Year: 2024

By HYUNG-JIN KIM Associated Press SEOUL, South Korea (AP) — The powerful sister of North Korean leader Kim Jong Un has derided South Korea’s conservative president for being “foolishly brave,” but called his liberal predecessor “very smart.” Kim Yo Jong’s statements are likely aimed at trying to stoke a domestic divide in South Korea. She

By LESLIE AMBRIZ Associated Press LOS ANGELES (AP) — J.A. Bayona’s “Society of the Snow” provides a fresh look at the 1972 Andes plane crash, a tragic tale that’s been told many times. The film is based on journalist Pablo Vierci’s book of the same title on the Uruguayan Air Force plane disaster. The Old

SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico (AP) — A small daily newspaper in the U.S. Virgin Islands whose owner credited past generations of literate slaves for its survival is closing after 180 years in print. The St. Croix Avis published its first edition in 1844. The owner says the newspaper can no longer compete with social media

LEXINGTON, Ky. (AP) — A judge has ruled that a former county clerk who refused to issue marriage licenses to same-sex couples in Kentucky must pay up.  Kim Davis must pay a total of $260,104 in fees and expenses to attorneys who represented one couple. That’s in addition to $100,000 in damages a jury says

By OMAR FARUK Associated Press MOGADISHU, Somalia (AP) — Somalia’s president has rejected an agreement signed between Ethiopia and the breakaway region of Somaliland to give landlocked Ethiopia access to its coast. President Hassan Sheikh Mohamud asserts that the agreement is a violation of international law. The deal would allow Ethiopia to lease a 20-kilometer

By NICHOLAS RICCARDI and COLLEEN SLEVIN Associated Press DENVER (AP) — A man leaving the scene of a car wreck Tuesday shot his way into the Colorado Supreme Court building and inflicted “extensive damage” to the building before being arrested by police, authorities said, adding the incident seems unrelated to the court’s recent ruling banning

By BASSEM MROUE Associated Press BEIRUT (AP) — An explosion in Beirut on Tuesday killed Saleh Arouri, a top official with the Palestinian militant group Hamas and three others, officials with Hamas and the Lebanese group Hezbollah said. Lebanon’s state-run National News Agency said the blast killed four people and was carried out by an

By NICHOLAS RICCARDI and DAVID SHARP Associated Press PORTLAND, Maine (AP) — Former President Donald Trump on Tuesday appealed a ruling by Maine’s secretary of state barring him from the state’s primary ballot over his role in the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol. Trump, the early front-runner for the 2024 Republican presidential

ROCHESTER, N.Y. (AP) — Police say a man who died after crashing an SUV loaded with gas cans outside an upstate New York concert venue appeared to have been aiming at a pedestrian crossing. But investigators have found no evidence that the crash that killed two ride-share passengers early on New Year’s Day was terror-related.

SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico (AP) — Basdeo Panday, a former prime minister of Trinidad and Tobago who was the first person of Indian descent to hold that position, has died. He was 90. His daughter posted on social media that Panday died on Monday. Panday served as prime minister from 1995 to 2001. Those were

By MARIA DI MENTO of The Chronicle of Philanthropy Chronicle of Philanthropy Investment guru Warren Buffett topped The Chronicle of Philanthropy’s annual list of the biggest charitable donations in 2023, with his $541.5 million gift to the Susan Thompson Buffett Foundation, named for his first wife, who died in 2004. The 2023 list of gifts

By KRISHAN FRANCIS Associated Press COLOMBO, Sri Lanka (AP) — A group of Rohingya refugees living in Sri Lanka has staged a protest outside the office of the U.N. refugee agency. They say they fear losing their living allowance once the agency’s office in the island nation closes at the end of this year. The

MADRID (AP) — A Spanish man who spent 15 months in an Iranian prison after visiting the tomb of Mahsa Amini has returned home to Madrid after being released. Santiago Sánchez Cogedor was on a solo walking trek to the men’s soccer World Cup in Qatar when he was arrested in Iran in October 2022.

By MARÍA TERESA HERNÁNDEZ Associated Press SANTO DOMINGO, Dominican Republic (AP) — The Dominican Republic is one of four Latin American nations that criminalizes abortion without exceptions. Women face up to 2 years in prison for having an abortion, while the penalties for doctors or midwives range from 5 to 20 years. Abortion rights activists

By MARÍA TERESA HERNÁNDEZ Associated Press AZUA, Dominican Republic (AP) — It was a busy Saturday morning at Marcia González’s church. A bishop was visiting, and normally she would have been there helping with logistics, but on this day she was teaching sex education at a local school. “I coordinate activities at the church and

By JARI TANNER Associated Press HELSINKI (AP) — Finland and Sweden recorded their coldest temperatures of the winter Tuesday when thermometers plummeted as low as minus 40 degrees Celsius (minus 40 Fahrenheit) as a cold spell grips the Nordic region. Cold and snow disrupted transportation throughout the region, including in Norway where a major highway

By ALANA BENSON of NerdWallet I never wanted to be a vegetarian, and definitely not a vegan, but after seeing a family member change their diet for health reasons and enjoy some incredible results, I decided to give it a shot. I’ve noticed some health benefits myself, but the biggest change has been in my

BANGKOK (AP) — Thailand’s Prime Minister Srettha Thavisin says his country and China will soon implement visa-free entry for each other’s citizens. Srettha said Tuesday that Chinese nationals will be granted visa-free entry on a permanent basis beginning March 1. Chinese visitors have been allowed visa-free entry since September last year, but the privilege was