AP-National

By The Associated Press President Ilham Aliyev has ordered Azerbaijan’s Central Election Commission to prepare for an early presidential election on Feb. 7, shortly ahead of Russia’s presidential election on March 17. The order was published on the presidential website but did not explain why Aliyev had called an early vote. The next presidential election

By WAFAA SHURAFA, KAREEM CHEHAYEB and LEE KEATH Associated Press DEIR AL-BALAH, Gaza Strip (AP) — Desperation grew Thursday among Palestinians largely cut off from supplies of food and water as Israeli forces engaged in fierce urban battles with Hamas militants. Strikes in the southern Gaza town of Rafah sowed fear in one of the

MOSCOW (AP) — State news agencies and authorities in Russia say a girl shot several classmates before killing herself at a school in the city of Bryansk. Initial reports said one person besides the shooter was killed and five people were wounded in Thursday’s gunfire. Russian state news agency RIA Novosti reports that one of

By DEREK GATOPOULOS and ELENA BECATOROS Associated Press ATHENS, Greece (AP) — Longtime regional rivals Greece and Turkey have made a significant step in mending ties during a visit to Athens by Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan. This comes after several years of strained relations that raised tensions to alarming levels. Erdogan had promised ahead

WARSAW, Poland (AP) — Polish Nobel Peace Prizer winner and former President Lech Walesa says he is improving after being hospitalized with COVID-19. A post on the 80-year-old Walesa’s Facebook page on Thursday shows him lying on a hospital bed with his thumbs raised and a brief caption saying he thinks he is going to

By TIAN MACLEOD JI Associated Press BANGKOK (AP) — Hong Kong pro-democracy activist Agnes Chow says she still feels under the watch of the Chinese territory’s police after moving to Toronto. Chow was arrested in 2020 under a Beijing-imposed national security law but wasn’t charged. She said this week she won’t return to meet her

By DASHA LITVINOVA Associated Press Lawmaker’s in Russia have set March 17 as the date for the country’s 2024 presidential election. A scheduling decree unanimously approved by the upper house of the Russian parliament Thursday moves Vladimir Putin closer to a fifth term in office. Putin hasn’t yet announced his intention to run again but

By KIM TONG-HYUNG Associated Press SEOUL, South Korea (AP) — Twitch, a popular video service, will shut down its struggling business in South Korea, a decision its chief executive blamed on allegedly “prohibitively expensive” costs for operating in the country. In a blog post announcing the company’s plan this week, Dan Clancy said the network

By HALELUYA HADERO AP Business Writer NEW YORK (AP) — An internal Amazon memo has provided a stark look at the company’s carefully laid out plans to grow its influence and advance its interest in Southern California. The memo was leaked to the nonprofit labor organization Warehouse Worker Resource Center and its authenticity was verified

By ROD McGUIRK Associated Press CANBERRA, Australia (AP) — The Australian government has signed a security pact with its nearest neighbor Papua New Guinea that strengthens Australia’s place as the preferred security partner in a region where China’s influence is growing. The two countries’ prime ministers signed the agreement in Australia on Thursday six months

By JOHN LEICESTER Associated Press PARIS (AP) — When Notre Dame went up in flames in 2019, people who worked in the cathedral felt orphaned. With the reopening of the world-famous Paris landmark drawing closer by the day, they’re now beginning to picture their return to the place they call home. They are impatient to

By STAN CHOE AP Business Writer NEW YORK (AP) — Wall Street rose Thursday to snap its first three-day losing streak since Halloween. The S&P 500 climbed 36.25 points, or 0.8%, to 4,585.59. The Dow Jones Industrial Average added 62.95, or 0.2%, to 36,117.38, and the Nasdaq composite jumped 193.28, or 1.4%, to 14,339.99. Big

By DAVE COLLINS and PAT EATON-ROBB Associated Press WILLIMANTIC, Conn. (AP) — The killing of a Connecticut nurse making a house call in October was a nightmare come true for an industry gripped by the fear of violence. Already stressed out by staffing shortages and mounting caseloads, heath care workers are increasingly worrying about the

By RIO YAMAT and BEN FINLEY Associated Press LAS VEGAS (AP) — The 67-year-old gunman who killed three faculty members and wounded a fourth in a roughly 10-minute rampage at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas, had a list of targets at the school and more than 150 rounds of ammunition, police said Thursday. Clark

By DAVID BAUDER AP Media Writer NEW YORK (AP) — In many American living rooms, the 1960s didn’t really begin until Jan. 12, 1971. That was the night the comedy “All in the Family” debuted, almost instantly changing television and American society with it. Creator Norman Lear, who died at age 101 on Tuesday, was

By PAUL J. WEBER Associated Press AUSTIN, Texas (AP) — A Texas judge has given a pregnant woman whose fetus had a fatal diagnosis permission to get an abortion in an unprecedented challenge to the state’s ban that took effect after Roe v. Wade was overturned last year. It was unclear Thursday how quickly or

By MEAD GRUVER Associated Press CHEYENNE, Wyo. (AP) — Wyoming officials have decided to hold off on auctioning a pristine and valuable chunk of state-owned land within Grand Teton National Park. The Wyoming Board of Land Commissioners made up of Gov. Mark Gordon and other four statewide elected officials voted 5-0 Thursday to hold off

By EDNA TARIGAN and DITA ALANGKARA Associated Press MAMUJU, Indonesia (AP) — A pair of tall birds with black feathers and pinkish breasts crossed a noisy road to reach a quiet part of a sandy tourist beach in the outskirts of Mamuju, a small town at the westernmost part of Indonesia’s Sulawesi island. There the

By FARNOUSH AMIRI Associated Press WASHINGTON (AP) — The House has voted to censure Democratic Rep. Jamaal Bowman for triggering a fire alarm in a U.S. Capitol office building when the chamber was in session. The New York congressman Thursday became the third Democrat in the House to be admonished this year through the process.