Month: April 2024

By JAKE COYLE AP Film Writer Organizers announced that new films from Yorgos Lanthimos, Andrea Arnold and Francis Ford Coppola, as well as a portrait of 1980s Donald Trump, will compete for the Palme d’Or at the 77th Cannes Film Festival. Cannes artistic director Thierry Frémaux says this year’s lineup was plucked from 2,000 submissions.

TALLINN, Estonia (AP) — A Belarusian man who was in jail awaiting trial on charges of insulting the authoritarian president has died in custody. The country’s leading human rights group says Aliaksandr Kulinich, 51, died Tuesday in a detention center in the western city of Brest that is notorious for harsh treatment of opposition activists.

MILAN (AP) — Firefighters in Italy say that divers have discovered two more bodies of workers who died in an explosion that collapsed and flooded several levels of an underground hydroelectric plant earlier this week, bringing to five the number of confirmed dead. The explosion Tuesday at the Enel Green Power plant near Bologna occurred

By COLLEEN NEWVINE Associated Press If you daydream about getting a break from stress, you might picture a restful week of vacation or a long weekend away. But some people opt for something bigger, finding ways to take longer or more varied time away from the routine. Mini sabbaticals. Adult gap years. Or just gap

By The Associated Press Amazon is adding artificial intelligence visionary Andrew Ng (EE-ng) to its board of directors. Ng is known for leading AI teams at the Chinese tech company Baidu and Google, where his team taught a computer system to recognize cats in YouTube videos without ever being taught what a cat was. In

By PAUL WISEMAN AP Economics Writer WASHINGTON (AP) — U.S. producer prices rose in March from a year earlier at the fastest pace in nearly a year, offering more evidence that progress against inflation may have stalled this year and raising doubts about whether and when the Federal Reserve will start cutting interest rates. The

By ANIRUDDHA GHOSAL Associated Press HANOI, Vietnam (AP) — A Vietnamese real estate tycoon has been sentenced to death in the country’s biggest ever financial fraud case. It’s a shocking development in an intensifying anti-corruption drive in the southeast Asian nation. Truong My Lan is a high-profile businesswoman who chaired a sprawling company that developed

By MONIKA SCISLOWSKA and RAFAL NIEDZIELSKI Associated Press WARSAW, Poland (AP) — Many kids in Poland are rejoicing over strict limits imposed by the government on the amount of homework. Teachers and parents aren’t so sure. The decree says teachers can’t give required homework to kids in the first to third grades. For grades four

By MATT OTT AP Business Writer WASHINGTON (AP) — Fewer Americans applied for jobless benefits last week as the labor market continues to thrive despite the Federal Reserve’s efforts to cool it. The Labor Department reported Thursday that filings for unemployment claims for the week ending April 6 fell by 11,000 to 211,000 from the

ROME (AP) — Archaeologists excavating new sites in Pompeii have uncovered a sumptuous banquet hall decorated with intricately frescoed mythological characters inspired by the Trojan War. The banquet hall was used for refined entertaining and features black walls, a technique that prevented the smoke from oil lamps to be seen. The hall was uncovered as

COPENHAGEN, Denmark (AP) — An academic probe says that Norway’s Health Minister Ingvild Kjerkol plagiarized parts of her masters’ degree thesis three years ago. It’s the second such case this year in the Norwegian government and the latest allegation of unethical behavior to rock the center-left government. The investigation by Nord University in Bodoe, northern

ATLANTA (AP) — Powerful storms rumbled over parts of the U.S. Southeast on Thursday, prompting a few tornado warnings, causing flash flooding, and delaying the start of one of the world’s biggest sporting events, in Georgia. The storm system, which has already been blamed for at least one death in Mississippi, demolished buildings and flooded

By ISABELLA O’MALLEY Associated Press The cement industry is one of the largest emitters of carbon dioxide and is responsible for some 8% of global emissions each year. But demand for cement, an ingredient for concrete, keeps growing as the world constructs more buildings. Many in the industry are working on different ways to make

