Month: March 2024

ANTANANARIVO, Madagascar (AP) — A tropical cyclone that swept across Madagascar has killed 18 people and left four missing after making landfall on the island’s north earlier this week. The storm has also caused severe flooding that partly submerged entire villages. The National Office for Disaster Management also said on Friday that Cyclone Gamane has

MINEOLA, N.Y. (AP) — A former New York City police officer has been acquitted of murder in the shooting of his childhood friend during a confrontation on Long Island. A jury on Thursday convicted 30-year-old Errick Allen only of menacing in the  May 12, 2020, shooting of Christopher Curro. Allen was off duty when he

By The Associated Press A Moscow court has ordered a Russian journalist who covered the trials of late Russian opposition politician Alexei Navalny and other dissidents to remain in custody pending an investigation and trial on charges of extremism. Antonina Favorskaya, also identified by court officials as Antonina Kravtsova, was arrested earlier in March. On

By HILLEL ITALIE AP National Writer NEW YORK (AP) — Doris Kearns Goodwin, Laurie Anderson and the president of the Harlem School of the Arts, James C. Horton, are being honored by the American Academy of Arts and Letters. Goodwin, the Pulitzer Prize winning historian, is receiving a Gold Medal for biography. Anderson, the avant-garde

By CHRISTINA LARSON AP Science Writer WASHINGTON (AP) — While eclipse watchers look to the skies, people who are blind or visually impaired will be able to hear and feel the celestial event. Sound and touch devices will be available at public gatherings on April 8, when a total solar eclipse crosses North America, the

FORT WORTH, Texas (AP) — A Texas appeals court has overturned a woman’s voter fraud conviction and five-year sentence for casting an illegal provisional ballot. The court ruled that Crystal Mason of Fort Worth did not know that being on probation after serving in prison still made her ineligible in 2016. The appeals court found

DETROIT (AP) — Five people are wounded in Detroit after what police say was a dispute over a parking space outside a blues club and bar. Assistant Police Chief Charles Fitzgerald says the argument started about 2:45 a.m. on Friday and became physical. One man involved then got a gun from a vehicle and fired

By KANIS LEUNG Associated Press HONG KONG (AP) — The president of U.S.-funded Radio Free Asia says its Hong Kong bureau has been closed because of safety concerns under a new national security law, deepening concerns about the city’s media freedoms. Bay Fang, the president of RFA, said in a statement Friday that it will

LONDON (AP) — The Democratic Unionist Party says its leader has stepped down after being charged with allegations of a historic nature. Jeffrey Donaldson left his post with immediate effect pending the outcome of the judicial process, the Democratic Unionist Party said. In accordance with the party rules, it has suspended  him from membership.

JERUSALEM (AP) — Hundreds of Christians participated in a customary Good Friday procession through the limestone walls of Jerusalem’s Old City, commemorating one of the faith’s most sacred days with noticeably thinner crowds amid the ongoing Israel-Hamas war. The day’s processions, which normally draw thousands of foreign visitors, were unusually local. Most observers were Palestinian

By COLLEEN LONG Associated Press NEW YORK (AP) — President Joe Biden says the U.S. is working every day to secure the release of a Wall Street Journal reporter detained in Russia. The Democratic president says on the one-year anniversary of Evan Gershkovich’s detention he “went to Russia to do his job as a reporter

By MATTHEW DALY and TOM KRISHER Associated Press WASHINGTON (AP) — The Environmental Protection Agency has set strict emissions standards for heavy-duty trucks, buses and other large vehicles. EPA officials say Friday’s action will help clean up some of the nation’s largest sources of planet-warming greenhouse gases. The EPA says the new rules will take

By BETH HARRIS Associated Press LOS ANGELES (AP) — Louis Gossett Jr., the first Black man to win a supporting actor Oscar and an Emmy winner for his role in the seminal TV miniseries “Roots,” has died. He was 87. Gossett’s nephew told The Associated Press that the actor died Thursday night in Santa Monica,

