Month: January 2024

By TARA COPP and QASSIM ABDUL-ZAHRA Associated Press WASHINGTON (AP) — The United States and Iraq will soon begin talks to wind down the mission of a U.S.-led military coalition formed to fight the Islamic State group in Iraq. The Pentagon sys the size of the U.S. military footprint in Iraq will be part of

JOLIET, Ill. (AP) — The girlfriend of a man suspected of fatally shooting seven relatives and an eighth person last weekend in a Chicago suburb has been charged with obstruction for allegedly trying to prevent her boyfriend’s apprehension, police said. Kyleigh Cleveland-Singleton, 21, of Joliet was charged with one count of obstructing justice after the

By ALEXA ST. JOHN Associated Press DETROIT (AP) — More than 4,700 auto dealerships across the United States urged President Joe Biden in a letter Thursday to halt the Environmental Protection Agency’s efforts to enforce stricter vehicle-pollution standards. The missive comes just weeks before the agency’s expected ruling on its tailpipe-emissions proposal, which addresses both

By KIRSTEN GRIESHABER Associated press BERLIN (AP) — At least 1,259 people working for the Protestant Church of Germany have committed sexual abuse, claiming at least 2,225 victims. That’s according to an independent study of decades of church documents and files from regional churches and the Lutherans’ diaconal relief and social welfare organization, the Diakonie.

By JAN M. OLSEN Associated Press COPENHAGEN, Denmark (AP) — A Danish report says adoptions of children from South Korea in the 1970s and 1980s to Denmark was “characterized by systematic illegal behavior” in the Asian country. The report on Thursday says these violations made it “possible to change information about a child’s background and

By GRANT PECK Associated Press BANGKOK (AP) — A court in military-controlled Myanmar has ordered the family home of ousted leader Aung San Suu Kyi, where she spent 15 years under house arrest, be put on auction in March following a decades-long legal dispute between her and her brother. The decision by a district court

BEIJING (AP) — The bodies of the remaining victims of a landslide in southwestern China have been recovered, bringing the death toll to 44 after four days of searching through the rubble of dirt and crumbled homes. State broadcaster said the final body was found on Thursday evening. The landslide slammed into houses at the

STOCKHOLM (AP) — Swedish media say Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson has agreed to meet with his Hungarian counterpart Viktor Orbán, who invited Kristersson to Budapest to discuss Sweden’s accession into NATO. Kristersson said in a letter to Orbán he agrees more dialogue between the countries would be beneficial. Orbán’s invitation comes as Hungary and Turkey

ATHENS, Greece (AP) — Several thousand university students and their supporters took part in a protest in central Athens Thursday to oppose plans by Greece‘s conservative government to allow privately run universities. Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis’ center-right government is pushing through several key pieces of legislation early in the new year, taking advantage of a

By MATT OTT AP Business Writer More Americans filed jobless benefits last week but layoffs remain at historically low levels despite elevated interest rates and a flurry of job cuts in the media and technology sectors. Applications for unemployment benefits rose to 214,000 for the week ending Jan. 20, an increase of 25,000 from the

SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico (AP) — Police say a man in southwestern Puerto Rico fatally shot his former girlfriend and two members of her family before killing himself. Authorities said on Thursday that the shooting happened late  the previous night in the coastal town of Yauco, where the bodies of the man’s former 30-year-old girlfriend,

By RAJESH KUMAR SINGH and BISWAJEET BANERJEE Associated Press LUCKNOW, India (AP) — Thousands of Indians have flocked to a recruitment center in India for jobs as construction workers in Israel, willing to take the risk of going to a country embroiled in a devastating war with Hamas militants in Gaza. Jobs are hard to

By SEUNG MIN KIM and SCOTT BAUER Associated Press SUPERIOR, Wis. (AP) — President Joe Biden has returned to a deteriorating Midwestern bridge to argue that his administration is keeping its pledge to fix the critical link between the port cities in Wisconsin and Minnesota. Biden visited the John A. Blatnik Bridge at the tip

By COLLEEN SLEVIN Associated Press DENVER (AP) — An American founder of a Haitian orphanage who has been charged with sexual abuse was investigated by a grand jury about a decade ago but not indicted, according to a court document filed by his attorney on Thursday. The revelation was included in a filing requesting that

By RIAZAT BUTT Associated Press NURPUR NOON, Pakistan (AP) — A Pakistani prime ministerial hopeful says the country must invest in climate resilience for its survival. Unprecedented downpours in 2022 washed away homes and schools while also displacing hundreds of thousands of people. Bilawal Bhutto-Zardari revealed Wednesday he had been ready to quit the government

Six nuns kidnapped in Haiti last week along with two other people have been released, the archbishop of Port-au-Prince told The Associated Press on Thursday. The group was released late Wednesday, and everyone is in good condition, said Archbishop Max Leroy Mésidor. “Thanks to God for helping us,” he said. He declined to say whether

By PAN PYLAS and BRIAN MELLEY Associated Press LONDON (AP) — A 32-year-old man who fatally stabbed two college students and a man months from retirement in the British city of Nottingham has been told he would “most probably” spend the rest of his life in a high-security medical facility. The judge told Valdo Calocane

By ANDREW DALTON AP Entertainment Writer Melanie, the singer-songwriter who rose through the New York folk scene, performed at Woodstock and had a series of 1970s hits including the enduring cultural phenomenon “Brand New Key,” has died. Her publicist Billy James told The Associated Press that Melanie died Tuesday. She was 76 and lived in

By DANICA KIRKA Associated Press LONDON (AP) — Two British museums are returning gold and silver artifacts to Ghana under a long-term loan arrangement — 150 years after the items were looted from the Asante people during Britain’s colonial battles in West Africa. The British Museum and the Victoria & Albert Museum in London, together

By MOGOMOTSI MAGOME Associated Press JOHANNESBURG (AP) — A man has been charged with 76 counts of murder and 86 counts of attempted murder for allegedly causing a fire at an apartment building in South Africa last year that was one of the country’s worst disasters. The suspect was also charged on Thursday with arson

By JONATHAN LANDRUM Jr. AP Entertainment Writer LOS ANGELES (AP) — Billy Idol normally takes advantage of riding his motorcycle on Super Bowl Sunday knowing there’s hardly any traffic because millions are glued to their televisions. But this year, Idol’s bike won’t be leaving his garage on game day. Instead, the legendary British rocker will

By KEN MORITSUGU Associated Press BEIJING (AP) — China has accused the U.S. of abusing international law with its military maneuvers in the western Pacific, one day after an American naval destroyer sailed through the politically sensitive Taiwan Strait. Defense Ministry spokesperson Wu Qian said Thursday that U.S. warplane and warship activity “on China’s doorstep”

WARSAW, Poland (AP) — Poland’s new pro-European Union government and conservative opposition disagree on whether two opposition politicians pardoned this week can still serve as lawmakers. Prime Minister Donald Tusk’s government has moved to reverse policies of his predecessors that led to conflicts with the EU. The previously ruling right-wing Law and Justice party, frustrated

By SUZAN FRASER Associated Press ANKARA, Turkey (AP) — Turkey’s central bank has raised its key interest rate by another 2.5 percentage points. The move was the latest in a series of rate increases aimed at combating inflation that reached nearly 65% in December. The bank on Thursday brought its benchmark rate to 45%. Turkish