Month: March 2024

ATHENS, Greece (AP) — An earthquake with a preliminary magnitude of 5.7 has struck southern Greece off the coast of the western Peloponnese. There are no immediate reports of damage or injuries from the quake, which was also felt in the Greek capital and as far away as the southern island of Crete. The Athens

By YURI KAGEYAMA Associated Press TOKYO (AP) — In the week since a line of Japanese health supplements began being recalled, five people have died and more than 100 people are hospitalized as of Friday. Osaka-based Kobayashi Pharmaceutical Co. came under fire for not going public quickly with problems known internally as early as January.

By YURI KAGEYAMA Associated Press TOKYO (AP) — “Oppenheimer” has finally opened in the nation where two cities were obliterated by the nuclear weapons invented by the American scientist at the center of the film. Japanese filmgoers’ reactions understandably were mixed and highly emotional. A Hiroshima survivor said he has been fascinated by the story

By BASSEM MROUE and MARIAM FAM Associated Press BEIRUT (AP) — The nun stood in front of a group of young students at a Lebanese Christian school and asked them to pray for the “men of the resistance” in southern Lebanon who she said were defending the country. The men to whom nun Maya Ziadeh

ATLANTA (AP) — A Georgia bill that aims to require local jailers to work with immigration authorities is headed to the governor’s desk for his signature. Georgia’s House of Representatives voted Thursday to accept changes to House Bill 1105 by a vote of 99 to 75. Under the measure, local law enforcement agencies would risk

By GEOFF MULVIHILL Associated Press International Transgender Day of Visibility aims to show “trans joy.” Buildings will be lit pink, white and light blue to mark the event on Sunday, which features rallies and panels. The idea is to bring attention to a population that’s often ignored, disparaged or victimized. The event stands in contrast

By JEFF AMY Associated Press ATLANTA (AP) — Georgia could join other states in requiring children younger than 16 to have their parents’ explicit permission to create social media accounts. Lawmakers on Friday gave final approval to Senate Bill 351, which also would ban social media use on school devices and internet services, require porn

By KEN MORITSUGU Associated Press BEIJING (AP) — China’s first generation of migrant workers played an integral role in the country’s transformation from an impoverished nation to an economic powerhouse. For decades, they have come from farming villages to find work in the cities, toiling in sweatshops and building apartment complexes they could never afford

By DASHA LITVINOVA and ERIC TUCKER Associated Press TALLINN, Estonia (AP) — U.S. citizens jailed in Russia include a Wall Street Journal reporter, a vacationing corporate security executive and a dual national visiting her family in Tatarstan. Arrests of Americans in Russia have become increasingly common in recent years, as relations between Moscow and Washington

STAMFORD, Conn. (AP) — Political dignitaries, friends and family were expected to gather to honor the late, former U.S. Sen. Joe Lieberman of Connecticut. A funeral service is planned Friday morning in Stamford, the hometown of the four-term senator who grew as the son of a liquor store owner to come within hundreds of votes

By KATHLEEN FOODY and MELISSA PEREZ WINDER Associated Press CHICAGO (AP) — Chicago plans to close five shelters for migrants in the coming weeks. The city’s first step is moving 800 people into other shelters starting Saturday, clearing the park district fieldhouses to resume normal operations for summer. The shift is part of the city’s

By MIKE CATALINI Associated Press As authorities begin removing twisted wreckage from the the Francis Scott Key Bridge collapse, they’re confronting the potential for environmental fallout. They are deploying nearly a mile’s worth of barriers in the water, testing samples for contamination and monitoring the Patapsco River for oil and other hazardous spills. The Unified

By BEN FINLEY and BRIAN WITTE Associated Press ANNAPOLIS, Md. (AP) — Rebuilding Baltimore’s collapsed Francis Scott Key Bridge could take anywhere from 18 months to several years, experts say, while the cost could be at least $400 million — or more than twice that. It all depends on factors that are still mostly unknown.

