Month: May 2024

VALLETTA, Malta (AP) — Malta’s deputy prime minister has resigned and ended his European Commission bid. The resignation of Chris Fearne came after he was charged with fraud in a hospital scandal roiling the Mediterranean island nation. In his resignation letter, Fearne denied wrongdoing but said he must put Malta before everything else. He resigned

By BELA SZANDELSZKY Associated Press BUDAPEST, Hungary (AP) — Chinese President Xi Jinping has left Hungary, concluding a tour of three European nations meant to reinforce China’s growing influence on the continent. Xi’s plane took off from Budapest airport on Friday evening. Earlier, Hungary’s Prime Minister Viktor Orbán said on the social platform X that

ISLAMABAD (AP) — Police in Pakistan’s capital of Islamabad have prevented a pro-Palestinian rally by a radical Islamist party from moving toward the U.S. Embassy, where demonstrators wanted to stage a sit-in against Israel’s strikes in Gaza. Police on Friday used batons on the demonstrators, angering hundreds of rallygoers who briefly blocked a key road

By ALANNA DURKIN RICHER Associated Press WASHINGTON (AP) — A federal appeals court panel on Friday upheld the criminal conviction of Donald Trump’s longtime ally Steve Bannon for defying a subpoena from the House committee that investigated the attack on the U.S. Capitol. A three-judge panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C.

By FATIMA HUSSEIN Associated Press WASHINGTON (AP) — Liam and Olivia have for a fifth year together topped the list of baby names for brand new boys and girls born in the U.S. in 2023. And Mateo joins the top 10 baby names list for the first time. The Social Security Administration annually tracks the

NORTH CANAAN, Conn. (AP) — It was the barking that saved Rippy, a mutt that fell deep into a working rock quarry. Rescue workers rappelled off a cliff at the Specialty Minerals quarry in Connecticut to rescue the 30-pound terrier mix. Rippy’s owner reported him missing in North Canaan on May 4. Days later, an

By AMY BETH HANSON and RICK BOWMER Associated Press SANDY, Utah (AP) — Search crews have recovered the bodies of two backcountry skiers who were swept away and buried by an avalanche in the mountains outside Salt Lake City. Salt Lake County Sheriff Rosie Rivera says teams uncovered the bodies on Friday morning. Sgt. Aymee

By MARIA SHERMAN AP Music Writer In her first Eras Tour concert since the release of “The Tortured Poets Department,” Taylor Swift shook up her setlist. At Thursday night’s show at the La Défense Arena in Paris, fans were treated to the inclusion of new songs from the record-breaking album released in April. According to

MILAN (AP) — Mock coffins have filled one of Milan’s most famous squares in a protest organized by Italy’s second-largest union to raise awareness over workplace deaths. Protesters lined up 172 cardboard coffins in Piazza La Scala on Friday to symbolize the exact number of workers who died on the job last year in the

CLINTON, Maine (AP) — Officials say a tractor-trailer hauling about 15 million bees to be used to pollinate blueberry fields crashed and overturned on Interstate 95 in Maine. A state police spokesperson said the bees were mostly contained and that the “goal was to save them” after the Thursday night crash. Bees are routinely trucked

By CHINEDU ASADU Associated Press ABUJA, Nigeria (AP) — Gunmen have abducted at least nine students from a school in northern Nigeria’s Kogi State. Authorities said Friday that the gunmen attacked the school late Thursday night and whisked away the students from their classrooms. The Kogi State Commissioner for Information said the state has “activated

By LIUDAS DAPKUS Associated Press VILNIUS, Lithuania (AP) — Lithuania is holding a presidential election on Sunday at a time when Russian gains on the battlefield in Ukraine are fueling greater fears across all of Europe about Moscow’s intentions. But the anxieties are particularly high in the strategically important Baltic region. The popular incumbent Gitanas

