Month: September 2024

Associated Press MUNICH (AP) — Security has tightened at Oktoberfest after a deadly knife attack last month in western Germany, and officials are warning revelers to expect longer lines to enter as metal detectors are deployed for the first time in the Bavarian beer festival’s 189-year history. Authorities say there are no specific threats to

AP Business Writer LOS ANGELES (AP) — Homebuilder stocks are having a banner year, outpacing the broader market on a wave of optimism that mortgage rates will fall and juice home sales. The S&P Composite 1500 Homebuilding Index, which includes Lennar, D.R. Horton, KB Home and other stocks, is up about 29% so far this

AP Business Writer HONG KONG (AP) — Hong Kong’s air safety authority has found that a defect in an engine component of a Cathay Pacific Airways Airbus A350 that forced a Zurich-bound flight to return to Hong Kong could have caused “extensive damage” to the aircraft. The report on the Sept. 2 incident by Hong

AAS, Norway (AP) — Norway has reported dozens of confirmed and suspected cases of bluetongue disease in livestock for the first time in the country since 2009. The virus is insect-borne virus and harmless to humans but can be fatal to sheep and other livestock, The Norwegian Veterinary Institute said the virus known as bluetongue

AP National Writer NEW YORK (AP) — Less than two weeks before his 100th birthday, former President Jimmy Carter is receiving an award from the Dayton Literary Peace Prize Foundation. The foundation announced Thursday that Carter had won the Ambassador Richard C. Holbrooke Distinguished Achievement Award, named for the late diplomat. In 2002, Carter was

Associated Press LONDON (AP) — The Bank of England is keeping its main interest rate unchanged at 5% despite a big cut from the U.S. Federal Reserve, its first since the onset of the coronavirus pandemic more than four years ago. The decision Thursday was widely expected amid ongoing concerns about inflation within the bank’s

AP Business Writer TOKYO (AP) — The six-year-old criminal case of Greg Kelly, an American ensnared in the scandal of Nissan’s former boss Carlos Ghosn has turned a page in a Japanese court, with the judge promising a verdict in February. Kelly’s lawyer Yoichi Kitamura demanded that the court deliver “justice,” using the English word,

KUALA LUMPUR, Malaysia (AP) — Malaysian police on Thursday detained the CEO and other top leaders of an Islamic business group that is under investigation after hundreds of children believed to be sexually abused were rescued this month from welfare homes linked to the group. The national police chief said 12 men and seven women

Associated Press HONG KONG (AP) — A Hong Kong court has sentenced the first two people under a tough new Hong Kong national security law, including a man who was given 14 months in prison for wearing a T-shirt with a protest slogan. A second man received 10 months for writing pro-independence messages on the

ROME (AP) — About a thousand residents were evacuated in the northern Italian region of Emilia-Romagna after it was hit by torrential rains and severe flooding overnight, local media reported Thursday. Rivers flooded in three of the region’s provinces — Ravenna, Bologna and Faenza — as local mayors asked people to stay on upper floors

Associated Press VATICAN CITY (AP) — The Vatican has given the green light for Catholics to continue flocking to a southern Bosnian village where children reported seeing visions of the Virgin Mary. The Vatican’s doctrine office didn’t declare that the reported apparitions in Medjugorje were authentic or of supernatural origin. And it flagged concerns about contradictions

AP Media Writer NEW YORK (AP) — Journalists at a news site that covers issues facing the Haitian community in the United States say they’ve been harassed and intimidated with racist messages for covering the false story about immigrants eating the pets of people in Springfield, Ohio. One editor at the Haitian Times was “swatted”

Associated Press UNITED NATIONS (AP) — Relentless violence is devastating Sudan, and large-scale fighting has escalated in and around El Fasher. That’s the only capital in Sudan’s western Darfur region that’s not held by paramilitary forces. The United Nations acting humanitarian chief Joyce Msuya told the Security Council on Wednesday that famine has already struck

Associated Press COLOMBO, Sri Lanka (AP) — Sri Lankans who usually vote along religious and ethnic lines will be keeping another factor in mind when they vote Saturday on a new president. Sri Lanka was in the midst of economic collapse and political chaos when Ranil Wickremesinghe took on the presidency in 2022. Things have

Associated Press HANOI, Vietnam (AP) — Vietnamese state media say the second trial for real estate tycoon Truong My Lan — who was sentenced to death for financial fraud in April — started on Thursday.  The 67-year-old chairperson of the real estate company Van Thinh Phat was convicted for orchestrating Vietnam’s biggest ever financial fraud

Associated Press SEOUL, South Korea (AP) — South Korea’s government, Western countries and adoption agencies worked in tandem to supply some 200,000 Korean children to parents overseas, despite years of evidence they were being procured through questionable or downright unscrupulous means, an investigation led by The Associated Press has found. Those children grew up and

Associated Press SEOUL, South Korea (AP) — As the plane descended into Seoul, Robert Calabretta swaddled himself in a blanket, his knees tucked into his chest like a baby in the womb. A single tear ran down his cheek. The 34-year-old felt like a newborn — he was about to meet his parents for the

Associated Press KAMITUGA, Congo (AP) — Slumped on the ground over a mound of dirt, Divine Wisoba pulled weeds from her daughter’s grave. The 1-month-old died from mpox in eastern Congo in August, but Wisoba, 21, was too traumatized to attend the funeral. In her first visit to the cemetery, she wept into her shirt

Associated Press WASHINGTON (AP) — Former President Donald Trump, following an apparent assassination attempt on him on Sunday, claimed that overheated rhetoric from Democrats was responsible for him being under threat. It turns out, records show, that threats come with the office that he once held and is trying to win again, and occur far

CARACAS, Venezuela (AP) — Venezuela’s former opposition candidate, Edmundo González, on Wednesday said he was coerced into signing a letter effectively recognizing his defeat in July’s presidential election, which electoral authorities claim was won by President Nicolás Maduro. The revelation of the letter is the latest strain to the country’s political crisis, which was exacerbated

Associated Press UNITED NATIONS (AP) — The United Nations chief urged the world’s divided nations on Wednesday to compromise and approve a blueprint to address global challenges from conflicts and climate change to artificial intelligence and reforming the U.N. and global financial institutions. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres told reporters that discussions on the “Pact of the

Associated Press A former sheriff’s deputy at a northern Virginia jail has been sentenced to 6 1/2 years in prison for smuggling drugs into the jail and for running a sex trafficking operation out of a Baltimore apartment. Court records show 37-year-old Robert Sanford Jr. worked night shifts at the Fairfax County jail between 2021

Associated Press SEOUL, South Korea (AP) — North Korea says leader Kim Jong Un has supervised successful tests of two types of missiles as he ordered officials to bolster up his country’s military capabilities to repel U.S.-led threats. The tests appeared to be the same as the multiple missile launches that neighboring countries said North

NEW YORK (AP) — Sean “Diddy” Combs has returned his key to New York City after a request from Mayor Eric Adams in response to the release of a video showing the music mogul attacking R&B singer Cassie. The mayor’s office on Saturday confirmed Combs returned the key after Adams sent letters to the embattled

Associated Press/Report for America FAIRFAX, Va. (AP) — Opening statements and testimony have begun in the trial of a former northern Virginia police sergeant charged with involuntary manslaughter in the fatal shooting of an unarmed man. Prosecutors said former Sgt. Wesley Shifflett recklessly discharged his service gun. The victim, Timothy McCree Johnson, was suspected of