AP National News

ISLAMABAD (AP) — Pakistan’s top body of clerics, which advises the government on religious issues, has declared the use of virtual private networks against Islamic laws as the government seeks to ban them. Critics said Monday that the weekend edict by the Islamic Council of Ideology is part of growing curbs on the freedom of

SYDNEY (AP) — Retired Sydney radio broadcaster and former Australian national rugby coach Alan Jones has been charged with multiple sex crimes against males over two decades. Police said Monday the 83-year-old Jones will appear in court next month on 24 charges relating to eight accusers from 2001 to 2019. The youngest was 17 when

Associated Press COLOMBO, Sri Lanka (AP) — Sri Lanka’s new Marxist-leaning president has sworn in a 22-member Cabinet after his party secured a two-thirds parliamentary majority in last week’s election. The margin of victory will allow President Anura Kumara Dissanayake to make sweeping reforms, including a campaign promise of a new constitution, without needing support

Associated Press CHIBA, Japan (AP) — An Australian accused of smuggling amphetamines in a suitcase has appeared in a Japanese court nearly two years after her arrest and said she was tricked into carrying them as part of an online romance scam. Donna Nelson from Perth, Australia, was arrested at Japan’s Narita International Airport just

Associated Press BAKU, Azerbaijan (AP) — United Nations climate talks resumed Monday with negotiators urged to make progress on a stalled-out deal that could see developing countries get more money to spend on clean energy and adapting to climate-charged weather extremes. U.N. Climate Change executive secretary Simon Stiell called for countries to “cut the theatrics

Associated Press BAKU, Azerbaijan (AP) — As leaders and negotiators grapple with big questions of money and power, youth COP attendees and activists from around the world grapple with their own questions about how much their voices matter. Behind their protests, speeches and presence at COP, they feel real pain about the climate impacts they

Associated Press MANILA, Philippines (AP) — Typhoon Man-yi left at least seven people dead in a landslide, destroyed houses and displaced large numbers of villagers before blowing away from the northern Philippines, worsening the crisis wreaked by multiple back-to-back storms, officials said Monday. Man-yi was one of the strongest of the six major storms to

LOS ANGELES (AP) — Beyoncé is coming to your home on Christmas — provided you have Netflix and are tuning in to the Baltimore Ravens-Houston Texans game. Netflix announced late Sunday that the megastar would perform during halftime of a Christmas Day matchup in her hometown of Houston. The streaming service didn’t reveal details about

Associated Press NEW DELHI (AP) — Authorities in India’s capital shut schools, halted construction and banned non-essential trucks from entering the city on Monday after air pollution shot up to its worst level this season. Residents of New Delhi woke up to thick, toxic smog enveloping the city of some 33 million as the air

Associated Press BEAUVAIS, France (AP) — French farmers escalated protests Monday against the European Union-Mercosur trade agreement under negotiation, citing fears of unfair competition. Backed by their government, they argue the deal would threaten their livelihoods by allowing a surge of South American agricultural imports produced under less stringent environmental standards. In Beauvais in northern

Associated Press LANSING, Mich. (AP) — Just a week after winning several of the nation’s largest Arab-majority cities, President-elect Donald Trump has filled top administration posts with staunch Israel supporters, including an ambassador to Israel who has claimed “there is no such thing as Palestinians.” Meanwhile, the two Trump advisers who led his outreach to

Associated Press KYIV, Ukraine (AP) — Before Russia’s invasion, this was an ordinary green lawn in the heart of Ukraine’s capital. Tourists would visit to take photos, and locals would stroll there on weekends. But 1,000 days of war have transformed it into a makeshift memorial, dotted with blue-and-yellow flags — each honoring a soldier

Associated Press WASHINGTON (AP) — Yu Miao smiles as he stands among the 10,000 books crowded on rows of bamboo shelves in his newly reopened bookstore. It’s in Washington’s vibrant Dupont Circle neighborhood, far from its last location in Shanghai, where the Chinese government forced him out of business six years ago. “There is no

Associated Press PROVO, Utah (AP) — This year’s successful 9-1 football season for Brigham Young University, the Utah private school run by the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, has an unexpected player at the helm: its first Jewish quarterback. Jake Retzlaff, a junior college transfer, has earned a hero’s embrace by rabbis and

AP Business Writer NEW YORK (AP) — Most U.S. stocks ticked higher Monday to recover some of their sharp slide from last week. The S&P 500 rose 0.4% for its first gain in three days. The Dow Jones Industrial Average slipped 55 points, or 0.1%, and the Nasdaq composite gained 0.6%. CVS Health rallied 5.4%

Associated Press FERGUS FALLS, Minn. (AP) — Two men put financial profit over human life when they attempted to smuggle a couple from India and their two young children across the U.S.-Canada border in heavy snow and bone-chilling winds, leading to the family freezing to death, prosecutors said Monday. Prosecutors allege Indian national Harshkumar Ramanlal

Associated Press MADISON, Wis. (AP) — The Wisconsin Supreme Court is grappling with a case affecting whether the swing state’s nonpartisan top elections official can remain in her post despite not being reappointed and confirmed by the state Senate. Republicans who control the state Senate tried to fire Wisconsin Elections Commission Administrator Meagan Wolfe last

Associated Press RIO DE JANEIRO (AP) — Brazil pushed for concerted action to alleviate hunger Monday as it hosted a summit of the Group of 20 leading economies amid global uncertainty over two major wars and incoming U.S. President-elect Donald Trump. Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva welcomed foreign leaders to Rio de Janeiro’s

CANBERRA, Australia (AP) — Australian senators on Monday voted to censure an Indigenous colleague who yelled at King Charles III during a reception in Parliament House last month. The censure of independent Sen. Lidia Thorpe is a symbolic gesture that records her colleagues’ disapproval of her conduct during the first visit to Australia by a

Associated Press DHAKA, Bangladesh (AP) — A special tribunal in Bangladesh on Monday told investigators they have one month to complete their work on ousted former Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina and her close aides, who face charges of crimes against humanity after hundreds of people were killed in a mass uprising this summer. Golam Mortuza