ISLAMABAD (AP) — Officials say a team of Chinese investigators has arrived in Pakistan to join a probe into a suicide attack that killed five of its nationals earlier this week. Pakistani authorities are carrying out their own investigations into one of the deadliest attacks on Chinese in the country. The Chinese engineers and workers were heading

By PAUL WISEMAN AP Economics Writer WASHINGTON (AP) — A measure of inflation that is closely tracked by the Federal Reserve slipped last month in a sign that price pressures continue to ease. The government reported that prices rose 0.3% from January to February, decelerating from a 0.4% increase the previous month in a potentially

PHNOM PENH, Cambodia (AP) — Forty-five people have been injured, five critically, when a train crashed into the side of a bus at a rail crossing in northwestern Cambodia. Police in Pursat province said the crash in Krakor district occurred around 11 a.m. Friday when the bus attempted to cross the tracks even though the

By JOHN LEICESTER Associated Press France says it has asked 46 countries if they can supply more than 2,000 police officers to help secure the Paris Olympics. Organizers are finalizing security planning for the July 26-Aug. 11 Games, the French capital’s first in a century, while on heightened alert against potential attacks. The Interior Ministry

GERMANTOWN, Ill. (AP) — A magnitude 2.8 earthquake has been reported in southern Illinois, near the Missouri state line. The U.S. Geological Survey reports that the earthquake was detected about 6:55 p.m. Thursday north of Germantown, about 40 miles east of St. Louis. It was at a depth of just over 14 miles. No injuries

By HOLLY MEYER Associated Press On Easter morning, many Christians wake before dawn to celebrate their belief in the resurrection of Jesus, the son of God — as the sun rises. They gather outside on beaches and church lawns, in local cemeteries and national parks, marking the holy day at the very core of Christianity.

By GERALD IMRAY and NQOBILE NTSHANGASE Associated Press MMAMATLAKALA, South Africa (AP) — Emergency workers in South Africa were searching Friday for the bodies of victims after a bus carrying pilgrims to an Easter gathering plunged off a bridge and caught fire. An 8-year-old child was the only survivor of the crash that killed at

By ROBERT YOON Associated Press WASHINGTON (AP) — President Joe Biden and former President Donald Trump will compete in the Wisconsin presidential primaries, a contest that’s now less about winning delegates and more about carrying the pivotal state in November. Wisconsin voters on Tuesday will also decide two proposed constitutional amendments that would shape how

By ROBERT YOON Associated Press WASHINGTON (AP) — Two Republicans are competing for the right to challenge 16-term Democratic incumbent Bennie Thompson in Mississippi’s 2nd Congressional District. Ron Eller and Andrew Scott Smith were the top vote-getters in the March 12 primary, but neither received the vote majority needed to avoid Tuesday’s runoff election. Eller

BANGKOK (AP) — A Thai court has acquitted nearly 70 people of all charges related to mass protests that shut down Bangkok’s two airports in 2008 for about 10 days. The ruling by the Bangkok Criminal Court was the second this year finding that the protesters, who opposed a government headed by allies of ousted

NEW DELHI (AP) — India’s foreign minister is meeting with his Ukrainian counterpart, who is visiting to strengthen bilateral ties and cooperation with New Delhi, which considers Russia a historic ally from the Cold War-era. Indian foreign minister Subrahmanyam Jaishankar said Friday in a post on the social media platform X that he and Dmytro

By MOGOMOTSI MAGOME Associated Press JOHANNESBURG (AP) — South Africa’s election commission has ruled that former President Jacob Zuma is not eligible to run in upcoming elections. The commission says this is because of Zuma’s criminal record. He was sentenced to 15 months in prison in 2021 for defying a court order to appear before

By ROBERT YOON Associated Press WASHINGTON (AP) — Voters in three Arkansas state House districts are returning to the polls to complete some unfinished business from the March 5 primaries. There’s one race in which Republican Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders and her father, former Gov. Mike Huckabee, are supporting different candidates. The top two finishers

