Month: September 2023

By KEN MILLER Associated Press OKLAHOMA CITY (AP) — Country music star Zach Bryan was arrested by the Oklahoma Highway Patrol and jailed briefly Thursday in northeastern Oklahoma, according to a video posted on his account on the social media site X, formerly Twitter. Bryan said he was driving through Vinita, about 55 miles (88

By HILLEL ITALIE AP National Writer NEW YORK (AP) — Poet Rita Dove is this year’s winner of an honorary National Book Award for “Distinguished Contribution to American Letters,” a lifetime achievement prize previously given to Toni Morrison and Don DeLillo among others. The 71-year-old Dove is known for such collections as “Thomas and Beulah,”

By MARK THIESSEN and TOM BRENNER Associated Press AKIACHAK, Alaska (AP) — Sanitation workers Thomas Noatak and Joseph Moses start every workday riding a four-wheeler along the muddy roads of this small Yup’ik village on southwestern Alaska’s vast Kuskokwim River, looking for human waste. They’re checking honey bucket bins — large steel containers where residents

By NINIEK KARMINI Associated Press JAKARTA, Indonesia (AP) — Visiting Chinese Premier Li Qiang has pledged $21.7 billion in new Chinese investment in Indonesia to strengthen the countries’ economic and political ties. Li arrived in Jakarta on Tuesday to attend the summit of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations and meet with Indonesian leaders. President

By CRISTIANA MESQUITA and MILEXSY DURÁN Associated Press HAVANA (AP) — Cuban authorities have arrested 17 people in connection with what they described as a network to recruit Cuban nationals to fight for Russia in Ukraine. The head of criminal investigations for Cuba’s Interior Ministry, César Rodríguez, said late on Thursday on state media that

WEST CHESTER, Pa. (AP) — A prison tower guard has been fired after a murderer slipped away on his watch in a brazen daytime escape, officials said Friday, as the nine-day-old search pressed on amid southeastern Philadelphia suburbs, farmland and a vast botanical garden. News of the firing came as the searchers’ ranks grew overnight,

By GEIR MOULSON Associated Press BERLIN (AP) — German lawmakers have approved contentious legislation for the replacement of fossil-fuel heating systems, passing a major climate policy plan that prompted lengthy infighting in the governing coalition and helped push down its poll ratings. Parliament’s lower house voted for the bill on Friday, months after an initial

By JULIA FRANKEL Associated Press JERUSALEM (AP) — Israeli authorities say they plan to reopen the main commercial crossing to Gaza after it was closed earlier this week, harming producers across the embattled territory. They say the crossing will be reopened on Sunday. It was closed on Monday because Israel said explosives were found in

By SIAN WATSON Associated Press LONDON (AP) — Beloved British electronic duo the Chemical Brothers released their tenth album on Friday, arriving over three decades into their career. But does it get any easier with time? Not according to one half of the outfit, Tom Rowlands. “I think it’s just more complicated,” he told The

By GEIR MOULSON Associated Press BERLIN (AP) — Prosecutors say an employee of Germany’s foreign intelligence service and an acquaintance have been charged with treason for allegedly passing secret documents to Russia. The intelligence officer was arrested in Berlin last December. The second suspect is a self-employed German businessman. He was arrested at Munich airport

By FATIMA HUSSEIN Associated Press WASHINGTON (AP) — The IRS announced on Friday it is launching an effort to aggressively pursue 1,600 millionaires and 75 large business partnerships that owe hundreds of millions of dollars in past due taxes. IRS Commissioner Daniel Werfel said that with a boost in federal funding and the help of

By BASSEM MROUE Associated Press BEIRUT (AP) — Lebanese judicial officials say authorities in Beirut have questioned two people at Turkey’s request on suspicion of being involved in the 2019 escape of auto tycoon Carlos Ghosn from Japan to Lebanon. The news came a week before a hearing over the $1 billion lawsuit that former

FRANKFORT, Ind. (AP) — A man who fatally shot a former girlfriend and her grandmother outside an Indiana automotive seating plant was sentenced to 110 years in prison. The judge called the killings “brutal and heinous.” Gary Ferrell II was sentenced Thursday. He had avoided a possible death sentence by pleading guilty to two murder

By DÁNICA COTO Associated Press SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico (AP) — Students and teachers are sweltering in public schools across Puerto Rico and demanding that the government install air conditioners as the U.S. Caribbean territory bakes under record heat this year. But the island’s governor quietly vetoed a bill last month that would authorize the

MIAMI BEACH, Fla. (AP) — Plans are underway for an iconic Miami Beach hotel and bar to be replaced with a high-end restaurant and affordable housing units, the building’s owner announced. The changes being submitted soon to the city of Miami Beach include a development with 40% of the units designated as affordable and a

By JOSEPH WILSON Associated Press BARCELONA, Spain (AP) — Spanish state prosecutors have accused Luis Rubiales of sexual assault and coercion for kissing a player on the lips without her consent after the Women’s World Cup final, the country’s prosecutors’ office said Friday. Rubiales, the now-suspended president of the Spanish soccer federation, kissed Jenni Hermoso

BRUSSELS (AP) — The European Union’s executive branch has strongly criticized the bloc’s representative in Austria for accusing the country of paying “blood money” to Russia for gas supplies. It said Friday that he has been ordered back to Brussels for discussions on the matter. EU representative Martin Selmayr said at a discussion event on

By MARI YAMAGUCHI Associated Press TOKYO (AP) — Fishermen and residents of Fukushima and five other prefectures along Japan’s northeastern coast have filed a lawsuit demanding a halt to the ongoing release of treated radioactive wastewater from the wrecked Fukushima nuclear plant into the sea. The 151 plaintiffs say the discharge damages the livelihoods of

MANILA, Philippines (AP) — Australia and the Philippines have elevated their seven-decade ties to a strategic level to broaden an alliance underpinned by their rejection of China’s increasingly provocative actions in the disputed South China Sea. Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese and his Philippine counterpart, Ferdinand Marcos Jr., signed the pact Friday in Manila to

By JARI TANNER and JAN M. OLSEN Associated Press HELSINKI (AP) — Finland’s center-right government has survived a no-confidence motion from three opposition parties over two ministers from the right-wing populist Finns Party at the center of a racism scandal that has rocked the Nordic country. Lawmakers voted 106-65 in favor of the Cabinet of

By NINIEK KARMINI Associated Press JAKARTA, Indonesia (AP) — South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol has met with his Indonesian counterpart, Joko Widodo, to deepen economic ties and defense cooperation amid heightened global geopolitical tensions. Yoon has been in Indonesia’s capital, Jakarta, for the three-day summit by leaders of the Association of Southeast Asia Nations