Month: February 2024

By DEE-ANN DURBIN AP Business Writer In a classic “Saturday Night Live” sketch, a young man hands his girlfriend a Valentine’s Day gift: a bear dressed in a bee costume that he picked up at the drugstore. “When did you get this?” she asks with a strained smile. “One minute ago,” he replies. It has

By DEE-ANN DURBIN AP Business Writer In a classic “Saturday Night Live” sketch, a young man hands his girlfriend a Valentine’s Day gift: a bear dressed in a bee costume that he picked up at the drugstore. “When did you get this?” she asks with a strained smile. “One minute ago,” he replies. It has

By TIA GOLDENBERG, SAMY MAGDY and WAFAA SHURAFA Associated Press JERUSALEM (AP) — International efforts to broker a cease-fire between Israel and Hamas suffered a setback on Wednesday as Israel reportedly recalled its negotiating team and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu accused Hamas of hobbling the high-stakes negotiations by sticking to “delusional” demands. Netanyahu’s remarks came

By MIKE CORDER Associated Press THE HAGUE, Netherlands (AP) — Former captives and relatives of hostages held since the Oct. 7 attack by Hamas in southern Israel are visiting the International Criminal Court to urge prosecutors to charge and seek the arrest of leaders of the militant group. The visit Wednesday is the latest step

SEOUL, South Korea (AP) — South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol’s office says that presumed North Korean hackers breached the personal emails of one of his staff members ahead of Yoon’s trip to Europe in November. Yoon’s office said Wednesday the cyberattack only affected the personal account of the unidentified employee, who violated security protocols

By MAAMOUN YOUSSEF Associated Press CAIRO (AP) — An opposition war monitor says militants from the Islamic State group attacked military barracks in central Syria this week, killing nine soldiers. The Syrian army and officials haven’t confirmed the attack. IS claimed responsibility for the attack, which happened on Monday near the town of Al-Sukhna, and

By JON GAMBRELL Associated Press ABU MUREIKHA, United Arab Emirates (AP) — Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi has visited the Middle East’s first traditional stone-built Hindu temple, internationalizing both his reelection campaign and his effort to push secular and multicultural India into a Hindu state. Wednesday’s visit to the BAPS Hindu Mandir just north of

By MARI YAMAGUCHI Associated Press TOKYO (AP) — Japan’s space agency says its new flagship H3 rocket will have a second test flight on Saturday, two days after an originally planned liftoff was postponed due to a bad weather forecast at the launch site in southwestern Japan. The liftoff was originally scheduled for Thursday but

By PAN PYLAS Associated Press LONDON (AP) — Inflation in the U.K. held steady at 4% in January as lower food prices helped offset an increase in energy costs. The reading from the Office for National Statistics on Wednesday was better than expected as most economists had predicted a modest rise. Still, inflation remains double

By ILLIA NOVIKOV Associated Press KYIV, Ukraine (AP) — Ukraine’s military said Wednesday it used high-tech naval drones to sink a Russian landing ship in the Black Sea, a report that has not been confirmed by Russian authorities. The Caesar Kunikov amphibious ship sank 4 kilometers (2.5 miles) off Alupka, a city on the southern

By YURI KAGEYAMA AP Business Writer TOKYO (AP) — Japanese electronics and entertainment company Sony’s profit rose 13% in October-December on growing sales of music, image sensors and video games. Tokyo Sony Corp.’s quarterly profit totaled 363.9 billion yen, or $2.4 billion, according to data released Wednesday. Quarterly sales for the maker of PlayStation game

By SUZAN FRASER Associated Press ANKARA, Turkey (AP) — Turkish state media say authorities have detained four people in connection with a massive landslide that engulfed a gold mine in eastern Turkey, leaving at least nine workers missing. The landslide struck the mine in Turkey’s mountainous Erzincan province on Tuesday. A video seemingly shot by

By ELAINE KURTENBACH AP Business Writer BANGKOK (AP) — Shares rose in Asia on Thursday after Wall Street stocks recovered much of their sharp losses from a day before. Oil prices declined. Benchmarks rose in most major markets apart from Seoul, while mainland Chinese markets remained closed for the Lunar New Year holiday. Japan reported

By JON GAMBRELL Associated Press DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) — Explosions have struck a natural gas pipeline in Iran. An Iranian official on Wednesday blamed the blasts on a “sabotage and terrorist action” in the country as tensions remain high in the Middle East with Israel’s war on Hamas in the Gaza Strip. Details

By WYATTE GRANTHAM-PHILIPS AP Business Writer NEW YORK (AP) — It turns out there are lots of sharp elbows in the plush toy business. Build-A-Bear and the makers of Squishmallows are facing off in federal court. Kelly Toys and its Berkshire Hathaway -controlled parent company Jazwares have sued Build-A-Bear, saying its new “Skoosherz” toys copy

TIRANA, Albania (AP) — Albania’s cybersecurity authorities are accusing a hacker group “sponsored” by the Iranian government of attacking the country’s Institute of Statistics earlier this month. The institute on Feb. 1 reported becoming a target of a “sophisticated cyberattack” and that some systems were affected. The National Authority for Electronic Certification and Cyber Security

By THOMAS PEIPERT Associated Press LOVELAND, Colo. (AP) — Love is in the air … and the mail … in the northern Colorado city of Loveland. Every year, tens of thousands of people from around the world route their Valentine’s Day cards to the “Sweetheart City” to get a special inscription and the coveted Loveland

CAIRO (AP) — Egyptian authorities say a truck slammed into passenger vehicles in Egypt’s Mediterranean province of Alexandria, killing at least 15 people. The crash happened late Tuesday in Amreya district, west of Alexandria city. Eight other people were injured, according to a police report. The report said the truck slammed into four microbuses, a

By MORGAN LEE Associated Press SANTA FE, N.M. (AP) — New Mexico’s Legislature has approved a bill aimed at reducing climate-warming pollution from cars and trucks through financial incentives to reward businesses that produce cleaner fuels. The Senate voted 26-15 Tuesday, on a party-line vote with Republicans in opposition, to send the bill to Democratic

By TRÂN NGUYỄN Associated Press OROVILLE, Calif. (AP) — Democratic California Gov. Gavin Newsom is urging voters to approve a ballot initiative that he says is needed to tackle the state’s homelessness crisis. Mental health advocates say the change would threaten the programs that keep people from becoming homeless and could result in more coerced