Month: October 2024

Associated Press BRASILIA, Brazil (AP) — Wildfires in Brazil have swept through an area the size of Switzerland, a level of destruction that will take decades to recover, if it ever does, according to a new satellite assessment. The breadth of forest that has been lost or degraded was revealed as smoke that has blanketed

Associated Press A court in Uganda has sentenced a former commander of the Lord’s Resistance Army rebels to 40 years in prison for brutal crimes committed by the group during its insurgency that started in the 1980s. Thomas Kwoyelo  — a former child soldier who later became a rebel commander — will serve only 25

Associated Press Some hurricane-impacted households in North Carolina and Florida will receive one-time, direct cash payments of $1,000 on Friday. The nonprofit GiveDirectly is using AI to find low-income households in badly damaged areas and reaching out to them via an app used to manage SNAP benefits. GiveDirectly hopes the tech-forward model can inspire more

Associated Press BEIRUT (AP) — An Israeli airstrike that hit a guesthouse in southeast Lebanon has killed three journalists who were covering the Israel-Hezbollah war. Those killed were camera operator Ghassan Najjar and broadcast technician Mohammed Rida of the Beirut-based pan-Arab Al-Mayadeen TV, and camera operator Wissam Qassim, who worked for Al-Manar TV of Lebanon’s

Associated Press PHILADELPHIA (AP) — George Washington. Benjamin Franklin. Betsy Ross. The two Founding Fathers and the seamstress of the American flag all once worshipped on the now centuries-old wooden pews of Christ Church. It’s the site of colonial America’s break with the Church of England — and where the U.S. Episcopal Church was born.

Associated Press PHILADELPHIA (AP) — The two historic churches are less than a mile apart in Philadelphia. Christ Church is where some of the Founding Fathers worshipped, and where colonial America made its break with the Church of England. Mother Bethel African Methodist Episcopal Church is located on the oldest parcel of land continuously owned

ATHENS, Greece (AP) — Greek ferry crews have curtailed a four-day strike by several hours, announcing Friday they would go back on the job in the early afternoon instead of at midnight. The strike had threatened to disrupt the travel plans of thousands of Greeks heading to islands for a long weekend ahead of a

Associated Press BELGRADE, Serbia (AP) — European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen on has praised the Serbian president for meeting  her and other European Union leaders instead of attending a Russia-organized summit of developing economies held earlier this week. Von der Leyen was also in Bosnia on Friday as part of a trip this

MOSCOW (AP) — Russia’s central bank has raised its key interest rate by two percentage points to a record-high 21% in an effort to combat growing inflation. Government spending on the military is straining the economy’s capacity to produce goods and services and driving up workers’ wages. The central bank said in a statement Friday

Associated Press BAGHDAD (AP) — The banned Kurdistan Workers’ Party has claimed responsibility for an attack on the headquarters of a key defense company in Ankara that killed at least five people. A statement from the PKK’s military wing said Friday two members of its so-called “Immortal Battalion,” carried out the attack in response to

Associated Press KYIV, Ukraine (AP) — North Korean troops are poised to be deployed by Russia on the battlefield in Ukraine as early as this weekend, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy claimed Friday. Western officials have warned that North Korean units joining the fight would stoke the almost three-year war and bring geopolitical consequences as far

Associated Press NEW DELHI (AP) — Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi and German Chancellor Olaf Scholz have held wide-ranging discussions to bolster strategic ties between the two countries. They met in New Delhi where the two countries signed various agreements on enhancing cooperation in the defense sector, information technology, clean energy, skill development and artificial

Associated Press PARIS (AP) — French authorities say they have charged seven individuals in connection with a cyberbullying campaign targeting Thomas Jolly, the artistic director behind the Paris Olympics’ opening and closing ceremonies. Jolly became the target of an online hate campaign filled with homophobic and antisemitic abuse following his acclaimed but controversial queer-inclusive opening

Associated Press THE HAGUE, Netherlands (AP) — At the same time he sought war crimes charges this year against Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, the head of the International Criminal Court faced accusations that he tried for more than a year to coerce a female aide into a sexual relationship. Karim Khan has categorically denied

Associated Press KATHMANDU, Nepal (AP) — A Sherpa teenager who’s won mountaineering celebrity as the youngest person ever to summit the world’s 14 highest peaks called for Sherpas to be recognized as athletes and expedition leaders as well as porters and guides. “It’s always been that Sherpas were supporting climbers and we’re never seen as

AP Education Writer WASHINGTON (AP) — The Biden administration is moving ahead with a new path to student loan cancellation for Americans who face steep medical bills, child care costs and other types of financial hardship that prevent them from repaying their loans. Announced Friday, the proposed rule is President Joe Biden’s third attempt at

