AP-National

By ELAINE KURTENBACH AP Business Writer BANGKOK (AP) — China’s central bank has announced new rules meant to expand access to commercial bank loans for property developers. Real estate companies will be allowed to use bank loans pledged against commercial properties such as offices and shopping malls to repay their other loans and bonds. The

By KIM CHANDLER Associated Press ATMORE, Ala. (AP) — Alabama has executed a man with nitrogen gas, putting him to death with a first-of-its-kind method that once again put the U.S. at the forefront of the debate over capital punishment. Officials said Kenneth Eugene Smith was pronounced dead at 8:25 p.m. Thursday at an Alabama

By JAKE OFFENHARTZ, JENNIFER PELTZ, and LARRY NEUMEISTER Associated Press NEW YORK (AP) — He testified for under three minutes. But former President Donald Trump still broke a judge’s rules on what he could tell a jury about writer E. Jean Carroll’s sexual assault and defamation allegations, and he left the courtroom Thursday bristling to

By LINDSAY WHITEHURST and MICHAEL KUNZELMAN Associated Press WASHINGTON (AP) — Another Trump White House official convicted of contempt of Congress for refusing to cooperate with a congressional investigation into the Jan. 6, 2021, U.S. Capitol attack has been sentenced to four months behind bars. Peter Navarro was the second Trump aide convicted of contempt

MELBOURNE, Australia (AP) — Two monuments symbolizing Australia’s colonial past have been damaged by protesters ahead of an increasingly polarizing national holiday that marks the anniversary of British settlement. A statue in Melbourne of British naval officer James Cook, who in 1770 charted Sydney’s coast, was sawn off at the ankles early Thursday, while a

By PATRICK WHITTLE Associated Press AUGUSTA, Maine (AP) — Law enforcement officers say Maine’s yellow flag law that allows guns to be confiscated from someone in a mental health crisis is cumbersome and time consuming. They addressed their concerns Thursday to an independent commission that is investigating a mass shooting in which an Army reservist

By GABE STERN Associated Press/Report for America RENO, Nev. (AP) — Nevada’s Republican delegates are essentially locked in for Donald Trump weeks before voters make their choice. That’s because a thinned-out primary field and a group of Nevada Republicans loyal to Trump have cleared the way for him by creating a caucus system separate from

By LISA MASCARO and JILL COLVIN Associated Press WASHINGTON (AP) — Long before Donald Trump announced his campaign to retake the White House, he launched a quieter campaign to rack up Republican endorsements. In early 2021, after Trump lost to Democrat Joe Biden and inspired a mob of supporters to attack the Capitol trying to

By TOM ODULA Associated Press NAIROBI, Kenya (AP) — Researchers say a rhinoceros was impregnated through embryo transfer in the first successful use of a method that they say might later make it possible to save the nearly extinct northern white rhino subspecies. The experiment was conducted with the less endangered southern white rhino subspecies.

By DAVID McHUGH AP Business Writer FRANKFURT, Germany (AP) — The European Central Bank has kept its key interest rate unchanged at a record high. ECB President Christine Lagarde said Thursday that inflation needs to fall more before the central bank can be confident enough to cut rates. Stock markets are soaring on hopes that

By MICHAEL R. BLOOD AP Political Writer LOS ANGELES (AP) — Long-suffering California Republicans will see something on the March ballot that might shock them: a U.S. Senate candidate whose name they recognize. The state’s Republican Party has been in a decades-long tailspin in heavily Democratic California. This year, the candidacy of former Los Angeles

By PAUL WISEMAN AP Economics Writer WASHINGTON (AP) — The nation’s economy grew at an unexpectedly brisk 3.3% annual pace from October through December as Americans showed a continued willingness to spend freely despite high interest rates and price levels that have frustrated many households. The latest figures reflected the surprising durability of the world’s

FORT SMITH, Northwest Territories (AP) — Canadian authorities say the death toll from a small plane crash in Canada’s Northwest Territories is six. The plane was carrying employees from the Rio Tinto mining company. The Northwest Territories coroner’s office said Wednesday that four passengers and two crew members from Northwestern Air Lease were killed. A

Associated Press GUATEMALA CITY (AP) — The Guatemala attorney general leading efforts to prosecute President Bernardo Arévalo and his party is refusing to step down. “I am not going to resign,” Consuelo Porras said in a recorded video message Wednesday. The video was released by her office on the same day that Arévalo had said

By KANIS LEUNG Associated Press HONG KONG (AP) — Hong Kong’s top court has restored a prominent detained activist’s conviction over a banned vigil commemorating the 1989 Tiananmen crackdown on pro-democracy protesters, marking the latest setback for the city’s democracy supporters. Chow Hang-tung, a former leader of the now-disbanded Hong Kong Alliance in Support of

By MARI YAMAGUCHI Associated Press TOKYO (AP) — A Japanese court sentenced a man to death after finding him guilty of murder and other crimes Thursday for carrying out a shocking arson attack on an anime studio in Kyoto, Japan, that killed 36 people. The Kyoto District Court said it found the defendant, Shinji Aoba,

MONMOUTH JUNCTION, N.J. (AP) — Authorities in New Jersey say law enforcement officers have killed a man in a shootout while trying to arrest him on several felony charges. The state Attorney General’s Office says the officers were trying to execute an arrest warrant Wednesday afternoon at a motel in Monmouth Junction when the man

BRISBANE, Australia (AP) — Residents have begun battening down homes and businesses with Tropical Cyclone Kirrily forecast to cross the Australian northeast coast on Thursday, bringing destructive winds and flooding rain. Authorities said the storm system was still tracking west across the Coral Sea and that gusts of 140 kph (87 mph) are forecast as

SAN JOSE, Costa Rica (AP) — Costa Rica’s Supreme Court of Justice says it was no longer obligatory to place the paternal surname before the maternal surname on a person’s identification. The court modified a piece of civil code originally mandating that names had to be written in that order on the grounds that it

By GENE JOHNSON Associated Press SEATTLE (AP) — Seattle has agreed to pay $10 million to 50 demonstrators who sued over the police department’s heavy-handed response to racial justice protests in 2020. The protesters were among tens of thousands who rallied downtown and in the Capitol Hill neighborhood for weeks following the killing of George