Month: May 2023

By CIARÁN GILES and JENNIFER O’MAHONY Associated Press MADRID (AP) — Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez has called an early general election for July 23 in a surprise move after his Socialist party took a serious battering in local and regional elections. Sánchez had previously insisted that he would ride out his four-year term with

By MONIKA SCISLOWSKA Associated Press WARSAW, Poland (AP) — Poland’s president says he will sign a bill that creates a commission to investigate Russian influence in Poland. It is a move that critics view as a tool to target political opponents of the ruling party especially opposition leader Donald Tusk. The law proposed by the

By JON GAMBRELL Associated Press DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) — Iran’s supreme leader says he’d “welcome” the restoration of full diplomatic ties between Egypt and the Islamic Republic. The comments Monday raise the prospect of Cairo and Tehran normalizing relations after decades of strain. Iranian state television quoted Khamenei’s comments as coming from a

By RODNEY MUHUMUZA Associated Press KAMPALA, Uganda (AP) — Uganda’s president has signed into law anti-gay legislation supported by many in this East African country but widely condemned by rights activists and others abroad. The version of the bill signed by President Yoweri Museveni doesn’t criminalize those who identify as LGBTQ+, a key concern for

ROME (AP) — Two U.N. agencies are warning of rising food emergencies including starvation in Sudan due to the outbreak of war and in Haiti, Burkina Faso and Mali due to restricted movements of people and goods. The four countries join Afghanistan, Nigeria, Somalia, South Sudan and Yemen at the highest alert levels, with communities

KUALA LUMPUR, Malaysia (AP) — Malaysia’s maritime agency says it has detained a Chinese-registered vessel on suspicion of looting two British warship wrecks in the South China Sea. It says it found a World War II-era cannon shell aboard the barge carrier. Malaysian media reported that illegal salvage operators were believed to have targeted the

By BINAJ GURUBACHARYA Associated Press KATHMANDU, Nepal (AP) — Nepal’s government honored record-holding climbers Monday during celebrations of the first ascent of Mount Everest 70 years ago. The celebrations come amid a growing concern about temperatures rising, glaciers and snow melting, and weather being harsh and unpredictable on the world’s tallest mountain. Hundreds of people

By TIA GOLDENBERG Associated Press TEL AVIV, Israel (AP) — Jewish settlers in the occupied West Bank have built a religious school at a dismantled outpost. The announcement Monday comes after Israel’s far-right government in March repealed a 2005 act that dismantled four West Bank settlements and banned Israelis from reentering the areas. Homesh, the

By THOMAS ADAMSON and JENNIFER McDERMOTT Associated Press PARIS (AP) — A United Nations committee is meeting in Paris to work on what is intended to be a landmark treaty to bring an end to global plastic pollution, but there is little agreement on what the outcome should be. The self-named “high ambition coalition” of

By CHINEDU ASADU ABUJA, Nigeria Associated Press (AP) — The new president of Nigeria has taken over the reins of power. Bola Tinubu was sworn in as president of Africa’s most populous nation on Monday. The 71-year-old Tinubu took over from Muhammadu Buhari following elections in February. Tinubu takes office at a time when many

By ROD McGUIRK Associated Press CANBERRA, Australia (AP) — The Australian branch of the PricewaterhouseCoopers consultancy network has ordered nine partners to go on leave while an inquiry examines the leaking of confidential Australian tax avoidance policy changes to corporate clients who could benefit from the information. PwC’s acting chief executive Kristin Stubbins apologized Monday

MILAN (AP) — Italian firefighters say that they have recovered four bodies from a northern Italian lake after a tourist boat capsized in a sudden, violent storm. Divers searched through the night after a whirlwind overturned the boat carrying 21 tourists and crew of two on Italy’s Lake Maggiore on Sunday evening. The final body

By KEVIN McGILL Associated Press NEW ORLEANS (AP) — Evangelisto Ramos walked out of a New Orleans courthouse and away from a life sentence accompanying a 10-2 jury conviction, thanks in large part to the landmark U.S. Supreme Court decision bearing his name. Ramos v. Louisiana outlawed nonunanimous jury convictions as unconstitutional, with justices on

By SAMYA KULLAB Associated Press KYIV, Ukraine (AP) — The attacks come at night, when most in Kyiv are sound asleep. The sirens wail across the Ukrainian capital, rousing bleary-eyed residents, who, after 15 months of war, have customized individual routines to cope with Russia’s latest air campaign. In the recent escalation of Russian attacks,

By RADUL RADOVANOVIC and LLAZAR SEMINI Associated Press ZVECAN, Kosovo (AP) — The NATO-led KFOR peacekeeping force say that 25 of its troops were injured in the clashes with ethnic Serbs in northern Kosovo who were trying to take over the offices of one of the municipalities where ethnic Albanian mayors took up their posts

By JENNIFER SINCO KELLEHER Associated Press EWA BEACH, Hawaii (AP) — Brian Keaulana is the quintessential Native Hawaiian waterman, well-known in Hawaii and beyond for his deep understanding of the ocean, gifted with surfing and lifeguarding skills passed down from his big-wave rider father. Now, as one of the islands’ standard-bearers of surfing, Keaulana wants