Dubai, United Arab Emirates (AP) — A group campaigning for Iran’s Nobel Peace Prize laureate Narges Mohammadi says Iranian authorities have issued an additional six-month prison sentence against her. The Free Narges Coalition said in a statement on Thursday that Mohammadi was sentenced on Oct. 19 to an additional six months in prison on the

PARIS (AP) — Environmental activist Paul Watson, who is detained in Greenland and facing possible extradition to Japan, has formally requested French citizenship after France’s Foreign Minister said his bid for political asylum could not be processed because he is not on French soil. Watson, founder of the Sea Shepherd and a prominent anti-whaling advocate,

AP Aerospace Writer CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. (AP) — A NASA astronaut was taken to the hospital for an undisclosed medical issue after returning from a nearly eight-month space station stay extended by Boeing’s capsule trouble and Hurricane Milton, the space agency said Friday. A SpaceX capsule carrying three Americans and one Russian parachuted before dawn

Associated Press WARSAW, Poland (AP) — The grand opening of new modern art museum designed by the American architect Thomas Phifer is taking place in the Polish capital, Warsaw. The Museum of Modern Art opens its doors to the public on Friday. It has a white box-like facade and light-filled spaces and a monumental geometric

SRINAGAR, India (AP) — Authorities say three Indian soldiers and their two civilian porters have been killed in a rebel ambush in Indian-controlled Kashmir. Police on Friday said rebels sprayed bullets at an army vehicle carrying troops close to the highly militarized line of control near the resort town of Gulmarg on Thursday night. The

KUALA LUMPUR, Malaysia (AP) — One of Japan’s largest travel agencies says a tourist died and 12 other people were injured when their a tour bus smashed into the rear of a truck on a highway in Malaysia. JTB Corp. says the incident occurred Thursday in central Perak state while the bus was heading to

Associated Press PESHAWAR, Pakistan (AP) — Authorities say a group of militants have attacked a security post in northwest Pakistan and killed 10 officers in an intense shootout. Police said that other security forces were wounded in the attack overnight in Dera Ismail Khan, a district in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province. Also on Friday, suspected militants

Associated Press MANILA, Philippines (AP) — Tropical storm Trami has blown away from the northwestern Philippines, leaving at least 82 people dead mostly in extensive flooding and landslides. Authorities scrambled for more rescue boats to save thousands of terrified people who were trapped, some on their roofs. But the trauma caused by the onslaught may

Associated Press DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) — Israel pounded Iran with a series of airstrikes early Saturday, saying it was targeting military sites in retaliation for the barrage of ballistic missiles the Islamic Republic fired upon Israel earlier in the month. Explosions could be heard in the Iranian capital, Tehran, though the Islamic Republic

Associated Press SOFIA, Bulgaria (AP) — Bulgarians will cast ballots on Sunday in the seventh general elections in just over three years as their country faces growing political instability that might further enhance the popularity of pro-Russian and far-right groups. Of the six elections since 2021, only two have produced an elected government, but they

Associated Press CENTRAL ISLIP, N.Y. (AP) — The former longtime CEO of Abercrombie & Fitch pleaded not guilty Friday to federal sex trafficking and interstate prostitution charges. Michael Jeffries, 80, declined to comment after his lawyer entered the plea on his behalf in federal court in Central Islip, on Long Island. He is free on

AP Business Writers U.S. stock indexes gave up an early gain and drifted to a mixed finish Friday, helping give the market its first losing week since early September. The S&P 500 closed little changed after having been up 0.9% earlier in the day. The benchmark index ended the week 1% lower, ending a six-week

Associated Press If Donald Trump wins the presidential election, Republicans hope he will fulfill a longstanding GOP goal of privatizing the mortgage giants Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, which have been under government control since the Great Recession. But Democrats and some economists warn that, especially in this time of high mortgage rates, doing so

Associated Press CONCORD, N.H. (AP) — A New Hampshire woman has been sentenced to 53 years to life in prison in the death of her 5-year-old son, who was beaten, starved and exposed to drugs. Thirty-eight-year-old Danielle Dauphinais appeared in court Friday and tearfully apologized for her actions. Elijah Lewis weighed just 19 pounds when

Associated Press LAVEEN VILLAGE, Ariz. (AP) — President Joe Biden on Friday formally apologized to Native Americans for the “sin” of a government-run boarding school system that for decades forcibly separated children from their parents, calling it a “blot on American history” in his first presidential visit to Indian Country. “It’s a sin on our

Associated Press WASHINGTON (AP) — A child psychiatrist who altered a first-day-of-school photo he saw on Facebook to make a group of girls appear nude. A U.S. Army soldier accused of creating images depicting children he knew being sexually abused. A software engineer charged with generating hyper-realistic sexually explicit images of children. Law enforcement agencies