Month: May 2024

By FARNOUSH AMIRI, ALANNA DURKIN RICHER and COLLEEN LONG Associated Press WASHINGTON (AP) — Two House committees have moved ahead with contempt charges against Attorney General Merrick Garland for refusing to turn over audio from President Joe Biden’s interview with a special counsel. The votes Thursday follow the White House’s decision to block the release

By CHINEDU ASADU Associated Press ABUJA, Nigeria (AP) — Police in Nigeria say at least eight worshippers were killed and 16 others injured in northern Nigeria’s Kano state after a man with a locally made explosive attacked the mosque where they were praying early Wednesday morning. A police spokesman said the suspect, a 38-year-old local

By LUIS ANDRES HENAO Associated Press HAVANA (AP) — The 1959 Castro-led revolution installed an atheist, Communist government that sought to replace the Catholic Church as the guiding force in the lives of Cubans. But 65 years later, religion seems omnipresent in Cuba, in dazzling diversity. The bells toll on Catholic churches and the call

By EUGENE HOSHIKO and MARI YAMAGUCHI Associated Press YOKOSUKA, Japan (AP) — A U.S. Navy strike group’s flagship aircraft carrier has left its Japanese home port, wrapping up nearly nine years of deployment in the Indo-Pacific, where it served a key role in the U.S. effort to bolster defense ties with Japan and other partners

By GLENN GAMBOA AP Business Writer NEW YORK (AP) — White men are most likely to lead the largest, best-funded nonprofits, while women of color tend to lead the organizations with the fewest financial resources, according to a study from the nonprofit data research organization Candid released Thursday. “The State of Diversity in the U.S.

By GRANT PECK Associated Press BANGKOK (AP) — Human Rights Watch is urging the Thai government to stop forcing political dissidents who fled to Thailand for safety to return to homelands where they may face torture, persecution or death. The international rights group analyzed 25 cases over nine years and said Thai authorities violated international

WARSAW, Poland (AP) — Poland’s prosecutors say they have put a controversial judge who fled to autocratic Belarus on a wanted list, a step toward entering him on an international arrest warrant on espionege allegations. A spokesperson for the national prosecutor’s office said Thursday the search for judge Tomasz Szmydt had been launched. Even if

By KELVIN CHAN AP Business Writer LONDON (AP) — The European Union opened fresh investigations into Facebook and Instagram over suspicions that they’re failing to protect children online, in violation of the bloc’s strict digital regulations for social media platforms. It’s the latest round of scrutiny for parent company Meta Platforms under the 27-nation EU’s

NEW YORK (AP) — With court adjourned for the day, legal arguments are ongoing about the parameters of potential testimony from a campaign finance law expert the defense wants to call as a witness. Former President Donald Trump’s lawyers have said they may call Bradley A. Smith, a former Bill Clinton-appointed Republican Federal Election Commission

By ILLIA NOVIKOV Associated Press KYIV, Ukraine (AP) — Military officials in Ukraine say their units locked in street battles with the Kremlin’s forces in a northeastern Ukrainian town have halted the Russian advance. Even so, a senior Moscow official said Russia’s recent frontline push has enough resources to keep going. Vovchansk, located just 5

By EDNA TARIGAN Associated Press JAKARTA, Indonesia (AP) — Indonesian authorities have raised the alert level for Mount Ibu, a volcano in North Maluku province, to the highest level following a series of eruptions since last week. The volcano has been spewing thick grey ash and dark clouds up to 5,000 meters (16,400 feet) into

By SOPHIKO MEGRELIDZE Associated Press TBILISI, Georgia (AP) — A controversial media bill passed this week by Georgia’s parliament is “unacceptable” and will be vetoed, President Salome Zourabichvili said Thursday, reaffirming her opposition to a measure that critics describe as a threat to free speech. In an interview with The Associated Press, Zourabichvili harshly criticized

BERLIN (AP) — German lawmakers have lifted the immunity from prosecution of one of the far-right Alternative for Germany party’s top candidates in the upcoming European Parliament election as he faces an investigation. The German parliament’s lower house, or Bundestag, voted to lift Petr Bystron’s immunity to clear the way for searches in connection with

By COREY WILLIAMS and MIKE SCHNEIDER Associated Press DETROIT (AP) — America’s Northeast and Midwest cities are rebounding slightly from years of population drops — especially Detroit, which grew for the first time in decades — though the South still dominates the nation’s growth, according to U.S. Census Bureau estimates released Thursday. Detroit, Michigan’s largest

By MARGIE MASON and ROBIN McDOWELL Associated Press A sweeping Associated Press investigation into prison labor in the United States found that prisoners who are hurt or killed on the job are often being denied the rights and protections offered to other American workers. These prisoners are being placed in dangerous jobs, sometimes with little

By MARGIE MASON and ROBIN McDOWELL Associated Press PHOENIX (AP) — Blas Sanchez was nearing the end of a 20-year stretch in an Arizona prison when he was leased out to work at Hickman’s Family Farms, which sells eggs that have ended up in the supply chains of huge companies like McDonald’s, Target and Albertsons.

By BARBARA SURK and ALEX TURNBULL Associated Press PARIS (AP) — Violence is raging across New Caledonia for the third consecutive day. France has imposed a state of emergency in the French Pacific territory. Authorities boosted security forces’ powers to quell deadly unrest in the archipelago, where some residents have long sought independence from France.

By JOHN O’CONNOR AP Political Writer SPRINGFIELD, Ill. (AP) — In Illinois, 114,000 people are banned from owning guns because of legal tangles or mental health issues. Cook County Sheriff Tom Dart will issue a report Thursday showing that three-quarters of them have not surrendered their firearms. The Democratic sheriff is seeking $10 million from

NONTHABURI, Thailand (AP) — Dozens of pro-cannabis advocates in Thailand gathered at the health ministry on Thursday to oppose the government’s plan to relist it as narcotics, two years after it was decriminalized. The rally came after Prime Minister Srettha Thavisin last week said he would like the plant to be relisted as narcotics again

By ELENA BECATOROS Associated Press ATHENS, Greece (AP) — The legal defense team for nine Egyptian men due to go on trial in southern Greece next week accused of causing one of the Mediterranean’s deadliest shipwrecks say they will argue Greece has no jurisdiction in the case. The lawyers also insisted on Thursday that their

By HYUNG-JIN KIM Associated Press SEOUL, South Korea (AP) — A South Korean court has ruled in favor of the government’s contentious plan to drastically boost medical school admissions. A standoff between the government and doctors opposed to the plan has shaken the country’s medical system for months. More than 10,000 junior doctors have been

COPENHAGEN, Denmark (AP) — Finland’s national carrier Finnair is resuming flights to Estonia’s second largest city in June after two of its planes were prevented from landing in Tartu last month because of GPS disruptions. The cause of the GPS interference that forced the two flights to return to Helsinki on April 25 and April

By YURI KAGEYAMA AP Business Writer TOKYO (AP) — Japanese automaker Honda is reaffirming its commitment to electric vehicles, investing 10 trillion yen, or $65 billion, through fiscal 2031. The company says that by 2030, battery EVs and fuel cell EVs will make up 40% of Honda’s global auto sales. Global production capacity will be

KELVIN CHAN AP Business Writer LONDON (AP) — They appear like ghosts in the night, standing outside your house, one holding up an antenna while the other crouches next to the car parked on the driveway. Within seconds, your car is gone, yet another victim amid a surge in auto theft enabled by the technology