Month: October 2021

BERLIN (AP) — Austrian Chancellor Sebastian Kurz is denying wrongdoing and making clear he doesn’t plan to step down despite being under investigation in a bribery probe. However, the partner party in Kurz’s coalition government said Thursday that the allegations left a “disastrous” impression and raised questions about the chancellor’s “ability to act.” Anti-corruption prosecutors

NEW DELHI (AP) — The 7-Eleven empire is coming to India. India’s Reliance Retail Ventures says it has set a franchise agreement with 7-Eleven, Inc., to launch convenience stores in the second most populous nation. Reliance said Thursday that the stores will first be launched in the financial hub of Mumbai. The announcement came just

SRINAGAR, India (AP) — Police say assailants have fatally shot two schoolteachers in Indian-controlled Kashmir in a sudden rise in targeted killings of civilians in the disputed region. Authorities blamed militants fighting against Indian rule for the attack in the outskirts of Srinagar, the region’s main city. Police say militants fired at a female teacher

By JOE McDONALD AP Business Writer BEIJING (AP) — Global stock markets have risen as investors wait for U.S. jobs data that might influence a Federal Reserve decision on when to roll back stimulus. That comes after lawmakers in Washington averted a possible government debt default. London and Frankfurt opened higher. Shanghai, Tokyo and Hong

By AYA BATRAWY Associated Press DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) — A court in Saudi Arabia has upheld a 20-year prison term imposed on a Saudi aid worker who had criticized the government on Twitter. The decision drew a rare public rebuke from the U.S. in another sign of tensions between the Biden administration and

By BOUBACAR DIALLO Associated Press CONAKRY, Guinea (AP) — The military leader of Guinea has announced that senior international civil servant Mohamed Beavogui will serve as prime minister in a government that is transitioning the West African nation to civilian rule after last month’s coup. Col. Mamady Doumbouya, who was sworn in as interim president

By DAVID KEYTON, JILL LAWLESS and CARA ANNA Associated Press STOCKHOLM (AP) — Tanzanian writer Abdulrazak Gurnah has been awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature. The Swedish Academy said the award was in recognition of his “uncompromising and compassionate penetration of the effects of colonialism.” Born in Zanzibar in 1948 and based in England, Gurnah

By ROD McGUIRK Associated Press CANBERRA, Australia (AP) — Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison has described social media as a “coward’s palace” and warns that digital platforms such as Facebook should be held liable for defamatory comments posted anonymously. Anonymous commentators who use social media to vilify and bully have become the latest battleground between

By KIM TONG-HYUNG Associated Press SEOUL, South Korea (AP) — A South Korean court has ruled that the military unlawfully discriminated against the country’s first known transgender soldier by discharging her for undergoing gender reassignment surgery, in a landmark verdict that came seven months after she was found dead at her home. Activist groups welcomed

BAGHDAD (AP) — Iraq has signed a contract with a United Arab Emirates-based renewable energy developer to build five solar power plants in the oil-rich country with a chronic energy problem.  The signing took place in Baghdad Wednesday between Iraqi officials and the chief executive officer of Masdar, in the presence of Iraqi Prime Minister

BERLIN (AP) — A 100-year-old man has gone on trial in Germany, accused of being an accessory to murder for serving as a Nazi SS guard at the Sachsenhausen concentration camp near Berlin during World War II. The trial of the defendant, who is charged with 3,518 counts of accessory to murder, is being held

BERLIN (AP) — Germany’s foreign ministry says that Germany and Denmark have brought home 11 women and 37 children from a camp in northeastern Syria where suspected Islamic State members have been held. Germany repatriated 23 children and their eight mothers from the Roj camp on Wednesday evening, while Denmark brought home 14 children and

By JOVANA GEC Associated Press BELGRADE, Serbia (AP) — Serbian human rights lawyer Nikola Kovacevic is this year’s winner of a prestigious U.N. Refugee Agency award in Europe. The 32-year-old human rights activist says the struggle for the rights of refugees and asylum-seekers has become even more important in the face of mounting anti-migrant sentiment