NEW YORK (AP) — U.S. stocks are holding firmer, a day after tumbling on worries that interest rates may stay high for a while. The S&P 500 was up 0.2% early Thursday. The Dow rose 56 points, and the Nasdaq composite was 0.4% higher. In the bond market, which has been driving much of Wall
Continue ReadingBy PAUL WISEMAN AP Economics Writer WASHINGTON (AP) — U.S. producer prices rose in March from a year earlier at the fastest pace in nearly a year, offering more evidence that progress against inflation may have stalled this year and raising doubts about whether and when the Federal Reserve will start cutting interest rates. The
Continue ReadingBy MAKIYA SEMINERA Associated Press RALEIGH, N.C (AP) — The North Carolina Supreme Court is scheduled to hear oral arguments related to voter fraud allegations made after the 2016 election. The Thursday hearing may set the stage for how partisan officials can pursue claims of voter fraud in future state elections. A group of four
Continue ReadingTALLINN, Estonia (AP) — A Belarusian man who was in jail awaiting trial on charges of insulting the authoritarian president has died in custody. The country’s leading human rights group says Aliaksandr Kulinich, 51, died Tuesday in a detention center in the western city of Brest that is notorious for harsh treatment of opposition activists.
Continue ReadingMILAN (AP) — Firefighters in Italy say that divers have discovered two more bodies of workers who died in an explosion that collapsed and flooded several levels of an underground hydroelectric plant earlier this week, bringing to five the number of confirmed dead. The explosion Tuesday at the Enel Green Power plant near Bologna occurred
Continue ReadingBy COLLEEN NEWVINE Associated Press If you daydream about getting a break from stress, you might picture a restful week of vacation or a long weekend away. But some folks have found ways to take longer or more varied time away from the routine. Maybe it’s extended leave from a job. Or just working remotely
Continue ReadingBy JAKE COYLE AP Film Writer New films from Yorgos Lanthimos, Andrea Arnold and Francis Ford Coppola, as well as a portrait of 1980s Donald Trump, will compete for the Palme d’Or at the 77th Cannes Film Festival next month, organizers announced Thursday. Thierry Frémaux, Cannes’s artistic director who announced the selections in a news
Continue ReadingBy JAKE COYLE AP Film Writer New films from Yorgos Lanthimos, Andrea Arnold and Francis Ford Coppola, as well as a portrait of 1980s Donald Trump, will compete for the Palme d’Or at the 77th Cannes Film Festival next month, organizers announced Thursday. Thierry Frémaux, Cannes’s artistic director who announced the selections in a news
Continue ReadingBy Taylor Nicioli, CNN (CNN) — Parrots are smart, with some species found to have the problem-solving skills of a young child. So if small kids can use technology in some capacity, why can’t parrots? Researchers aiming to answer why parrots should use technology for cognitive enrichment set out to answer just how tablets could be improved
Continue ReadingBy The Associated Press Amazon is adding artificial intelligence visionary Andrew Ng to its board of directors, a move that comes amid intense AI competition among startups and big technology companies. The Seattle company said Thursday that Ng, a managing director at the Palo Alto, California-based AI Fund, will replace a seat vacated by Judy
Continue ReadingBy PAUL WISEMAN AP Economics Writer WASHINGTON (AP) — U.S. producer prices rose in March from a year earlier at the fastest pace in nearly a year, offering more evidence that progress against inflation may have stalled this year and raising doubts about whether and when the Federal Reserve will start cutting interest rates. The
Continue ReadingBy ANIRUDDHA GHOSAL Associated Press HANOI, Vietnam (AP) — A Vietnamese real estate tycoon has been sentenced to death in the country’s biggest ever financial fraud case. It’s a shocking development in an intensifying anti-corruption drive in the southeast Asian nation. Truong My Lan is a high-profile businesswoman who chaired a sprawling company that developed
Continue ReadingBy MONIKA SCISLOWSKA and RAFAL NIEDZIELSKI Associated Press WARSAW, Poland (AP) — Many kids in Poland are rejoicing over strict limits imposed by the government on the amount of homework. Teachers and parents aren’t so sure. The decree says teachers can’t give required homework to kids in the first to third grades. For grades four
Continue ReadingBy MATT OTT AP Business Writer WASHINGTON (AP) — Fewer Americans applied for jobless benefits last week as the labor market continues to thrive despite the Federal Reserve’s efforts to cool it. The Labor Department reported Thursday that filings for unemployment claims for the week ending April 6 fell by 11,000 to 211,000 from the
Continue ReadingROME (AP) — Archaeologists excavating new sites in Pompeii have uncovered a sumptuous banquet hall decorated with intricately frescoed mythological characters inspired by the Trojan War. The banquet hall was used for refined entertaining and features black walls, a technique that prevented the smoke from oil lamps to be seen. The hall was uncovered as
Continue ReadingCOPENHAGEN, Denmark (AP) — An academic probe says that Norway’s Health Minister Ingvild Kjerkol plagiarized parts of her masters’ degree thesis three years ago. It’s the second such case this year in the Norwegian government and the latest allegation of unethical behavior to rock the center-left government. The investigation by Nord University in Bodoe, northern
Continue ReadingBERLIN (AP) — Authorities say an avalanche near the Austrian ski resort of Soelden has left two people dead. Another two people were rescued from under the snow Thursday. The mountain rescue service said the body of one person was recovered while another was rescued alive but later died of his injuries. The avalanche apparently
Continue ReadingBy Emma Tucker, Isabel Rosales and Rebekah Riess, CNN (CNN) — Derrick Dearman says he wants to live. The 35-year-old inmate on Alabama’s death row has spent almost six years fighting his sentence after being convicted of killing five people, including a woman who was pregnant. But now, he says he’s asked the state to
Continue ReadingBy DAVID McHUGH AP Business Writer FRANKFURT, Germany (AP) — The European Central Bank is leaving its key interest rate benchmark unchanged, choosing to wait for confirmation that rapidly receding inflation is firmly under control before cutting rates to support an economy that’s struggling to grow. The bank’s rate-setting council said Thursday in its post-decision
Continue ReadingBy ELAINE KURTENBACH and MATT OTT AP Business Writers Wall Street continued to reel Thursday from a hotter than expected inflation report that sent stocks tumbling a day earlier. Futures for the S&P 500 and the Dow Jones Industrial Average each fell 0.5% before the bell. The Federal Reserve has been waiting for more evidence
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