Month: February 2024

By FRANCIS KOKUTSE Associated Press ACCRA, Ghana (AP) — Seven royal artifacts looted 150 years ago by British colonial forces from Ghana’s ancient Asante kingdom and kept by a United States museum have been returned and presented to the kingdom on Thursday, the latest of a series of stolen treasured items being repatriated to several

By ROBERT YOON Associated Press WASHINGTON (AP) — Control of the Pennsylvania House of Representatives hangs in the balance in a special election in the Philadelphia suburbs. Tuesday’s election there is the fourth time in a year a vacancy has put the Democratic majority at risk. The candidates are Democrat Jim Prokopiak and Republican Candace

By CIARÁN GILES and MONIKA SCISLOWSKA Associated Press MADRID (AP) — Farmers in Italy, Spain and Poland are demonstrating as part of ongoing protests against European Union farming policies and to demand measures to combat production cost hikes, reduced profits and unfair competition from non-EU countries. The actions follow similar ones in other EU member nations in recent weeks

By JOSH BOAK Associated Press WASHINGTON (AP) — The Biden administration is announcing an investment of $5 billion in a public-private consortium aimed at supporting research and development in advanced computer chips. The announcement of the chip investment came Friday. The National Semiconductor Technology Center is being funded through the 2022 CHIPS and Science Act.

By JUSTIN SPIKE Associated Press BUDAPEST, Hungary (AP) — Calls for Hungary’s conservative president to resign have grown amid outrage over her pardoning of a person convicted of covering up a child sexual abuse case. The decision has unleashed an unprecedented political scandal for the country’s long-serving nationalist government. Katalin Novák, the first female president

By MAE ANDERSON and WYATTE GRANTHAM-PHILIPS AP Business Writers NEW YORK (AP) — Big name advertisers will be pulling out all the stops on Super Bowl Sunday — enlisting high-profile actors, investing in dazzling special effects and, they hope, going for laughs as they seek to win over viewers during game breaks. In an increasingly

By MARI YAMAGUCHI and KEN MORITSUGU Associated Press TOKYO (AP) — World-renowned conductor Seiji Ozawa has died of heart failure at his home in Tokyo, his management office said Friday. He was 88. The acclaimed Japanese maestro led the Boston Symphony Orchestra from 1973 to 2002, longer than any other conductor in the orchestra’s 128-year

By MARI YAMAGUCHI Associated Press TOKYO (AP) — The Japanese government has adopted plans to scrap its current foreign trainee program, which has been criticized as a cover for importing cheap labor, and replace it with a system it says will actually teach skills and safeguard trainees’ rights as Japan desperately seeks more foreign workers

By JAY COHEN AP Sports Writer COSTA MESA, Calif. (AP) — Maddie Musselman wants to go to the Paris Games. So does her husband, Pat Woepse, who was diagnosed with a rare form of lung cancer in September. Musselman is looking to help the U.S. women’s water polo team to an unprecedented fourth consecutive gold

COPENHAGEN, Denmark (AP) — Finland’s national carrier Finnair is asking passengers to be weighed voluntarily and anonymously so that it can update their standard weight figures. A Finnair spokeswoman said Friday that passengers at Finland’s main airport in Helsinki “are not penalized for their weight” and “the numbers are kept discreet away from prying eyes.”

LONDON (AP) — A volcanic eruption in southwestern Iceland appears to have subsided, though scientists are warning that the area may experience further eruptions in the coming months. Iceland’s Meteorological Office said late Thursday that the eruption had decreased significantly. The eruption began at about 6 a.m. local time on Thursday in the area northeast

By ELAINE KURTENBACH AP Business Writer BANGKOK (AP) — A Nasdaq-listed Chinese technology company that makes parts for self-driving vehicles has threatened to sue the U.S. government after it was included in a list of companies the Pentagon says have links to the Chinese military. Hesai Technology’s core product is LiDAR, which is used in

By MOLLY QUELL Associated Press THE HAGUE (AP) — Dutch music producer DJ Tiësto has withdrawn from performing at Sunday’s Super Bowl due to an undisclosed family matter. Tiësto, whose real name is Tijs Verwest, wrote on social media on Thursday he would miss the matchup between the San Francisco 49ers and the Kansas City

By The Associated Press The U.S. is calling for an investigation into an alleged massacre of civilians in Ethiopia’s Amhara region, where a local rights group says more than 80 people were killed last week following clashes between soldiers and armed groups. The U.S. ambassador to Ethiopia, Ervin Massinga, said the U.S. government is deeply

HALF MOON BAY, Calif. (AP) — Police in California have arrested a man for allegedly stealing a small aircraft before crashing onto a beach. The San Mateo County Sheriff’s Office says deputies received a report of a small airplane landing in Half Moon Bay around 5 p.m. Thursday. Officers found the intact aircraft south of

By JOSEF FEDERMAN, NAJIB JOBAIN, and BASSEM MROUE Associated Press JERUSALEM (AP) — Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Friday said he has ordered the military to prepare a plan to evacuate civilians from Rafah ahead of an expected Israeli invasion of the densely populated southern Gaza city. The announcement came after heavy international criticism,

ESSERT-SOUS-CHAMPVERT, Switzerland (AP) — Swiss police say an Iranian asylum-seeker was killed by police after he used an axe and a knife to seize more than a dozen hostages for several hours on a train in western Switzerland. No passengers were injured. They say the man took the hostages early Thursday evening and police, alerted

By KANIS LEUNG Associated Press HONG KONG (AP) — An Argentina soccer friendly in China next month has been canceled in more fallout from Lionel Messi failing to play in a club exhibition match in Hong Kong. World Cup champion Argentina organized a tour of China for next month but the Hangzhou hosts of a

By STAN CHOE AP Business Writer NEW YORK (AP) — More gains for U.S. stocks on Friday sent Wall Street to its latest record, milestone and winning week. The S&P 500 rose 0.6% and finished a day above the 5,000 level for the first time. It’s the 10th record in less than a month for

By EILEEN NG Associated Press KUALA LUMPUR, Malaysia (AP) — Malaysia’s top court has struck down Shariah-based criminal laws in an opposition-run state, saying they encroached on federal authority. Islamists denounced Friday’s decision and said it could undermine religious courts across the Muslim-majority nation. In an 8-1 ruling, the nine-member Federal Court panel invalidated 16

NASHVILLE, Tenn. (AP) — Authorities in eastern Tennessee are searching for a suspect they say was involved in a shooting that killed one sheriff’s deputy and left another wounded. Blount County Sheriff James Lee Berrong says warrants have been issued for 42-year-old Kenneth DeHart, who is wanted on suspicion of first degree murder, attempted first