Month: March 2024

MEXICO CITY (AP) — Prosecutors in the violent western Mexico state of Jalisco say five dead bodies have been found piled in a bulletproof SUV. The state prosecutors’ office said someone called an emergency number to report the vehicle. Inside they found the bodies of five men “with visible signs of violence.” The office did

By NINIEK KARMINI Associated Press JAKARTA, Indonesia (AP) — Indonesia’s electoral commission has announced that Prabowo Subianto, a former general linked to past human rights abuses, has been elected president. Subianto is the defense minister in the outgoing government. His victory raises questions about the commitment to democratic values in the sprawling island nation that

By NINIEK KARMINI Associated Press JAKARTA, Indonesia (AP) — Former special forces general Prabowo Subianto has been confirmed the victor of Indonesia’s presidential election. The two other candidates plan to challenge the result in court. The election commission confirmed the final result of the Feb. 14 vote on Wednesday. It says Subianto won 58.6% of

SPRINGFIELD, Ill. (AP) — Southern Illinois congressman Mike Bost has won the Republican nomination for the state’s 12th Congressional District despite a challenge from the right in former state Sen. Darren Bailey. Bailey, the 2022 GOP nominee for Illinois governor, challenged the five-term incumbent, claiming he was not conservative enough for the district that encompasses

By BRUCE SHIPKOWSKI Associated Press CAMDEN, N.J. (AP) — Residents in the Philadelphia area are about to see a rare site — a battleship floating down the Delaware River. The USS New Jersey is scheduled to move from its dock in Camden on Thursday, when it will head to the Philadelphia Navy Yard for extensive

By MOSES NDUNGU and JAMEY KEATEN Associated Press NAIROBI, Kenya (AP) — U.N. agencies have warned that electrical and electronic waste is piling up worldwide while recycling rates remain low and are likely to fall even further. The agencies define “e-waste” as any discarded device with a plug or battery. In a new report released

BOISE, Idaho (AP) — Police in Boise, Idaho, said officers were involved in a shooting at a hospital early Wednesday and are searching for two suspects, one of them a prison inmate who escaped from the campus. Saint Alphonsus Regional Medical Center had been on temporary lockdown, police said. A hospital spokesperson said a “shooting

By NICOLE EVATT Associated Press JAMESTOWN, St. Helena (AP) — St. Helena, a small, craggy island in the South Atlantic Ocean, is one of the most remote inhabited places in the world. Until several years ago, it took five nights by boat to reach the British overseas territory, which is nearly halfway between southern Africa

By LORNE COOK Associated Press BRUSSELS (AP) — European Union leaders are set Thursday to underscore their support for war-torn Ukraine. The aim is to help boost arms production and to prove to Russia that they are in it for the long haul. Ukraine’s munition stocks are desperately low. Russia has more and better-armed troops.

By MATTHEW LEE AP Diplomatic Writer JEDDAH, Saudi Arabia (AP) — U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken will travel to Israel this week as part of his sixth urgent mission to the Middle East since Israel’s war with Hamas began in October. The previously unannounced stop comes as relations between the two countries have soured

PRAGUE (AP) — The Czech Republic’s central bank has cut its key interest rate for a third straight time amid falling inflation and an effort to help the economy. The cut by a half-percentage point brought the interest rate down to 5.75%. Wednesday’s move was expected by most analysts. The bank started to trim borrowing

WILLIAMSBURG, Va. (AP) — Former U.S. Defense Secretary Robert Gates will have an academic building named after him at William & Mary. The university in Virginia announced Wednesday that Robert M. Gates Hall will be a hub for disciplines that include geopolitical conflict, national security and conservation. Gates is the only Secretary of Defense to

By HOWARD FENDRICH AP Tennis Writer Tennis could be on the verge of massive structural change if one of two separate proposals formulated by the four Grand Slam tournaments and the WTA and ATP professional tours ends up moving forward. There is plenty of discussion happening now behind closed doors about the sport’s future. Negotiations

