AP National News

By LINDSEY BAHR AP Film Writer Michael Lerner, the Brooklyn-born character actor who played a myriad of imposing figures in his 60 years in the business, including monologuing movie mogul Jack Lipnick in “Barton Fink,” the crooked club owner Bugsy Calhoun in “Harlem Nights” and an angry publishing executive in “Elf” has died. He was

By STAN CHOE AP Business Writer NEW YORK (AP) — Wall Street is slipping Monday in the first trading for stocks after a report raised speculation the Federal Reserve may tap the brakes a little harder on the economy. The S&P 500 was 0.6% lower in early trading. It did not trade on Friday, when

LOUISVILLE, Ky. (AP) — Police are reporting “multiple casualties” as they respond to a shooting in a bank building in downtown Louisville. The Louisville Metro Police Department said Monday on Twitter there was an ongoing situation and asked people to avoid the area. “There are multiple casualties,” police said in the tweet. Police described it

By DARLENE SUPERVILLE Associated Press

QUETTA, Pakistan (AP) — A government spokesman says a roadside bomb targeting a police vehicle in volatile southwestern Pakistan has killed at least four people and wounded 15 others. Monday’s attack happened in Quetta, the capital of Baluchistan province. A spokesman for the provincial government said the dead included  two officers and two civilians. No

By MIKE SCHNEIDER and SIBI ARASU Associated Press India will surpass China’s population this month. Or maybe in July. Or, perhaps it’s happened already? Demographers are unsure exactly when India will take the title as the most populous nation in the world because they’re relying on estimates to make their best guess. But they know

NEW BRUNSWICK, N.J. (AP) — Thousands of professors, part-time lecturers and graduate student workers at New Jersey’s flagship university went on strike Monday — the first such job action in the school’s 257-year history. Classes were still being held at Rutgers as picket lines were set up at the school’s campuses in New Brunswick/Piscataway, Newark

ISLAMABAD (AP) — The U.N. food agency says it urgently needs $800 million for the next six months to help Afghans, with the country at the highest risk of famine in a quarter of a century. The World Food Program said Monday it will try to keep delivering life-saving assistance, despite a Taliban order banning

ROME (AP) — The condition of former Italian premier Silvio Berlucsconi, hospitalized in intensive care for a lung infection, is progressively improving, allowing for “cautious optimism,” his doctors said Monday. Berlusconi, 86, was taken Wednesday to the intensive care unit at Milan’s San Raffaele hospital. Doctors revealed that the media tycoon and three-time premier has

LONDON (AP) — Britain is bracing for a four-day walkout by tens of thousands of doctors at the state-funded health care system. One official said the strike Tuesday by doctors early in their career could be “catastrophic” and postpone up to 350,000 appointments. A three-day strike last month crippled the health system that has been

By REBECCA GRIESBACH, AL.com PHENIX CITY, Ala. (AP) — A decade after dropping out, Briana Mathis, a 30-year-old mother of two, is navigating her first year back at Wallace Community College. She was recruited back to the school in Dothan, Alabama, by the staff at a new student support center. The same adviser has kept

PARIS (AP) — French local authorities say the death toll from Sunday’s avalanche in the French Alps has risen to six, including two mountain guides. The prosecutor’s office in Bonneville, in the Haute-Savoie region, said the body of a sixth person was found after searches resumed on Monday morning. No details have been provided on

KABUL, Afghanistan (AP) — The Taliban have banned families and women from restaurants with gardens or green spaces in Afghanistan’s northwestern Herat province. An official said on Monday that the moves followed complaints from religious scholars and members of the public about the mixing of genders. It was the latest in a slew of restrictions

By YURI KAGEYAMA AP Business Writer TOKYO (AP) — The new governor of Japan’s central bank has signaled, once again, that he plans no drastic changes in its ultra-low interest rate policy. Bank of Japan Gov. Kazuo Ueda said Japan’s financial institutions are not facing the sorts of turmoil seen recently with bank failures in

By ILAN BEN ZION Associated Press JERUSALEM (AP) — Thousands of Israelis led by at least seven Cabinet ministers marched Monday to an evacuated West Bank settlement, in a defiant signal that Israel’s most right-wing government in history is determined to accelerate settlement building on occupied lands despite international opposition. The mass rally also threatened

By HUIZHONG WU Associated Press TAIPEI, Taiwan (AP) — China’s military declared Monday it is “ready to fight” after completing three days of large-scale combat exercises around Taiwan that simulated sealing off the island in response to the Taiwanese president’s trip to the U.S. last week. The “combat readiness patrols” named Joint Sword were meant

CAMBRIDGE A fire broke out at a Massachusetts church not long after Easter services, with more than 100 firefighters working to save the 114-year-old structure. The fire started at about 5:30 p.m. Sunday at the Faith Lutheran Church in Cambridge. Part of the roof collapsed, but the main structure and steeple were still standing. Acting

By KIMBERLY PALMER of NerdWallet Scam artists often target older adults because they hold significant levels of wealth, but family and friends can help reduce the danger. First, talk openly about the risks and popular financial scams covered in the news so older adults are aware. Use simple anti-fraud tools like account alerts and strict

BEIJING (AP) — A human rights group says two prominent Chinese human rights lawyers have been sentenced to more than a decade in prison. It’s part of an ongoing crackdown by the ruling Communist Party on its critics. Human Rights Watch said Monday that Xu Zhiyong was sentenced to 14 years and Ding Jiaxi to

By ILAN BEN ZION Associated Press JERUSALEM (AP) — Thousands of Israelis led by at least seven Cabinet ministers marched Monday to an evacuated West Bank settlement, in a defiant signal that Israel’s most right-wing government in history is determined to accelerate settlement building on occupied lands despite international opposition. The mass rally also threatened