By MARCIA DUNN AP Aerospace Writer CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. (AP) — An unusually strong solar storm hitting Earth produced stunning displays of color in the skies across the Northern Hemisphere early Saturday, with no immediate reports of disruptions to power and communications. The U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration issued a rare severe geomagnetic storm

By PAN PYLAS Associated Press LONDON (AP) — A 75-year-old man has been sentenced to life in prison for the murder of a British police officer who was shot dead during an armed robbery of a travel agency in northern England nearly two decades ago. Piran Ditta Khan, who was convicted last month, was believed

TORONTO (AP) — The WNBA is reportedly heading to Toronto. The Canadian Broadcasting Corporation reports that the women’s professional basketball league has awarded a franchise to the Kilmer Group. The reported deal would have Toronto’s WNBA team start playing in May 2026. The WNBA did not confirm the report. The league says “we continue to

By LOLITA C. BALDOR and MATTHEW LEE Associated Press WASHINGTON (AP) — The U.S. has announced a new $400 million package of military aid for Ukraine. It includes a wide array of missiles for air defense systems and other munitions along with armored vehicles, boats and other weapons. The announcement Friday comes as Kyiv struggles

By KEN MILLER Associated Press OKLAHOMA CITY (AP) — An Oklahoma judge has found that 63-year-old death row inmate Wade Greely Lay is incompetent to be executed. District Judge Tim Mills on Thursday wrote that psychologists found that the prisoner has no “rational understanding” of why he is to be put to death. Defense attorney

By MARIA SHERMAN AP Music Writer NEW YORK (AP) — A lot can happen in two years. Just ask Grupo Frontera, who released their highly anticipated sophomore album, “Jugando Que No Pasa Nada,” Friday. The sextet began as a local band in Texas’ Rio Grande Valley, playing events like quinceañeras — a hobby for its

By CHRISTOPHER RUGABER AP Economics Writer WASHINGTON (AP) — Consumer sentiment fell sharply in May to the lowest level in six months as Americans cited concerns about stubbornly high inflation and interest rates and fears that unemployment could rise. The University of Michigan’s consumer sentiment index, released Friday in a preliminary version, dropped to 67.4

By WYATTE GRANTHAM-PHILIPS AP Business Writer NEW YORK (AP) — A newly released ad promoting Apple’s new iPad Pro has struck quite a nerve online. The ad, which was released by the tech giant Tuesday, shows a hydraulic press crushing just about every creative instrument artists and consumers have used over the years — from

By BASSEM MROUE and ABDULRAHMAN ZEYAD Associated Press BEIRUT (AP) — Syria’s U.S.-backed and Kurdish-led force has handed over to Baghdad two Islamic State group militants suspected of involvement in the 2014 massacre of Iraqi soldiers. A Syrian war monitor says Friday that the handover came a day after Iraq’s intelligence service said it had

By SCOTT BAUER Associated Press MADISON, Wis. (AP) — A federal judge has thrown out a lawsuit brought by Democrats that challenged Wisconsin’s witness requirements for absentee voting, a ruling that keeps the law in place with the presidential election six months away. The rules for voting in Wisconsin are of heightened interest given its

By MATTHEW BARAKAT Associated Press A Virginia school board voted Friday to restore the names of Confederate military leaders to a high school and an elementary school, four years after the names were removed amid nationwide protests calling for a reckoning over racial injustice. In a reversal experts believe was the first of its kind,

By GERALD IMRAY Associated Press CAPE TOWN, South Africa (AP) — A campaign video for South Africa’s opposition party showing the country’s flag in flames has stoked tensions and led to accusations of treason. The video was released three weeks ahead of what could be the most pivotal national election since the end of the

MANILA, Philippines (AP) — A top Philippine security official has demanded the immediate expulsion of Chinese diplomats allegedly behind a reported leak of a phone conversation between one of the diplomats and a Filipino admiral about South China Sea disputes that have strained diplomatic ties. National Security Adviser Eduardo Ano said Friday he was backing