By MIKE CORDER Associated Press THE HAGUE, Netherlands (AP) — A Dutch court says the government has systematically put the interests of the aviation sector above those of people who live near Amsterdam’s Schiphol Airport. The Hague District Court ruled Wednesday that the treatment of local residents amounts to a breach of Europe’s human rights

BANGKOK (AP) — Britain’s foreign secretary has met with Thailand’s prime minister on his first visit to the Indo-Pacific region. Britain’s foreign office says the discussion between David Cameron and Prime Minister Srettha Thavisin was aimed at improving cooperation in areas including defense, the economy and trade. Britain estimates the countries’ trading relationship as being

ATHENS, Greece (AP) — Greek authorities say an F-16 fighter jet crashed in the Aegean Sea during a training flight and a rescue operation is underway after the pilot ejected from the aircraft. The incident occurred near the small island of Psathoura, 175 kilometers (110 miles) northeast of Athens, after the single-seat jet fighter took

By JENNIFER PELTZ Associated Press NEW YORK (AP) — French bulldogs. U.S. dog owners. C’est l’amour. Frenchies remained the United States’ most commonly registered purebred dogs last year, according to American Kennel Club rankings released Wednesday. The club calls the Frenchie the most popular breed, though other canine constituencies may beg to differ. Is it

LONDON (AP) — Irish Prime Minister Leo Varadkar says he will step down as leader of the country soon as a successor is chosen. Varadkar announced Wednesday he is quitting immediately as head of the center-right Fine Gael party, part of Ireland’s coalition government. He’ll be replaced as prime minister after a party leadership contest.

BERLIN (AP) — A German federal court has rejected a woman’s appeal of her 14-year sentence for allowing a Yazidi girl she and her husband kept as a slave when they were members of the Islamic State group in Iraq to die of thirst. The defendant, a German convert to Islam, was convicted in October

By MIKE CORDER Associated Press THE HAGUE, Netherlands (AP) — An Amsterdam court has ruled that Dutch national airline KLM made misleading statements about sustainable aviation in a case that accused the carrier of “greenwashing.” The decision Wednesday was hailed by environmental groups as a historic victory. Amsterdam District Court says in a statement that

By EMMA BURROWS Associated Press A Russian border region being pounded by Ukrainian shelling and drones is expanding its closure of schools and colleges amid a major evacuation plan. Kyiv’s forces are extending their campaign of long-range strikes that aim to put the Kremlin under pressure. Authorities in the Belgorod border region announced Wednesday that

By JINTAMAS SAKSORNCHAI Associated Press BANGKOK (AP) — Thailand’s national police chief and one of his deputies have been temporarily suspended under the order of Prime Minister Srettha Thavisin, as accusations that the deputy was involved in an illegal online gambling ring sparked rumors of a power struggle in the police department. Torsak Sukvimol, who

By SAMYA KULLAB Associated Press KHARKIV, Ukraine (AP) — A dance studio that doubles as a bomb shelter is an escape from the horrors of war for about 20 young girls in Ukraine’s city of Kharkiv. The Princess Ballet Studio is a spartan, windowless room, but practicing underground means they can dance through the almost

BEIJING (AP) — Chinese accident investigators have indicated they have not yet determined the cause of a 2022 plane crash that killed all 132 people on board. An update issued Wednesday by the Civil Aviation Administration of China on the eve of the second anniversary of the crash shed little new light on it. The

LONDON (AP) — Microsoft has hired Mustafa Suleyman to head up its consumer artificial intelligence business, adding to its ranks an influential figure in the artificial intelligence world to cement its position at the forefront of the booming AI industry. Suleyman said in a post on LinkedIn on Monday that he’ll become CEO of Microsoft

HANOI, Vietnam (AP) — Vietnamese President Vo Van Thuong resigned after a little over a year in the job, the Communist Party said Wednesday, making him the latest senior official to leave office amid an intense anti-corruption campaign. The party’s Central Committee approved his resignation, writing in a statement that “violations by Vo Van Thuong

