTKE AP Technology Writer SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — Reddit and its eclectic bazaar of online communities is ready to plumb high-stakes territory — the stock market. The company said Wednesday that it had priced its IPO at $34 a share. Shares will begin trading today on the New York Stock Exchange under the