Month: August 2021

TIRANA, Albania (AP) — Albanian police have arrested two people for allegedly hurling tear gas canisters during a concert by a Bosnian Serb musician whom many in the country accuse of not condemning the 1998-1999 war in Kosovo. A statement said Redon Leka, 21, was arrested after hurling a tear gas canister while songwriter Goran

By NINIEK KARMINI Associated Press JAKARTA, Indonesia (AP) — Indonesia’s anti-graft court has sentenced a former Cabinet minister to 12 years in prison for bribery related to the distribution of coronavirus aid. Juliari Peter Batubara was arrested in December a day after an anticorruption commission foiled an attempt to hand over seven suitcases and backpacks

By MARI YAMAGUCHI Associated Press TOKYO (AP) — Japan is sending three military aircraft to Afghanistan to evacuate Japanese citizens and local staff as security deteriorates following the Taliban takeover. Defense Minister Nobuo Kishi says the planes will pick up Japanese nationals and Afghans who worked for the Japanese Embassy and development agencies. Japan closed

By ALEXANDRA JAFFE Associated Press SINGAPORE (AP) — Vice President Kamala Harris asserted Monday that the U.S. must maintain its focus on evacuating Americans and vulnerable Afghans and shouldn’t get distracted by questions over what went wrong in the chaotic U.S. exit from Afghanistan. Speaking at a news conference in Singapore, Harris repeatedly declined to

By ELENA BECATOROS Associated Press ATHENS, Greece (AP) — Despite strong winds, firefighting aircraft and ground forces in Greece gained the upper hand late Monday over two new blazes that broke out in areas already scarred by major wildfires this summer. The first broke out Monday morning in the southern part of Evia, Greece’s second-largest

By ZEINA KARAM Associated Press A few years after the Taliban were ousted in 2001, and with Afghanistan still in ruins, Ahmad Sarmast left his home in Melbourne, Australia, on a mission: to revive music in the country of his birth. The school he founded was a unique experiment in inclusiveness for the war-ravaged nation

By NICK PERRY and ROD McGUIRK Associated Press WELLINGTON, New Zealand (AP) — New Zealand’s government on Monday said it will extend a strict nationwide lockdown until at least Friday as it tries to extinguish a growing coronavirus outbreak. The news came as health authorities reported 35 new local infections of the fast-spreading delta variant,

By JOSEF FEDERMAN Associated Press JERUSALEM (AP) — A leading international human rights group says Israeli airstrikes that demolished four high-rise buildings in the Gaza Strip during a May war apparently violated international laws of war. Human Rights Watch on Monday called on the Israeli military to produce evidence justifying the attacks. The New York-based