News

By FRANK BAJAK AP Technology Writer A new report says Israeli-made Pegasus spyware was used in Jordan to hack the cellphones of nearly three dozen people including journalists, lawyers and human rights activists. The digital rights group Access Now said the hacking with spyware made by the NSO Group occurred from early 2020 until November.

BERLIN (AP) — German beer sales dropped 4.5% last year, resuming a long-term downward trend, official figures showed Thursday. German-based breweries and distributors sold about 8.4 billion liters (2.2 billion gallons) of beer last year, the Federal Statistical Office said. That figure doesn’t include non-alcoholic beer and beer imported from outside the European Union. In

By ASHOK SHARMA Associated Press NEW DELHI (AP) — India’s finance minister has unveiled a short-term budget to meet government expenditures until national elections are held by May, saying it will boost spending on infrastructure projects, build homes for poor villagers and cut the fiscal deficit by reducing subsidies. Nirmala Sitharaman announced plans to raise

COPENHAGEN, Denmark (AP) — Residents of central Norway have awoken to scenes of havoc and homes without power following the country’s most powerful storm in more than three decades. Hurricane-force winds hit parts of the Scandinavian country, with gusts of up 180 kilometers per hour (112 miles per hour). In a small, picturesque town northeast

By PAN PYLAS Associated Press LONDON (AP) — The Bank of England is expected to keep its main interest rate at near 16-year highs and indicate that lower borrowing costs aren’t imminent because inflation is stuck too high for comfort. Like the U.S. Federal Reserve, the U.K. central bank on Thursday is not expected to

By RAF CASERT Associated Press BRUSSELS (AP) — Convoys with hundreds of angry farmers driving heavy-duty tractors arrived at European Union headquarters, bent on getting their complaints about excessive costs, rules and bureaucracy heard and fixed by EU leaders at a summit Thursday. After warming their limbs at burning piles of pallets overnight, the farmers

By MELANIE LIDMAN Associated Press TEL AVIV, Israel (AP) — A dissident Russian rock band angered by Moscow’s war in Ukraine has arrived in Israel after being deported from Thailand under suspected pressure from the Kremlin. Speaking Thursday in the arrival hall of Israel’s Ben Gurion International Airport in Tel Aviv, guitarist and singer Aleksandr

By LORNE COOK and SAMUEL PETREQUIN Associated Press BRUSSELS (AP) — European Union leaders are gathering on Thursday to shore up financial support for Ukraine. The overwhelming majority of them — from 26 countries — agree that Europe’s security is at stake, and that time is of the essence. Only one, Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor

By CHRISTOPHER BODEEN Associated Press TAIPEI, Taiwan (AP) — A member of Taiwan’s pro-unification Nationalists has been elected speaker of the island’s legislature. The election of Han Kuo-Yu on Thursday is sort of consolation prize for China after the candidate of the independence-leaning Democratic Progressive Party won Taiwan’s presidential election on Jan. 13. The Nationalists,

By SIMINA MISTREANU Associated Press TAIPEI, Taiwan (AP) — Automakers including Tesla, General Motors, Volkswagen and Toyota are failing to ensure they are not using forced labor as part of their China supply chains, a report released Thursday by Human Rights Watch says. The U.S.-based nonprofit linked some of the world’s largest car manufacturers to

By JOHN ANTCZAK Associated Press LOS ANGELES (AP) — The first of two back-to-back atmospheric rivers drenched Northern California on Thursday, flooding roads while triggering statewide storm preparations and calls for people to get ready for powerful downpours, heavy snow and damaging winds. Heavy rain and gusty winds that began hitting the San Francisco Bay

SEOUL, South Korea (AP) — A South Korean judge has convicted a man of murder for an unprovoked car-and-stabbing rampage that killed two people and injured 12 others in a city near Seoul last year. Prosecutors had sought a death penalty for 23-year-old Choi Won-jong, but Judge Kang Hyun-koo of the Suwon District Court’s Seongnam

BERLIN (AP) — Most of Germany’s major airports canceled scores of flights after security workers launched a one-day strike to step up pressure in a pay disput. The ver.di union called on workers to strike at 11 airports on Thursday: Frankfurt, Berlin, Cologne, Duesseldorf, Hamburg, Stuttgart, Leipzig, Hannover, Dresden, Bremen and Erfurt. All departures for

By RAF CASERT Associated Press BRUSSELS (AP) — Convoys with hundreds of angry farmers driving heavy-duty tractors are advancing toward European Union headquarters where leaders are meeting at a summit Thursday. The farmers are bent on getting their complaints about excessive costs, rules and bureaucracy heard in a culmination of weeks of protests around the

By MARI YAMAGUCHI Associated Press TOKYO (AP) — Tokyo’s fish market has opened a long-awaited outer section with Japanese-style seafood restaurants and a spa for relaxation, as the wholesale venue that has struggled since relocating from the beloved Tsukiji market seeks to lure more visitors. Toyosu Senkyaku Banrai on Thursday opened a food court resembling