BERLIN (AP) — German police have offered a reward and asked possible witnesses to come forward with information regarding an arson attack on a synagogue in the northern city of Oldenburg last week. An unknown person threw an explosive device at the synagogue, causing minor damage. No events were taking place there at the time,

BERLIN (AP) — Authorities say an avalanche near the Austrian ski resort of Soelden has killed three people from the Netherlands who were on a skiing and hiking trip. Another person was rescued and taken to a hospital. Police said a group of 17 people from the Netherlands, accompanied by four Austrian mountain guides, was

By HILLEL ITALIE AP National Writer NEW YORK (AP) — Imprisoned Vietnamese author-blogger-journalist Pham Doan Trang will be this year’s recipient of PEN America’s Barbey Freedom to Write Award, given by the free expression organization to a “jailed writer of conscience.” Trang, 45, has written several books, among them “Non-Violent Resistance” and “Politics for the

Associated Press BUDAPEST, Hungary (AP) — Hungary’s government will add new restrictions on the import of Ukrainian agricultural products to protect Hungarian farmers from market fluctuations caused by cheaper Ukrainian imports. Hungarian Agrictultural Minister Istvan Nagy told a news conference on Thursday that a 2022 European Union decision to allow for duty-free imports from Ukraine,

By HYUNG-JIN KIM Associated Press SEOUL, South Korea (AP) — South Korean voters have handed liberals extended opposition control of parliament in what looks like a massive political setback to conservative President Yoon Suk Yeol. Some experts say the results of Wednesday’s parliamentary elections make Yoon “a lame duck” — or even “a dead duck”

By KELVIN CHAN AP Business Writer LONDON (AP) — Instagram says it’s deploying new tools to protect young people and combat sexual extortion, including a feature that will automatically blur nudity in direct messages. The social media platform said in a blog post Thursday that it’s testing out the features as part of its campaign

By KATHERINE ROTH Associated Press NEW YORK (AP) — Tax pros say there are a few tips parents should keep in mind when filing their tax returns this year. The child tax credit is lower than in recent years, but it’s still up to $2,000 per child. And it can be claimed alongside your standard

MELBOURNE, Australia (AP) — An Australian court has rejected a case brought by five women seeking compensation from Qatar Airways over invasive gynecological examinations conducted on passengers at Doha’s airport in 2020, but their case against the airport’s operator is going ahead. The five women were among hundreds who were forcibly removed from planes on

BEIJING (AP) — China has announced rare sanctions against two U.S. defense companies over what it calls their support for arms sales to Taiwan. Beijing claims the self-governing island democracy as its own territory to be recovered by force if necessary. The announcement freezes the assets of General Atomics Aeronautical Systems and General Dynamics Land

By ALEXA ST. JOHN Associated Press DETROIT (AP) — The Biden administration is handing out almost $830 million in grants for 80 projects around the country aimed at toughening infrastructure against the extreme weather of climate change. The money will pay for things like moving roads, raising bridges, improving drainage and improving evacuation routes. And

By GRANT PECK Associated Press BANGKOK (AP) — Guerrillas from the Karen ethnic minority in Myanmar claim to have captured the last of the army’s outposts in Myawaddy district in the east of the country, virtually clearing the way for them to take the major crossing point for trade with Thailand. The ethnic group’s leading

By DAVE SKRETTA AP Sports Writer AUGUSTA, Ga. (AP) — The Augusta National that Jon Rahm, Scottie Scheffler and the rest of golf’s greats played during their practice rounds for the Masters was a bit different than what greeted them Thursday after they drove down Magnolia Lane. A storm system that raked the southeast with

MADRID (AP) — A Czech tourist has died after falling into the sea while apparently taking photographs of huge waves during a storm on the Canary Island of Tenerife. Authorities say the 53-year-old died Wednesday afternoon in the town of Puerto de la Cruz. Authorities had warned of possible flooding in coastal areas due to