AP-National

By KRUTIKA PATHI and JULHAS ALAM Associated Press DHAKA, Bangladesh (AP) — Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina has won an overwhelming majority in Bangladesh’s parliamentary election after a campaign fraught with violence and a boycott from the main opposition party, giving her and her Awami League a fourth consecutive term. The Election Commission said turnout in

By KEN MORITSUGU Associated Press BEIJING (AP) — China has announced sanctions on five American defense-related companies in response to U.S. arms sales to Taiwan and U.S. sanctions on Chinese companies and individuals. A Foreign Ministry statement issued Sunday says the sanctions will freeze any property the companies have in China and prohibit organizations and

SEATTLE (AP) — Protesters calling for a cease-fire in the Israel-Hamas war blocked northbound traffic on Interstate 5 in Seattle for several hours Saturday. The Seattle Times reports that additional demonstrators on a nearby overpass cheered in support of the blockade, which began around 1:15 p.m. The state transportation department on X says traffic at

By SARA CLINE Associated Press BATON ROUGE, La. (AP) — Louisiana Gov. John Bel Edwards, currently the lone Democratic governor in the Deep South, has reached his final two days in office after eight years. His tenure has been marked by successes — expanding Medicaid, joining climate change initiatives, climbing out of a budget deficit

By The Associated Press Orthodox Christians packed churches Saturday night for Christmas Eve services, a holiday overshadowed for many believers by conflict. Traditions vary, but typically the main worship service for Orthodox Christians takes place the night before Christmas, which is Jan. 7. Patriarch Kirill, leader of the Russian Orthodox Church, the world’s largest Orthodox

ST. PAUL, Minn. (AP) — The number of children who died as a result of a fire in their St. Paul home has risen to three. At a news conference Saturday, Pa Cheng Vang, the children’s father, said he was grateful for the community’s support since the fire broke out early Wednesday. The deceased children

By STEVE KARNOWSKI Associated Press A small town in Iowa is stunned but pulling together after a school shooting in which a 17-year-old killed a sixth-grade student and wounded seven other people before authorities say he died of a self-inflicted gunshot wound. Many questions remain about how the shooting unfolded and what might have led

NEW YORK (AP) — For nearly two decades, journalists, police detectives, FBI agents, lawyers and amateur sleuths have pried into the depraved world of Jeffrey Epstein. Yet even after the release of thousands of pages of court records in recent days, some questions about the millionaire pedophile remain unanswered. The documents have gotten a lot

By LEE KEATH Associated Press CAIRO (AP) — At Egypt’s Rafah border crossing, lines of hundreds of trucks carrying aid wait for weeks to enter Gaza, and a warehouse is full of goods rejected by Israeli inspectors, everything from water testing equipment to medical kits for delivering babies, two U.S. senators said Saturday after a

TARPON SPRINGS, Fla. (AP) — After thunderstorms moved past, Florida’s largest Greek Orthodox community celebrated the Epiphany on Saturday as a 16-year-old boy dove into chilly water to retrieve a cross in an annual rite that draws thousands. John Hittos found the cross before 64 other boys after it was thrown into a bayou in

WARSAW, Poland (AP) — Poland’s state news agency is reporting that Polish farmers who had blockaded a border crossing to Ukraine have ended their protest after reaching an agreement with the government. The farmers’ frustration was one of the challenges facing the new Polish government of Prime Minister Donald Tusk, which seeks to support Ukraine

By MICHELLE L. PRICE, JILL COLVIN and THOMAS BEAUMONT Associated Press NEWTON, Iowa (AP) — Former President Donald Trump, campaigning in Iowa Saturday, marked the third anniversary of the Jan. 6, 2021 assault on the U.S. Capitol by casting the migrant surge on the southern border as the “real” insurrection. Just over a week before

AMMAN (AP) — The Jordanian army says it has killed five drug and weapon smugglers and arrested 15 in a day of clashes with armed groups of smugglers attempting to cross into Jordan from Syria. The army statement says the clashes broke out before dawn between Jordanian border guards and “armed organizations that practice smuggling

By LOLITA C. BALDOR Associated Press WASHINGTON (AP) — Senior Biden administration leaders, top Pentagon officials and members of Congress were unaware for days that Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin had been hospitalized since Monday, U.S. officials said Saturday, as questions swirled about his condition and the secrecy surrounding it. The Pentagon did not inform the

By DAVID KOENIG AP Airlines Writer The emergency landing of a Boeing 737 Max jetliner with a gaping hole in its side is renewing safety concerns about the planes and creating new headaches for Boeing. And now the Federal Aviation Administration is ordering similar planes to be grounded for emergency inspections. A fuselage panel blew

By NICHOLAS RICCARDI Associated Press DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) — Ahmir Jolliff dashed out of his home in Perry Thursday morning, eager to see his friends on the first day back to school after winter break. It was vintage Ahmir — known as “Smiley” around his house — an 11-year-old whirlwind of cheerful activity. He

By TERRY SPENCER Associated Press FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. (AP) — Three Florida residents are in FBI custody on charges that they assaulted officers during the Jan. 6, 2021, insurrection at the nation’s Capitol. The FBI said it arrested 24-year-old Jonathan D. Pollock, his 33-year-old sister, Olivia M. Pollock and 27-year-old Joseph D. Hutchinson at a

By DARREN SANDS Associated Press Over its 215-year history, the Abyssinian Baptist Church in New York City has earned a reputation as the flagship of the Black church in America. Based in Harlem, it became a famous megachurch with the political rise of the Rev. Adam Clayton Powell, Jr. perhaps the most influential of the

KYIV, Ukraine (AP) — Eleven people were killed Saturday in Russian shelling in Ukraine’s partially occupied Donetsk province, according to regional Gov. Vadym Filashkin. Five children were among the dead and eight further people were wounded in the attack on the Pokrovsk district, he said. Ukraine’s military claimed Saturday it successfully attacked the Saki military

By THOMAS BEAUMONT Associated Press DUBUQUE, Iowa (AP) — Second place in the Iowa caucuses is seldom so important. The rivalry between GOP presidential candidates Ron DeSantis and Nikki Haley has become a leading storyline before the first Republicans vote on Jan. 15. The two are in an increasingly testy contest to emerge in Iowa