By SALLY FRENCH of NerdWallet When discussing a multigenerational family trip, have a plan to avoid arguments around topics like when to travel, where you’ll go, what you’ll do there or how you’ll split bills. With groups, it’s often best for each family unit to book their lodging and transportation. Keep costs in line with

PARIS (AP) — France’s competition watchdog has hit Google with another big fine tied to a long-running dispute over payments to French publishers for their news. The French Competition Authority said Wednesday that it issued the $272 million penalty because of Google’s failure to comply with some commitments it made in a negotiating framework. The

By FATIMA HUSSEIN Associated Press WASHINGTON (AP) — IRS Commissioner Danny Werfel says in a wide-ranging interview with The Associated Press the federal tax collector will expand its pursuit of high-wealth tax dodgers with new initiatives in the coming months. Werfel says the IRS is using tools like artificial intelligence to ferret out abuses and

By JOSH BOAK Associated Press WASHINGTON (AP) — The Biden administration has reached an agreement to provide Intel with up to $8.5 billion in direct funding and $11 billion in loans for computer chip plants in Arizona, Ohio, New Mexico and Oregon. President Joe Biden plans to talk up the investment on Wednesday as he

LONDON (AP) — A British privacy watchdog said Wednesday it is looking into a report that staff at a private London hospital tried to snoop on the Princess of Wales ’ medical records while she was a patient for abdominal surgery. The Information Commissioner’s Office said: “We can confirm that we have received a breach

BANDA ACEH, Indonesia (AP) — A wooden boat carrying dozens of Rohingya Muslims capsized about 16 miles from the coastline of Kuala Bubon beach in Indonesia’s northernmost province of Aceh on Wednesday. Local fishermen from Kuala Bubon rescued six of the refugees and evacuated them to a temporary shelter. There were no immediate reports of

By SAMUEL PETREQUIN Associated Press BRUSSELS (AP) — European Union lawmakers have agreed to renew Ukraine’s import rates, which have been in place since shortly after Russia invaded while adding protective measures for agricultural products such as grain and honey to address the concerns of farmers across the 27-nation bloc. Farmers angry at red tape

FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. (AP) — The Mega Millions jackpot has reached an astounding $977 million for Friday night’s drawing after no tickets matched all six numbers drawn on Tuesday night. The winning numbers drawn on Tuesday were 24, 46, 49, 62, 66 and the gold Mega ball: 7. The estimated jackpot was $893 million with

By GRANT PECK Associated Press BANGKOK (AP) — No bidders appeared at a court-ordered auction of the family home of Myanmar’s imprisoned former leader, Aung San Suu Kyi, where she had been held under house arrest for nearly 15 years. Many in Myanmar view the house as a historical landmark of Suu Kyi’s nonviolent struggle

RAHIM FAIEZ ISLAMABAD (AP) — The school year in Afghanistan has started but without girls whom the Taliban barred from attending classes beyond the sixth grade, making it the only country with restrictions on female education. The U.N. children’s agency says more than 1 million girls are affected by the ban. It also estimates 5

BEIJING (AP) — Chinese state media say the death toll has risen to 14 in the crash of a bus into a tunnel wall on an expressway in northern China. Broadcaster CCTV said Wednesday that 37 other people were injured. The accident happened Tuesday afternoon on a major expressway in Shanxi province. There was no

By ROSS D. FRANKLIN Associated Press PHOENIX (AP) — Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band returned to the stage Tuesday evening at the Footprint Center in Phoenix in a triumphant reboot of the Boss’ postponed 2023 world tour. In September Springsteen, 74, announced his tour would be delayed until 2024, citing doctor’s advice as

By PAN PYLAS Associated Press LONDON (AP) — Price rises in the U.K. eased by more than anticipated in February, raising expectations that the Bank of England may start cutting interest rates in the next few months. The Office for National Statistics said Wednesday that inflation, as measured by the consumer price index, fell to