Month: January 2024

PARIS Protests by French farmers are snowballing and creeping closer to Paris, ratcheting up pressure for government measures to protect the influential agricultural sector from foreign competition, red tape, rising costs and poverty-levels of pay. Traffic-snarling drive-slows, barricades of straw bales, stinky dumps of agricultural waste and other expressions of anger have rapidly blown up

By JIM HEINTZ Associated Press TALLINN, Estonia (AP) — The former leader of separatist rebels in Ukraine and a woman convicted of a bomb attack which killed a pro-war blogger were jailed by Russian courts Thursday. The Moscow City Court has convicted a former Ukraine rebel leader who called President Vladimir Putin cowardly of extremism

By BINAJ GURUBACHARYA Associated Press KATHMANDU, Nepal (AP) — Nepal’s top diplomat says his country has asked Russia to send back hundreds of Nepali nationals who were recruited to fight in Ukraine and repatriate the bodies of those who were killed in the conflict. Foreign Minister Narayan Prakash Saud said Thursday in an interview with

By MUNIR AHMED Associated Press ISLAMABAD (AP) — The Pakistani Taliban have pledged not to attack election rallies, saying their targets are limited to the military and security forces, as political parties and independent candidates ramp up their campaigns ahead of the Feb. 8 vote. Other militant groups have not made similar pledges, and some

By ASHOK SHARMA Associated Press NEW DELHI (AP) — French President Emmanuel Macron has toured historic sites in India with Prime Minister Narendra Modi and was set to be the chief guest at the country’s national day celebrations. Modi greeted Macron at an 18th-century observatory in Jaipur and the two stood in an open jeep

PARIS (AP) — France’s Constitutional Council rejected several measures in a divisive new immigration law that critics call inhumane. It’s a new blow to President Emmanuel Macron and his government. The council said in a statement that it threw out all or part of 32 of the law’s 86 articles, as contrary to the constitution.

HELSINKI (AP) — Nokia has reported a double-digit decline in sales and a fall in profit in the last three months of 2023. The wireless and fixed-network equipment maker said Thursday that operators are cutting back on investments into 5G and other technology because of economic uncertainty. The Finnish company reported net profit in the

By SAMUEL PETREQUIN Associated Press BRUSSELS (AP) — The number of antisemitic acts registered in France and Belgium have risen sharply since Hamas’ attack on Israel triggered the war in Gaza. That’s according to figures released on Thursday in both countries. In France, data from the Interior ministry and the Jewish Community Protection Service watchdog

By MARI YAMAGUCHI Associated Press TOKYO (AP) — Japan’s space agency said Thursday that its first lunar mission hit the tiny patch of the moon’s surface it was aiming for in a successful demonstration of its pinpoint landing system — although it appears to be sitting upside-down. Japan became the fifth country in history to

PRAGUE (AP) — Czech lawmakers have voted against ratifying an international treaty on women’s rights. Only 34 of the 71 Senators present in the upper house of the Czech Parliament late Wednesday voted in favor of the treaty known as the Istanbul Convention. The result was two votes short of the majority needed to pass.

By KELVIN CHAN AP Business Writer LONDON (AP) — You’re in a crowded bar when a thief watches you unlock your iPhone with your passcode, then swipes it. That sinking feeling hits when you realize it’s gone, along with priceless photos, important files, passwords on banking apps and other vital parts of your digital life.

By DARLENE SUPERVILLE and CHRIS MEGERIAN Associated Press WASHINGTON (AP) — Jill Biden says “enough is enough” on the issue of children being killed by firearms. The first lady and Education Secretary Miguel Cardona brought school principals from around the country to the White House on Thursday to launch a gun safety initiative. The event

By PHILIPP JENNE Associated Press KREMS, Austria (AP) — An Austrian man who had kept his daughter captive for 24 years and raped her thousands of times, fathering seven children with her, can be moved from psychiatric detention to a regular prison. A court ruled on Thursday that 88-year-old Josef Fritzl will have to attend

By JIWON SONG Associated Press SEOUL, South Korea (AP) — South Korean police say a governing party lawmaker is being treated for lacerations at a Seoul hospital after being attacked by an unidentified man who struck her head with a rock-like object. A police official says a suspect was arrested at the scene after the

By The Associated Press Russia and Ukraine are trading accusations over the crash of a military transport plane that Moscow said was carrying Ukrainian prisoners of war and was shot down by Kyiv’s forces. It was another heated episode in the information war that has been a feature of the conflict. Though investigators reportedly found

NICOSIA, Cyprus (AP) — An official says one of five children hospitalized in Cyprus after being rescued from a rickety boat carrying 60 Syrian migrants has died. The migrants were rescued by Cyprus police on Wednesday. They apparently ran out of food and water after sailing from Lebanon for six days. A government health spokesperson

By MARTHA BELLISLE Associated Press U.S. Biathlon national champion Joanne Reid was sexually harassed and abused for years by a ski-wax technician while racing on the elite World Cup circuit, a watchdog group that oversees sex-abuse allegations in Olympic sports found. When the two-time Olympian complained, she says she was told his behavior was just

By KEIRAN SMITH Associated Press SYDNEY (AP) — It’s a tiny Pacific island nation, one of the world’s smallest. But on Friday elections in Tuvalu will be watched from Beijing to Canberra, as voters choose a 16-seat parliament and, after negotiations, a prime minister. A big part of the international attention is linked to the

By YURI KAGEYAMA AP Business Writer TOKYO (AP) — Asian shares were mostly lower on Friday despite upbeat news on the U.S. economy, with Japan’s benchmark falling after the latest data showed inflation has been slowing faster than expected. Tokyo’s Nikkei 225 declined 1.1% to 35,847.71 in morning trading as a key measure of inflation

By CHRISTOPHER BODEEN Associated Press TAIPEI, Taiwan (AP) — A bipartisan delegation from the United States Congress is reaffirming support for Taiwan following its election of a new president. The delegation’s visit is the first by U.S. lawmakers to the island since the independence-leaning Democratic Progressive Party won a third-straight term in the election. China

TOKYO (AP) — Weather officials in Japan predicted more heavy snow Thursday, a day after nearly 800 vehicles were trapped for fours on an expressway in central Japan. The 4-mile traffic jam happened after two trailers got stuck in the snow. Soldiers were called in Wednesday to clear the snow. Japan’s Meteorological Agency said as