Month: September 2023

By GARY D. ROBERTSON Associated Press RALEIGH. N.C. (AP) — The NASCAR Cup Series All-Star Race is returning to North Wilkesboro Speedway in North Carolina for a second straight year. State legislators joined NASCAR and track executives on Thursday for the announcement that the speedway will host it again next May. NASCAR’s top series held

By LARRY NEUMEISTER Associated Press NEW YORK (AP) — A judge has closed the door on FTX founder Sam Bankman-Fried’s hopes to be free during his trial. But he extended the hours that the 31-year-old cryptocurrency peddler can meet with his lawyers in a federal courthouse. Judge Lewis A. Kaplan on Thursday rejected a request

By MATTHEW BARAKAT Associated Press LEESBURG, Va. (AP) — A jury has found a delivery driver not guilty in the shooting of a YouTube prankster who was following him around a mall food court earlier this year. Alan Colie was acquitted Thursday of aggravated malicious wounding in the shooting of Tanner Cook, who runs the

By JEFFREY COLLINS Associated Press COLUMBIA, S.C. (AP) — Attorneys for convicted murderer Alex Murdaugh want the federal government to take over whatever is left of the millions of dollars and other assets the convicted murderer stole and earned through his legal work. The assets have been under state control for nearly two years, but

By JIM HEINTZ Associated Press TALLINN, Estonia (AP) — The exodus of ethnic Armenians this week from the region known as Nagorno-Karabakh has been a vivid and shocking tableau of fear and misery. Roads are jammed with cars lumbering with heavy loads, waiting for hours in traffic jams. People sit amid mounds of hastily packed

By THOMAS ADAMSON AP Fashion Writer PARIS (AP) — Designer Gabriela Hearst marked her farewell from Chloé with a jubilant dance alongside Rio’s samba school Mangueira, showcasing a collection emphasizing modernity and femininity. Hearst leaves behind a green legacy at Chloé. Under her leadership, Chloé not only underwent a creative transformation but also embarked on

By COLLEEN LONG, ERIC TUCKER and FARNOUSH AMIRI Associated Press WASHINGTON (AP) — House Republicans repeatedly used the word “brand” at their opening impeachment inquiry as a shorthand to allege that Hunter Biden was selling access to his family’s power and connections when he pursued lucrative business dealings. Rep. James Comer, chairman of the House

By FADI TAWIL and KAREEM CHEHAYEB Associated Press EIN AAR, Lebanon (AP) — Hundreds of Lebanese Armenians have scuffled with riot police outside the Azerbaijan Embassy in a northern Beirut suburb. The scuffles came during their protest on Thursday to denounce the Azerbaijani military offensive that recaptured Nagorno-Karabakh from the separatist Armenian authorities in the

By ILLIA NOVIKOV Associated Press KYIV, Ukraine (AP) — President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has appointed former Ukrainian soccer great Andriy Shevchenko as a special adviser and British actor Mark Strong as an ambassador to the charity the Ukrainian president set up to raise money for Ukraine. It was not clear what Shevchenko’s duties as adviser to

By LORNE COOK Associated Press BRUSSELS (AP) — European Union governments are struggling to overcome obstacles to put a new asylum system in place three years after unveiling a plan to reform the bloc’s outdated asylum rules. Some fear the plan may never see the light of day. The New Pact on Migration and Asylum

By ERIC TUCKER Associated Press WASHINGTON (AP) — The FBI and other government agencies should be required to get court approval before reviewing the communications of U.S. citizens collected through a secretive foreign surveillance program, a sharply divided privacy oversight board recommended on Thursday. The recommendation came in a report from a three-member Democratic majority

BY STEPHEN McGRATH and ANDREEA ALEXANDRU Associated Press BUCHAREST, Romania (AP) — A court in Romania’s capital on Thursday has eased geographical restrictions on Andrew Tate, the divisive social media influencer who is charged with rape, human trafficking and forming a criminal gang to sexually exploit women. The decision by the Bucharest Tribunal to alter

