By WAFAA SHURAFA and MELANIE LIDMAN Associated Press RAFAH, Gaza Strip (AP) — Israeli strikes killed at least 48 people in southern and central Gaza overnight, half of them women and children, health officials said Thursday. European foreign ministers and U.N. agencies called for a cease-fire, with alarm rising over the worsening humanitarian crisis and
Continue ReadingBy Khader Al Za’anoun, Abeer Salman and Sana Noor Haq, CNN (CNN) — A small, curly-haired boy walks wearily through the chapel of St. Philip, in Gaza City, northern Gaza, as Israeli drones whir overhead. Smashed concrete and blown-up buildings surround the luminous white walls and pink, stained-glass windows of the church, which has been
Continue ReadingBy MIKE SILVERMAN Associated Press NEW YORK (AP) — The Metropolitan Opera is staging its first new production of Verdi’s opera “La Forza del Destino” in nearly 30 years. The opera is musically glorious but notoriously sprawling and difficult to follow, jumping over different countries and many years. For the new production, which opens on
Continue ReadingLISBON, Portugal (AP) — Guinness World Records has ruled against a Portuguese dog that died last year keeping the title of oldest canine ever. Following a review, GWR said Thursday it “no longer has the evidence it needs to support Bobi’s claim as the record holder.” Bobi, a reportedly 31-year-old guard dog, had lived on
Continue ReadingBy EMMA BURROWS Associated Press A prominent opposition figure is urging Russians not to give up after the death of fellow activist Alexei Navalny, and he alleged a state-backed hit squad was taking out the Kremlin’s political opponents. Vladimir Kara-Murza made the remarks in a video posted to social media from a penal colony in
Continue ReadingANKARA, Turkey (AP) — Turkey’s central bank has left its key interest rate unchanged at 45%, pausing a series of aggressive rate hikes aimed at taming high inflation. The central bank said on Thursday it’s keeping the benchmark rate on hold. It’s the bank’s first interest rate decision under its newly appointed governor, Fatih Karahan.
Continue ReadingBALLSTON SPA, N.Y. (AP) — A man accused of kidnapping a 9-year-old girl from a state park in upstate New York pleaded guilty to two felony counts and faces 47 years to life in prison. Craig Ross Jr. pleaded guilty Wednesday under a plea deal to first-degree kidnapping and predatory sexual assault of a child.
Continue ReadingBy Steve Contorno, Alayna Treene and Kristen Holmes, CNN (CNN) — For three days in early 2012, as a hotly contested presidential primary consumed the Republican Party, the Conservative Political Action Conference basked in the spotlight. Thousands of conservative die-hards and hundreds of reporters descended on Washington that February for the annual gathering of the
Continue ReadingBy MICHELLE CHAPMAN AP Business Writer A number of Americans are dealing with cellular outages on AT&T, Cricket Wireless, Verizon, T-Mobile and other service providers, according to data from Downdetector. AT&T, who was the hardest hit, is actively working to restore service to all of its customers. AT&T had more than 58,000 outages around noon
Continue ReadingBy VANESSA GERA Associated Press WARSAW, Poland (AP) — Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk says the border crossings with Ukraine are being added to a list of critical infrastructure to ensure that all military and humanitarian aid can reach Ukraine without any delays. Poland is located along NATO’s eastern flank and borders Ukraine, and Tusk
Continue ReadingBy PREDRAG MILIC Associated Press PODGORICA, Montenegro (AP) — A court in Montenegro has ruled that Terraform Labs founder Do Kwon should be extradited to the United States to face fraud charges rather than to his native South Korea. The announcement came from a court official on Thursday. Montenegrin authorities arrested 32-year-old Kwon nearly a
Continue ReadingBy ELAINE KURTENBACH and MATT OTT AP Business Writers Wall Street continued to push higher overnight and into Thursday morning as chipmaker Nvidia issued another strong earnings report, while Japan’s Nikkei 225 benchmark surged to an all-time high. Tokyo’s benchmark closed at 39,098.68 on Thursday. Its previous record was 38,915.87, set in December 1989 just
Continue ReadingBy LAURA UNGAR AP Science Writer The Alabama Supreme Court recently ruled that frozen embryos can be considered children under state law. This is raising concerns about how the decision could affect in vitro fertilization, commonly known as IVF. The fertility treatment involves retrieving a woman’s eggs and combining them with a man’s sperm in
Continue ReadingBy HANNA ARHIROVA Associated Press KYIV, Ukraine (AP) — An official says Russian forces are probing Ukrainian defenses for weak points in the country’s northeast. That’s an area where analysts believe the Kremlin is aiming to build on its recent success in taking the city of Avdiivka by mounting an ambitious four-pronged offensive to break
Continue ReadingLOS ANGELES (AP) — A Minnesota man has been arrested on suspicion of killing a 31-year-old woman who was beaten, bound and stuffed inside the refrigerator at her Los Angeles apartment, authorities said Wednesday. The 41-year-old suspect, who was on probation for narcotics offenses, was taken into custody at his home in Minneapolis on an
Continue ReadingLOS ANGELES (AP) — A Minnesota man has been arrested on suspicion of killing a 31-year-old woman who was beaten, bound and stuffed inside the refrigerator at her Los Angeles apartment, authorities said Wednesday. The 41-year-old suspect, who was on probation for narcotics offenses, was taken into custody at his home in Minneapolis on an
Continue ReadingBy Chandelis Duster and Rosa Flores, CNN (CNN) — A Texas judge ruled Thursday that the state’s CROWN Act does not make it unlawful for school dress codes to limit a student’s hair length. The decision is a blow to Darryl George, a Houston-area high school student who sued the Barbers Hill Independent School District
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By Taylor Romine and Jessie Yeung, CNN (CNN) — China is sending two giant pandas to the San Diego Zoo – the first time it has granted new panda loans to the United States in two decades. A spokesperson for the San Diego Zoo Wildlife Alliance confirmed to CNN Wednesday that the zoo would be
Continue ReadingANKARA, Turkey (AP) — Turkey’s central bank has left its key interest rate unchanged at 45%, pausing a series of aggressive rate hikes aimed at taming high inflation. The central bank said on Thursday it’s keeping the benchmark rate on hold. It’s the bank’s first interest rate decision under its newly appointed governor, Fatih Karahan.
Continue ReadingBy JAN M. OLSEN Associated Press COPENHAGEN, Denmark (AP) — The head of the Jewish Community in Denmark says the number of antisemitic incidents registered since the Oct. 7 attack on Israel that ignited the war in Gaza has reached levels not seen since World War II. Henri Goldstein, the head of the Scandinavian country’s small
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