Month: May 2023

By HILLEL ITALIE AP National Writer NEW YORK (AP) — The independent bookselling community continues to grow, with membership in the American Booksellers Association reaching its highest levels in more than 20 years. Three years after the pandemic shut down most of the physical bookstores in the U.S. and the independent community feared hundreds might

By MOGOMOTSI MAGOME Associated Press JOHANNESBURG (AP) — A man has been arrested in South Africa for allegedly distributing pornographic images with the faces of the president, the country’s minister of police and the minister’s wife superimposed on them. Police say the images were distributed to police officers and members of the public on social

By VANESSA GERA Associated Press WARSAW, Poland (AP) — A member of the Belarus opposition movement is calling on the European Union to maintain sanctions against a Belarusian state fertilizer producer. Pavel Latushka argued Monday that lifting sanctions would generate $1.5 billion in profits for Alexander Lukashenko’s regime while supporting Russia’s war against Ukraine. Latushka

By SAMYA KULLAB Associated Press KYIV, Ukraine (AP) — Two Ukrainian war veterans who lost limbs in the 2014 war with Russia have taken part in a walk to raise money for medical equipment. The pair started from the cities of Zhytomyr and Kyiv and walked toward each other, covering a total of 120 kilometers

By KELVIN CHAN AP Business Writer LONDON (AP) — The European Union slapped Meta with a record $1.3 billion privacy fine Monday and ordered it to stop transferring users’ personal information across the Atlantic by October, the latest salvo in a decadelong case sparked by U.S. cybersnooping fears. The penalty of 1.2 billion euros is

LAKES OF THE FOUR SEASONS, Ind. (AP) — A hand grenade found as a family went through an older relative’s belongings exploded, killing an Indiana man and injuring his two teenage children, police said. The explosion fatally injured the 47-year-old man Saturday evening at the home in the community of Lakes of the Four Seasons

By GIOVANNA DELL’ORTO Associated Press HOLMAN, N.M. (AP) — On a spring Saturday afternoon, two “hermanos” knelt to pray in the chapel of their Catholic brotherhood of St. Isidore the Farmer, nestled by the pine forest outside this hamlet in a high mountain valley. Fidel Trujillo and Leo Paul Pacheco’s words resounded in New Mexican

By BISWAJEET BANERJEE and SIBI ARASU Associated Press LUCKNOW, India (AP) — Swathes of India are bracing for more scorching heat, with New Delhi under a severe weather alert, as extreme temperatures strike parts of the country. Weather officials issued a heat wave alert for seven southern and central states last week and broadened it

By CIARÁN GILES Associated Press MADRID (AP) — Spain is set to unveil what is touted as one of Europe’s cultural highlights of the year with the opening in Madrid of The Royal Collections Gallery next month. The Gallery, housed in a swanky new museum, will feature master paintings, tapestries, sculptures, decorative art pieces, armory

By JIM HEINTZ Associated Press TALLINN, Estonia (AP) — The Belarusian state news agency on Monday reported that a dissident journalist who was pulled off a flight that was forced to land in the country and was later sentenced to eight years in prison says he has received a presidential pardon. Raman Pratasevich was quoted