By JACK JEFFERY Associated Press CAIRO (AP) — The United States has imposed sanctions on a former Sudanese government minister and two companies tied to the paramilitary force that’s locked in fighting with the Sudanese army. The sanctions imposed by the U.S Department of the Treasury will block all property in the U.S. and entities

TEHRAN, Iran (AP) — A fire has broken out at a car battery factory owned by Iran’s Defense Ministry for the second time in less than a week. State media outlets say no one was injured in Thursday’s blaze, which erupted in an area where plastic waste is stored. Iranian news outlets have circulated photos

By JONATHAN J. COOPER and JILL COLVIN Associated Press PHOENIX (AP) — Republican Kari Lake, a Donald Trump ally who has refused to acknowledge her loss in last year’s race for Arizona governor, will soon launch her campaign for the U.S. Senate seat held by independent Kyrsten Sinema, a senior adviser said Thursday. Lake’s entrance

TOLEDO, Ohio (AP) — A former director of an Ohio memory-loss clinic accused by dozens of patients of falsely diagnosing them with Alzheimer’s disease has been sentenced on federal fraud charges, along with her physician husband. Sherry-Ann Jenkins received nearly six years in prison on Tuesday, while Oliver Jenkins got a 41-month sentence. The couple

LONDON (AP) — A 16-year-old boy was arrested Thursday in northern England in connection with what authorities described as the “deliberate” felling of a famous tree that had stood for nearly 200 years next to the Roman landmark Hadrian’s Wall. Thousands of visitors each year walk along Hadrian’s Wall, a UNESCO World Heritage Site that

MONTGOMERY, Ala. (AP) — The cost of a new Alabama super-size prison that is now under construction has risen to more than $1 billion, complicating the state’s plans to build two of the giant facilities. The Alabama Corrections Institution Finance Authority approved a final price of $1.08 billion on Tuesday for the new prison now

PARIS (AP) — French President Emmanuel Macron is proposing granting limited autonomy for Corsica in a modest step toward nationalist sentiment on the Mediterranean island. Macron made the announcement in a speech on Thursday. The French president said that he favors changing the French Constitution to recognize “the specificities” of Corsica’s island community. A constitutional

By SOPHENG CHEANG Associated Press PHNOM PENH, Cambodia (AP) — Two of Southeast Asia’s newest national leaders have exchanged congratulations on their new posts as Thai Prime Minister Srettha Thavisin paid a one-day official visit to Cambodia for talks with Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Manet. Although there are currently no major issues of contention between

By MIKE CORDER Associated Press THE HAGUE, Netherlands (AP) — Police in the Netherlands say a lone gunman wearing a bulletproof vest opened fire in an apartment and a hospital in the Dutch port city of Rotterdam, killing three people, including a 14-year-old girl. The shooting sent patients and medics fleeing the Erasmus Medical Center

By ZANA CIMILI Associated Press PRISTINA, Kosovo (AP) — Kosovo’s interior minister has accused Serbia of direct involvement in weekend clashes and was investigating the possibility of Russian involvement in the violence that left four people dead and further strained relations between the former wartime foes. One Kosovo police officer and three gunmen were killed

BERLIN (AP) — Germany and Israel have signed an agreement for Berlin to buy the sophisticated Arrow 3 missile defense system, designed to intercept long-range ballistic missiles. It’s the latest step in Berlin’s bid to strengthen its air defenses following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. Germany aims to integrate the system into wider NATO air defense

By MICHAEL LIEDTKE AP Technology Writer The curtain is finally coming down on Netflix’s once-iconic DVD-by-mail service, a quarter century after two Silicon Valley entrepreneurs came up with a concept that obliterated Blockbuster video stores while providing a springboard into video streaming that has transformed entertainment. The DVD service that has been steadily shrinking in

By PAUL WISEMAN and CHRISTOPHER RUGABER AP Economics Writers WASHINGTON (AP) — The U.S. economy grew at a 2.1% annual pace from April through June, extending its sturdy performance in the face of higher interest rates, the government said Thursday, leaving its previous estimate unchanged. The second-quarter expansion of the nation’s gross domestic product —