By LEA SKENE and BRIAN WITTE Associated Press BALTIMORE (AP) — The largest crane on the Eastern Seaboard was being transported to Baltimore so crews can begin removing the wreckage of a collapsed highway bridge that has halted a search for four workers still missing days after the disaster and blocked the city’s vital port

By DAVID BAUDER AP Media Writer NEW YORK (AP) — NBC News’ messy hiring and firing of former Republican National Committee head Ronna McDaniel puts a spotlight on television’s practice of paying on-air political contributors. Networks have had trouble hiring commentators from former President Donald Trump’s orbit, and NBC initially thought landing McDaniel was a

By The Associated Press The Moscow concert hall attack a week ago that left more than 140 people dead was a major blunder for Russia’s law enforcement agencies. While the government register of terrorist and extremist groups in the country includes al-Qaida and the Islamic State group, it also lists LGBTQ+ activists and political opposition

By REBECCA SANTANA and AMELIA THOMSON-DEVEAUX Associated Press WASHINGTON (AP) — Americans are more worried about legal immigrants committing crimes in the U.S. than they were a few years ago, a change driven largely by increased concern among Republicans. That’s according to a new poll from The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research. Democrats

By SUDHIN THANAWALA and JEFF AMY Associated Press ATLANTA (AP) — The Georgia House of Representatives has approved new rules for challenging voters and qualifying for the state’s presidential ballot. The changes could impact the 2024 presidential race in the battleground state. The House passed Senate Bill 189 late Thursday by a vote of 101

By JEFF AMY Associated Press ATLANTA (AP) — Georgia lawmakers are agreeing on pay raises for public school teachers and state employees, although they still have differences to work out in the upcoming budget. State lawmakers on Thursday passed the budget for the year beginning July 1. It also includes spending boosts for education, health

By JIM GOMEZ Associated Press MANILA, Philippines (AP) — A Filipino villager says he has signed up to be nailed to a wooden cross for the 35th time to reenact Jesus Christ’s suffering in a brutal Good Friday tradition he says he will devote to pray for peace in Ukraine, Gaza and the disputed South

SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — Authorities allege that a former employee of Caltrain and a former contractor for the mass transit system connecting Silicon Valley with San Francisco used public funds to build two small apartments for themselves inside two train stations. The Mercury News reports that San Mateo County prosecutors charged former Caltrain deputy director

BROOKINGS, Ore. (AP) — A federal judge has ruled that a southern Oregon city can’t limit a local church’s homeless meal services. KGW reports that U.S. Magistrate Judge Mark Clarke found that an ordinance passed by the city of Brookings violated the religious freedom rights of St. Timothy’s Episcopal Church. The 2021 ordinance limited the

FORT WAYNE, Ind. (AP) — Fort Wayne Mayor Tom Henry has died a day after after experiencing a medical emergency related to his stomach cancer. He was 72. The announcement from his office that he had “passed away peacefully” Thursday came just hours after Henry’s family issued a statement saying he had entered hospice care

MADRID (AP) — Emergency services in Spain say four people have died in three separate incidents on Spain’s Atlantic and Mediterranean coastlines after falling into the sea. The deaths came amid warnings of strong winds and widespread rain across many parts of the European country. Spanish police said Thursday that an underage male of Moroccan

By MARGERY A. BECK Associated Press LINCOLN, Neb. (AP) — A Nebraska state lawmaker is imploring the Legislature’s Executive Board to hold accountable another lawmaker that she has accused of sexual harassment. The decision to do so will be made by a group of mostly other male lawmakers. The accusation stems from the reading of

BEIRUT (AP) — The Syrian army says Israeli airstrikes near the northern city of Aleppo have killed and wounded several people and caused material damage. Syrian state media quoted an unnamed military official as saying that the Israeli strikes coincided with drone attacks by Syrian insurgent groups on civilians targets in Aleppo and its suburbs.

By DAVID BILLER Associated Press RIO DE JANEIRO (AP) — If social media is to be believed, French President Emmanuel Macron’s just-ended trip to Brazil left him swooning. Pictures showed him and Brazilian counterpart Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva traipsing through the Amazon and posing beneath the soaring canopy in white button-down shirts. Then there

By EDITH M. LEDERER Associated Press UNITED NATIONS (AP) — Haiti now needs between 4,000 and 5,000 international police to help tackle “catastrophic” gang violence which is targeting key individuals and hospitals, schools, banks and other critical institutions, the U,N, rights expert for the conflict-wracked nation says. Last July, William O’Neill said Haiti needed between

By NICK PERRY Associated Press The expert pilots who navigate massive ships in and out of Baltimore’s port must often maneuver with just 2 feet (0.6 meter) of clearance from the channel floor and memorize charts, currents and every other possible maritime variable. The highly specialized role — in which a pilot temporarily takes control

By ADAM BEAM Associated Press SACRAMENTO, Calif. (AP) — A local official in a rural Northern California county has survived a recall effort. Kevin Crye was facing a recall attempt after voting to get rid of the county’s vote-counting machines last year. The machines were made by Dominion Voting Systems. That company has been at

