AP-National

By MARÍA TERESA HERNÁNDEZ Associated Press SANTO DOMINGO, Dominican Republic (AP) — The Dominican Republic is one of four Latin American nations that criminalizes abortion without exceptions. Women face up to 2 years in prison for having an abortion, while the penalties for doctors or midwives range from 5 to 20 years. Abortion rights activists

By MARÍA TERESA HERNÁNDEZ Associated Press AZUA, Dominican Republic (AP) — It was a busy Saturday morning at Marcia González’s church. A bishop was visiting, and normally she would have been there helping with logistics, but on this day she was teaching sex education at a local school. “I coordinate activities at the church and

By JARI TANNER Associated Press HELSINKI (AP) — Finland and Sweden recorded their coldest temperatures of the winter Tuesday when thermometers plummeted as low as minus 40 degrees Celsius (minus 40 Fahrenheit) as a cold spell grips the Nordic region. Cold and snow disrupted transportation throughout the region, including in Norway where a major highway

By ALANA BENSON of NerdWallet I never wanted to be a vegetarian, and definitely not a vegan, but after seeing a family member change their diet for health reasons and enjoy some incredible results, I decided to give it a shot. I’ve noticed some health benefits myself, but the biggest change has been in my

BANGKOK (AP) — Thailand’s Prime Minister Srettha Thavisin says his country and China will soon implement visa-free entry for each other’s citizens. Srettha said Tuesday that Chinese nationals will be granted visa-free entry on a permanent basis beginning March 1. Chinese visitors have been allowed visa-free entry since September last year, but the privilege was

ANKARA, Turkey (AP) — Turkish authorities have detained 33 people suspected of spying for Israel, Turkey’s state-run news agency reported on Tuesday. Authorities were still searching for 13 others believed to have links to Israel’s Mossad security service, the Anadolu Agency reported. The suspects were detained in raids in Istanbul and seven other provinces for

BERLIN (AP) — Members of the smallest party in German Chancellor Olaf Scholz’s unpopular coalition have voted in a low-profile ballot to stay in the troubled government, but the result underlines the three-party alliance’s difficulties. The pro-business Free Democrats, who in recent decades have leaned to the right, joined a coalition with Scholz’s Social Democrats

By BASSEM MROUE, TIA GOLDENBERG and WAFAA SHURAFA Associated Press BEIRUT (AP) — An apparent Israeli strike in the Lebanese capital of Beirut killed Hamas’ No. 2 political leader Tuesday, marking a potentially significant escalation of Israel’s war against the militant group and heightening the risk of a wider Middle East conflict. Saleh Arouri, who

By FOSTER KLUG and MARI YAMAGUCHI Associated Press TOKYO (AP) — A large passenger plane and a Japanese coast guard aircraft collided on the runway at Tokyo’s Haneda Airport on Tuesday and burst into flames, killing five people aboard the coast guard plane, officials said. All 379 people on Japan Airlines flight JAL-516 got out

By The Associated Press Asian shares dropped Wednesday after Wall Street started 2024 with a slump, giving back some of its powerful gains from last year. U.S. futures were lower and oil prices were little changed. Hong Kong’s Hang Seng lost 1.1% to 16,603.00, influenced by a 2% drop in technology shares, and the Shanghai

JOHNSTON, Iowa (AP) — Someone in Michigan won an $842.4 million Powerball jackpot on the first day of 2024, the first time it has been won on New Year’s Day since the game’s start in 1992. The winning numbers drawn were: 12, 21, 42, 44, 49 and red Powerball: 1. Final ticket sales pushed the

By ILLIA NOVIKOV and HANNA ARHIROVA Associated Press KYIV, Ukraine (AP) — Ukraine’s two largest cities came under attack early Tuesday from Russian missiles that killed five people and injured as many as 130, officials said, as the war approached its two-year mark and the Kremlin stepped up its winter bombardment of urban areas. Air

PESHAWAR, Pakistan (AP) — Pakistani police say unidentified gunmen have shot and killed six barbers in a former stronghold of the Pakistani Taliban in the country’s northwest near the Afghanistan border. No one immediately claimed responsibility for the killings in Mir Ali, a town in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province. The incident before dawn on Tuesday shocked

NEW ORLEANS (AP) — ESPN apologized Monday night for a video clip of a woman baring her breast that was shown during the broadcast of the Sugar Bowl in New Orleans. It was aired coming out of a commercial during the second half of Washington’s 37-31 victory over Texas in a semifinal game of the

By RODNEY MUHUMUZA Associated Press MBARARA, Uganda (AP) — At least once a week, Girino Ndyanabo’s family converges around a pit in which bananas have been left to ripen. The bananas are peeled and thrown into a wooden vat carved like a boat, and the patriarch steps in with bare feet. The sweet juice he

By MAURICIO SAVARESE Associated Press RIO DE JANEIRO (AP) — Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva likes to boast he had a good first year after returning to the job. The economy is improving, Congress passed a long-overdue tax reform bill, rioters who wanted to oust him are now in jail, and his predecessor

By KEN RITTER Associated Press LAS VEGAS (AP) — A bail hearing was postponed Tuesday in Las Vegas for a former Los Angeles-area gang leader charged with orchestrating the killing of hip-hop music legend Tupac Shakur in 1996, giving defense attorneys time to respond to prosecutors’ allegations that witnesses in the case may be at

By SOPHIA TAREEN Associated Press CHICAGO (AP) — Buried at the edge of a Chicago Catholic cemetery are an elderly person’s remains marked only by a cement cylinder deep in the ground labeled with the numbers 04985. The person died in 2015 at a nursing home not remembering much, including their own name. They went

By SOPHIA TAREEN Associated Press CHICAGO (AP) — Buried at the edge of a Chicago Catholic cemetery are an elderly person’s remains marked only by a cement cylinder deep in the ground labeled with the numbers 04985. The person died in 2015 at a nursing home not remembering much, including their own name. They went