Month: December 2021

By JILL LAWLESS Associated Press LONDON (AP) — Foreign ministers from the Group of Seven industrialized nations are gathering for a weekend in Liverpool, with the British hosts seeking elusive unity to ease growing tensions with Russia, China and Iran. U.K. Foreign Secretary Liz Truss is due to greet U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken

By NICOLE WINFIELD Associated Press ROME (AP) — Pope Francis has told Catholic jurists that they must strongly defend basic human rights in their work, even as his own prosecutors stand accused of violating the basic rights of the defense in a big Vatican fraud trial. Francis met Friday with Italian Catholic jurists. He said

By GRANT PECK Associated Press BANGKOK (AP) — Opponents of military rule in Myanmar have held one of their biggest nationally coordinated protests in months, successfully calling on people across the country to shut their businesses and stay at home on International Human Rights Day. The “silent strike” was staged in cities and towns from

By VANESSA GERA and FRANK JORDANS Associated Press WARSAW, Poland (AP) — Germany’s new foreign minister has voiced solidarity with Poland while also calling for humanitarian treatment of migrants and refugees stuck near the country’s border with Belarus as temperatures plummet. German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock also raised the delicate matter of rule of law

YEREVAN, Armenia (AP) — Armenia’s parliament has passed a law that would allow employers to fire those who refuse to provide proof of vaccination against COVID-19 or a negative test result. Russia’s ex-Soviet neighbor has some of the lowest vaccination rates in the Caucasus region. Friday’s rule follows an August order by the ministry of

By HILLEL ITALIE AP National Writer NEW YORK (AP) — In 2021, few in the publishing industry worried that no one cared about books anymore. Sometimes, people seemed to care too much. A 22-year-old poet became a literary star. And the enthusiasms of young people on TikTok helped revive Madeline Miller’s “The Song of Achilles”

By MARTIN CRUTSINGER AP Economics Writer WASHINGTON (AP) — Prices for U.S. consumers jumped 6.8% in November compared with a year earlier as surging costs for food, energy, housing and other items left Americans enduring their highest annual inflation rate since 1982. The Labor Department also reported Friday that from October to November, prices jumped

By JAN M. OLSEN Associated Press COPENHAGEN, Denmark (AP) — The two journalists who shared this year’s Nobel Peace Prize have received their awards during a pomp-filled ceremony in Norway. Maria Ressa of the Philippines and fellow laureate Dmitry Muratov of Russia gave their Nobel lectures at Oslo City Hall on Friday. Both warned that

By JOE McDONALD AP Business Writer BEIJING (AP) — Chinese leaders have promised tax cuts and support for entrepreneurs to shore up slumping economic growth as the country grapples with a wave of bankruptcies and defaults among real estate developers caused by a campaign to rein in surging debt. A statement issued after a planning

BERLIN (AP) — German media have reported that police in the northern city of Hamburg arrested a suspected extremist in the summer who planned to carry out an attack. Hamburg-based weekly Der Spiegel reported Friday that a 20-year-old German-Moroccan citizen was arrested in August after trying to buy a weapon and a hand grenade online.