SANTA ANA, Calif. (AP) — Authorities say a Southern California man convicted of killing his mother as a teenager was captured in Mexico a week after he walked away from a halfway house. Prosecutors say 20-year-old Ike Nicholas Souzer was arrested Wednesday in the coastal city of Rosarito. He was returned to California. Souzer has

By STEVE LeBLANC Associated Press BOSTON (AP) — A decade after two firefighters died when they became trapped in a brownstone in Boston’s historic Back Bay neighborhood by a fire caused by sparks from welders working next door, the Massachusetts Senate passed a bill Thursday aimed at toughening oversight of so-called “hot work.” The fire

By KEN SWEET AP Business Writer NEW YORK (AP) — A federal judge in Texas has accused the major banking industry groups and the U.S. Chamber of Commerce of forum shopping in their lawsuit against the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. It’s a major win for the federal regulator, who had argued the only reason banks

By KIMBERLEE KRUESI Associated Press NASHVILLE, Tenn. (AP) — Tennessee’s governor has named a whole new board of trustees to the state’s only publicly funded historically Black university. Republican Gov. Bill Lee signed legislation Thursday vacating the board of Tennessee State University and unveiled the new appointees moments after. The selections must now be confirmed

Associated Press BUENOS AIRES (AP) — Simmering spats between Latin American populist leaders have intensified in the past days, with Argentina’s President Javier Milei needling his leftist counterparts in Mexico and Colombia. The mudslinging came to a head earlier this week, after Milei lashed out at Petro in an interview with CNN, prompting the Colombian

By MICHAEL GOLDBERG Associated Press/Report for America JACKSON, Miss. (AP) — Mississippi lawmakers will try to negotiate on expanding Medicaid in one of the poorest states in the U.S. after the Senate voted Thursday for a vastly different plan than one proposed by the House. The upper chamber’s proposal would insure fewer people and bring

By GERALD IMRAY Associated Press CAPE TOWN, South Africa (AP) — Authorities say a bus carrying worshippers headed to an Easter festival plunged off a bridge on a mountain pass and burst into flames in South Africa, killing at least 45 people. The only survivor of Thursday’s crash was an 8-year-old child, who was receiving

By JONATHAN MATTISE Associated Press NASHVILLE, Tenn. (AP) — Tennessee Gov. Bill Lee has signed off on the repeal of Memphis police traffic stop reforms set in place after the fatal beating of Tyre Nichols by officers just over a year ago. By enacting the legislation, the Republican governor sided with GOP lawmakers who forged

By HOLLY RAMER Associated Press CONCORD, N.H. (AP) — Dartmouth College has announced Swiss tennis legend Roger Federer will deliver the commencement address at the Ivy League school in June. Dartmouth President Sian Leah Beilock said in a Thursday statement she hopes the joy Federer always brought to the court will resonate with graduates. Federer

By GENE JOHNSON and MARK THIESSEN Associated Press A fourth person has been charged in connection with an ambush that allowed a white supremacist Idaho prison gang member to escape as he was being discharged from a Boise hospital. Tia J. Garcia, 27, of Twin Falls, owned the car that inmate Skylar Meade and his

By SARAH RANKIN Associated Press RICHMOND, Va. (AP) — Republican Virginia Gov. Glenn Youngkin has vetoed two top Democratic legislative priorities. He announced vetoes Thursday to bills that would have allowed the recreational retail sales of marijuana to begin next year and measures mandating a minimum wage increase. Youngkin said the marijuana bill would create

By JILL COLVIN and BRIAN SLODYSKO Associated Press Former President Donald Trump is aiming to take in $33 million at a Florida fundraiser next week. He’s hoping to outraise an event President Joe Biden held last week where the Democrat took in $25 million, setting a new single-event fundraising record. Trump is inviting wealthy donors

By SEAN MURPHY Associated Press OKLAHOMA CITY (AP) — An Oklahoma judge has determined that a death row inmate is not competent to be executed for his role in the 1999 slayings of two people. Pittsburg County Judge Michael Hogan issued an order Thursday in the case involving 61-year-old James Ryder. Hogan’s decision followed a

By MARIA SHERMAN AP Music Writer LOS ANGELES (AP) — First, Beyoncé arrived at the 2024 Grammy Awards in full cowboy regalia — making a statement without saying a word. Then, during the Super Bowl, she dropped two hybrid country songs: “Texas Hold ‘Em” and “16 Carriages.” All of that heralded her latest album, “Act