AP National News

JOHANNESBURG (AP) — The government of Mauritius on Friday banned access to social media websites ahead of parliamentary elections later this month. The directive was announced by the national communications regulator, which said social media sites will be banned until Nov. 11, the day after the election, in which Prime Minister Pravind Jugnauth is seeking

Associated Press DHAKA, Bangladesh (AP) — Tens of thousands of minority Hindus have rallied to demand that the interim government in Muslim-majority Bangladesh protect them from a wave of attacks and harassment and to drop sedition cases against Hindu community leaders. About 30,000 Hindus demonstrated at a major intersection in the southeastern city of Chattogram,

Associated Press NOVI SAD, Serbia (AP) — Officials say a roof collapse at a railway station in northern Serbia has killed at least 14 people. The concrete roof at the entrance to the station in the city of Novi Sad came down on Friday morning. That’s according to Interior Minister Ivica Dacic who says three

Associated Press BERLIN (AP) — A noted Belarusian film director and dissident who was held in Serbia for a year while Belarus sought his extradition has been released and gone to Germany. Andrei Hniot told The Associated Press that Serbian authorities released him from house arrest on Thursday, exactly a year after he was detained.

Associated Press ANKARA, Turkey (AP) — The mother thought her baby looked healthy when he was born 1.5 months early, but staff swiftly whisked him to the neonatal intensive care unit. It was the last time Burcu Gokdeniz would see her baby alive. The doctor in charge told her that Umut Ali’s heart stopped after

AP National Writer NEW YORK (AP) — Jodi Picoult’s “Nineteen Minutes” has topped a list compiled by PEN America of the books most often pulled from school shelves. Other works include John Green’s “Looking for Alaska,” Alice Walker’s “The Color Purple,” Margaret Atwood’s “The Handmaid’s Tale,” Toni Morrison’s “The Bluest Eye” and several novels by

Associated Press THE HAGUE, Netherlands (AP) — Thieves blew open the door of an art gallery in the southern Netherlands and stole two works from a famous series of screen prints by American pop artist Andy Warhol and left two more badly damaged in the street as they fled the scene of the botched heist,

AP Entertainment Writer NEW YORK (AP) — A eclectic group of stars — including reality TV’s Ariana Madix, Broadway belter Idina Menzel, hip-hop’s T-Pain, members of the WNBA champions New York Liberty and country duo Dan + Shay — will feature in this year’s Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade. Music performers The War and Treaty, Lea

Associated Press BEIRUT (AP) — Israel launched dozens of intense airstrikes across Lebanon’s northeastern farming villages on Friday, killing at least 52 people and wounding scores more, the Lebanese Health Ministry reported. In central Gaza, Palestinians recovered the bodies of 25 people killed in a barrage of Israeli aerial attacks that began Thursday, hospital officials

LONDON (AP) — Collins Dictionary has declared “brat” – the album title that became a summer-living ideal – its 2024 word of the year. The word, used by singer Charli XCX as the title of her sixth studio album, has been defined as “characterized by a confident, independent, and hedonistic attitude.” Collins lexicographers said on

Russia’s top diplomat on Friday met his North Korean counterpart for talks amid reports that Pyongyang has sent thousands of troops to Russia to support its military in the war in Ukraine. Foreign Minister Choe Son Hui’s visit to Moscow and her meeting with Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov came on the heels of the

ORLANDO, Fla. (AP) — A gunman who opened fire during a Halloween street celebration that drew thousands of costumed revelers to downtown Orlando killed two people and wounded seven others early Friday, authorities said. Officers quickly arrested a 17-year-old male suspect, police Chief Eric Smith said during a briefing. Authorities have not yet determined a

Associated Press WARSAW, Poland (AP) — Christians in many countries around the world are celebrating All Saints’ Day, a somber and spiritual day in the church’s liturgical calendar that shares pagan roots with Halloween. Believers and non-believers alike will gather on Friday with family, sweep fallen leaves off the graves of their loved ones and

Associated Press CHIVA, Spain. (AP) — Mud cakes her boots, splatters her leggings and the gloves holding her broom. Brown specks freckle her cheeks. The mire covering Alicia Montero is the signature uniform of the impromptu army of volunteers who, for a third day Friday, shoveled and swept out the muck and debris that filled

ATHENS, Greece (AP) — Greek police say that an explosion in an Athens apartment that killed a man and severely wounded a woman appears to have been caused by an improvised bomb. Authorities said on Friday that police searching the wrecked apartment seized two handguns and ammunition, as well as mobile phones and other “digital

Associated Press DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) — Colm McLoughlin, an Irishman who landed in the deserts of the United Arab Emirates and helped lead Dubai Duty Free into becoming an airport retail behemoth generating billions of dollars a year, has died. He was 81. McLoughlin ran Dubai Duty Free from 1983 until he retired

Associated Press NAIROBI, Kenya (AP) — Kenya’s new deputy president has been sworn into office, two weeks after his predecessor was overwhelmingly voted out in an impeachment motion in parliament over allegations of corruption and inciting ethnic division. Kindiki Kithure took office on Friday after a colorful event in the capital, Nairobi attended by government

ALGIERS, Algeria (AP) — Algeria has pardoned a journalist who emerged as a key voice during the country’s 2019 pro-democracy protests and was later imprisoned for taking foreign funding for his media outlets and threatening state security. Ihsane El Kadi was released from prison on Thursday evening along with eight others who were imprisoned after

MOSCOW (AP) — A court in Russia’s far-eastern city of Vladivostok has convicted a former U.S. consulate worker charged with cooperating with a foreign state and sentenced him to four years and 10 months in prison. Robert Shonov, a Russian citizen and former employee of the U.S. Consulate in Vladivostok, was arrested in May 2023.

BEIJING (AP) — The United States, Germany and France have called for the release of a Chinese human rights lawyer and his wife who were sentenced to prison this week. On Tuesday, a court in Suzhou sentenced lawyer Yu Wensheng to three years’ detention and his wife, Xu Yan, to one year and nine months

AP Business Writer NEW YORK (AP) — Amazon led U.S. stock indexes higher on Friday, while a surprisingly weak jobs report marred by some unusual occurrences cemented bets on Wall Street for another cut to interest rates next week. The S&P 500 rose 0.4% to recover some of its loss from the day before, which

Associated Press QUETTA, Pakistan (AP) — A powerful bomb attached to a motorcycle has exploded near a vehicle carrying police officers assigned to protect polio workers in restive southwest Pakistan, killing nine  people including five nearby children. A police official says the attack occurred Friday in Mastung in Balochistan province. He says a motorized rickshaw

Associated Press GABORONE, Botswana (AP) — Botswana’s President Mokgweetsi Masisi has conceded defeat in the general election, in a seismic moment of change for the country that ended the ruling party’s 58 years in power since independence from Britain in the 1960s. Masisi’s concession came before final results were announced on Friday, with his Botswana