By ROBERT YOON Associated Press WASHINGTON (AP) — Voters in the pivotal swing state of Wisconsin and three Northeastern states will weigh in on their respective parties’ presumptive nominees in upcoming presidential primaries. On Tuesday, Wisconsin voters will also decide the fate of two Republican-backed statewide ballot measures that will shape how elections in the

MOSCOW (AP) — Russian state news agency RIA Novosti says nine people have been detained by Tajikistan’s state security service over suspected contact with the perpetrators of last week’s attack by gunmen on a suburban Moscow concert hall that killed 143 people. The agency on Friday, citing information from an unnamed source in Tajikistan’s special

By MIKE CATALINI, MITCH WEISS, AARON MORRISON and REESE DUNKLIN Associated Press PATERSON, N.J. (AP) — Black people accounted for a disproportionate number of people who died after being restrained, beaten or shocked with stun guns by police officers in the United States, according to an investigation by The Associated Press. The investigation, led by

By AARON MORRISON, MITCH WEISS, MIKE CATALINI and REESE DUNKLIN Associated Press PATERSON, N.J. (AP) — Jameek Lowery entered the dimly lit lobby of the city’s police headquarters in a panic. He was having a mental breakdown — and needed help. Barefoot and wearing only pajama pants and a sweatshirt in the pre-dawn hours of

By MITCH WEISS and KRISTIN M. HALL Associated Press BRISTOL, Tenn. (AP) — It was in the den that Karen Goodwin most strongly felt her son’s presence: On the coffee table were his ashes, inside a clock with its hands forever frozen at 12:35 a.m., the moment that a doctor had pronounced him dead. As

By DOUG FEINBERG AP Basketball Writer N.C. State’s Jannah Eissa and UC Irvine’s Diaba Konate are leaving a big impact off the court, bringing visibility and inspiration to Muslim women by wearing hjiabs while they play. They aren’t the first women to do it in NCAA Tournament play, but with record viewership and attendance they

KYIV, Ukraine (AP) — Ukraine’s armed forces say Moscow launched a large-scale attack on energy infrastructure Friday, with a mass barrage of 99 drones and missiles hitting regions across the country. Ukraine’s Interior Minister, Ihor Klymenko, said air raid warnings across the country continued through the night as the strike targeted 10 separate regions. The

By SAMUEL PETREQUIN AP Sports Writer For Muslim soccer players in deeply secular France, observing Ramadan is a tall order. The country’s soccer federation wields the principle of religious neutrality enshrined in the French constitution, and doesn’t make things easy for players who want to refrain from drinking or eating from dawn to sunset during

BANGKOK (AP) — Thailand’s government has ordered officials to closely monitor livestock along the border with Laos after more than 50 people were reported to have contracted anthrax in the neighboring country. Thai authorities say they have been working closely with those in Laos after receiving reports of the outbreak and have prepared vaccines in

By ELAINE KURTENBACH AP Business Writer BANGKOK (AP) — Asian shares were mostly higher Friday in quiet holiday trading, with markets closed in Hong Kong, Sydney, Singapore and India, among other places. Many world financial markets were closed on Friday for Good Friday. In India, markets were closed for the Holi holiday. Tokyo’s Nikkei 225

By LORNE COOK Associated Press BRUSSELS (AP) — The European Union aims to fast-track up to $1.1 billion in financial aid to Egypt, using a funding procedure that bypasses parliamentary oversight and other safeguards. The funds are part of a bigger aid package under an EU-Egypt deal aimed partly at stopping migrants from reaching European

By ZEN SOO AP Technology Writer HONG KONG (AP) — Chinese telecoms gear company Huawei Technologies has reported its profit more than doubled last year as its cloud and digital businesses thrived in spite of U.S. sanctions. The Shenzhen-based company reported a net profit of $12 billion, helped by strong sales and an improved product