AP-National

BERLIN (AP) — Authorities say a 15-year-old boy has been arrested in western Germany on suspicion of planning a possible attack on a Christmas market. Prosecutors in Duesseldorf said the teenager was detained Tuesday during a search at his home. A court in nearby Leverkusen ordered him kept in custody Wednesday on suspicion of planning

By JARI TANNER Associated Press HELSINKI (AP) — NATO member Finland has closed its last remaining border crossing with Russia. The move Wednesday comes after the government decided to seal the entire border with its eastern neighbor amid rising political tensions between Helsinki and Moscow. The decision to close the entire 1,340-kilometer (830-mile) border was

By AMY BETH HANSON Associated Press HELENA, Mont. (AP) — A group of people, organizations and businesses opposed to a law that restricts drag performances and bans drag reading events at public schools and libraries is asking a federal judge to declare Montana’s law unconstitutional without requiring a trial. The motion for summary judgment filed

HILLSBORO, Ohio (AP) — Authorities say an explosion at an auto repair shop in Ohio has left three people dead and another person hospitalized. The Tuesday afternoon blast at Jimbo’s Auto Repair in Hillsboro sparked a massive fire that engulfed the building and spewed thick black smoke that was visible for miles. The blast was

By LORNE COOK and MATTHEW LEE Associated Press BRUSSELS (AP) — Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba insisted on Wednesday that NATO allies are showing no sign of war fatigue and remain committed to helping Ukraine defend itself against Russia and take back occupied territory. Speaking to The Associated Press, Kuleba also said that President Vladimir

WARSAW, Poland (AP) — Officials in northeastern Poland say three teenage students were injured when a classmate attacked them with a knife at a high school.  The attack took place Wednesday during lessons at the high school in the town of Kadzidlo. Two of those injured have been hospitalized in serious condition. One victim was

By JAN M. OLSEN Associated Press COPENHAGEN, Denmark (AP) — Sweden’s main adoption agency says it’s halting adoptions from South Korea, following claims of falsified papers on the origins of children adopted from the Asian country. The head of Adoptionscentrum said on Wednesday “that we are ending international adoptions in South Korea” and referred to

By TOM KRISHER AP Auto Writer DETROIT (AP) — Electric vehicles have proved far less reliable, on average, than gasoline-powered cars, trucks and SUVs, according to the latest survey by Consumer Reports, which found that EVs from the 2021 through 2023 model years encountered nearly 80% more problems than did vehicles propelled by internal combustion

By KRISTEN DE GROOT Associated Press There’s a village built among massive boulders. Screeching seabirds. Lots of Roman ruins, sheep, old castles, beautiful coastlines, delicious cheeses and more. That’s what AP writer Kristen De Groot found when she and her husband decided to travel the back roads of Portugal this fall. They tried to avoid

By MOGOMOTSI MAGOME Associated Press JOHANNESBURG (AP) — Members of South African political parties, civil society organisations and other supporters have marched through the streets of Johannesburg demanding a permanent cease-fire in Gaza as they marked the International Day of Solidarity with the Palestinian People. Several other protests were planned around South Africa, where many

By JOSEPH WILSON Associated Press BARCELONA, Spain (AP) — Tighter water restrictions for drought-stricken northeast Spain have gone in effect as authorities in Catalonia say that Barcelona may need to have fresh water shipped in by boat in the coming months. Catalonia is suffering its worst drought on record with reservoirs that provide water for

By SYLVIE CORBET Associated Press PARIS (AP) — A special court has cleared France’s justice minister of conflict of interest, ruling he was not guilty of having used his office to settle personal scores. Prime Minister Elisabeth Borne said after the ruling that Eric Dupond-Moretti will therefore remain a government member. Once a high-profile lawyer,

MEXICO CITY (AP) — Mexico’s president said Wednesday that two of four news photographers who were shot Tuesday are in serious condition, as prosecutors confirmed that a fifth journalist was shot and wounded the same day. The four photojournalists were shot near a military barracks in the southern Guerrero state after they returned from a

By JUAN ARRÁEZ and REGINA GARCIA CANO Associated Press SURAMA, Guyana (AP) — Congregants of an Anglican church in a sparsely populated rainforest village in Guyana are asking for peace for their community amid what they see as an existential threat. Their village, Surama, is part of Guyana’s Essequibo region — a territory that Venezuela

By SYLVIA HUI Associated Press LONDON (AP) — Elton John has addressed Britain’s Parliament at an event honoring his dedication to fighting HIV in the U.K. and beyond. The British star spoke to dozens of lawmakers and campaigners in the grand Speaker’s House of Parliament on Wednesday. John set up his AIDS Foundation in 1992

By MATTHEW BROWN Associated Press BILLINGS, Mont. (AP) — The North American wolverine will receive long-delayed threatened species protections under a Biden administration proposal released Wednesday in response to scientists warning that climate change will likely melt away the rare species’ snowy mountain refuges and push them toward extinction. Across most of the U.S., wolverines

By JOSEF FEDERMAN Associated Press JERUSALEM (AP) — It has become an Israeli mantra throughout the latest war in Gaza: Hamas is ISIS. Since the bloody Hamas attack on Oct. 7 that triggered the war, Israeli leaders and commanders have likened the Palestinian militant group to the Islamic State group. They point to Hamas’ brutal

By PAUL WISEMAN AP Economics Writer WASHINGTON (AP) — Shrugging off higher interest rates, America’s consumers spent enough to help drive the economy to a brisk 5.2% annual pace from July through September, the government said in an upgrade from its previous estimate. The government had previously estimated that the economy grew at a 4.9%

By MUNIR AHMED Associated Press ISLAMABAD (AP) — A Pakistani court has acquitted former Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif in a graft case, removing a major obstacle for him to run in parliamentary elections in February. The Islamabad High Court’s decision on Wednesday comes weeks after the court restored Sharif’s right to appeal a 2018 conviction

By JILL LAWLESS Associated Press LONDON (AP) — British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak has escalated his war of words with the leader of Greece. Sunak accused Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis on Wednesday of trying to “grandstand” over the disputed Parthenon Marbles and breaking a promise to the U.K. government. The two European allies have been