AP National News

By BEN FINLEY and DENISE LAVOIE Associated Press NEWPORT NEWS, Va. (AP) — The Virginia elementary school where a 6-year-old boy shot his teacher reopened Monday with stepped-up security and a new administrator, as nervous parents and students expressed optimism about a return to the classroom. Richneck Elementary School in Newport News opened its doors

By CHRIS MEGERIAN Associated Press WASHINGTON (AP) — Ulysses S. Grant was still president when workers finished the Baltimore and Potomac Tunnel, which connected Philadelphia and Washington through rail travel for the first time. But 150 years later, the tunnel that runs under some of Baltimore’s residential neighborhoods is more of a chokepoint than a

By JONATHAN LANDRUM Jr. AP Entertainment Writer LOS ANGELES (AP) — Trevor Noah feels more comfortable hosting the Grammy Awards for a third-straight year, but the former “The Daily Show” host still has some nervousness about leading the ceremony with big-time acts like Beyoncé, Adele and Harry Styles looking on. “The nerves come in because

By ELAINE KURTENBACH and MATT OTT AP Business Writers Wall Street was poised to open with lower Monday as attention turns to this week’s decision by the Federal Reserve on interest rates and a week heavy with big tech earnings. Futures for the Dow Jones industrials slipped 0.6% and the S&P 500 fell 0.8% before

ELAINE GANLEY Associated Press PARIS (AP) — Name it, act on it, sanction it. That’s the focus of a new plan announced on Monday by French Prime Minister Elisabeth Borne to defeat long-standing racism, anti-Semitism and discrimination of all kinds. Borne said “there will be no impunity for hate.” The four-year plan starts with educating

By GEIR MOULSON Associated Press BERLIN (AP) — Official figures show that Germany’s economy shrank by 0.2% in the fourth quarter compared with the previous three-month period. The performance by Europe’s biggest economy is worse than expected. The Federal Statistical Office said Monday that gross domestic product shrank for the first time since the first

By AIJAZ HUSSAIN Associated Press SRINAGAR, India (AP) — India’s main opposition Congress party has ended a five-month cross-country “unity march” in disputed Kashmir with hundreds of members of various opposition groups joining in a public rally in freezing temperatures. The march led by Rahul Gandhi, an opposition leader and scion of the influential Gandhi

By MATTHEW LEE AP Diplomatic Writer JERUSALEM (AP) — U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken urged Israel and the Palestinians on Monday to ease tensions following a spike in violence that has put the region on edge. The bloodshed has alarmed the Biden administration as it attempts to find common ground with Israeli Prime Minister

By KIM TONG-HYUNG Associated Press SEOUL, South Korea (AP) — NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg is calling for South Korea to provide direct military support to Ukraine, saying Kyiv is in urgent need of weapons to fight off the prolonged Russian invasion. South Korea, a growing arms exporter with a well-equipped, U.S.-backed military, has provided humanitarian

By NICOLE WINFIELD Associated Press VATICAN CITY (AP) — Pope Francis has named an American-born missionary in Peru to take over the Vatican’s powerful bishops’ office from the retiring Canadian who has recently been accused of sexual misconduct. Bishop Robert Prevost, a Chicago native and former superior of his Augustinian order who began ministering in

BEIJING (AP) — China’s government has criticized U.S. controls on technology exports as a trade violation after Japan and the Netherlands agreed to join Washington in limiting Beijing’s access to materials to make advanced processor chips. The Foreign Ministry didn’t mention the latest development but accused Washington of abusing export controls and organizing other governments

BEIJING (AP) — Chinese online retailer JD.com Inc. is closing its consumer e-commerce services in Indonesia and Thailand amid intense competition in Southeast Asia. Announcements on the two websites said JD.com will stop taking orders on Feb. 15 in both countries and end service the following month. The company said it will develop its cross-border

By RIAZ KHAN Associated Press PESHAWAR, Pakistan (AP) — A suicide bomber struck Monday inside a mosque within a police compound in the northwestern Pakistani city of Peshawar, killing at least 28 people and wounding as many as 150 worshippers, most of them policemen, officials said. The bombing drew nationwide condemnation from opposition political parties

By SUSIE BLANN Associated Press KYIV, Ukraine (AP) — Russian shelling killed at least five people and wounded 13 others during the previous 24 hours, Ukrainian authorities said Monday as the Kremlin’s and Kyiv’s forces remained locked in combat in eastern Ukraine. The casualties included a woman who was killed and three others who were

By MOGOMOTSI MAGOME Associated Press JOHANNESBURG (AP) — South African animal welfare officials have successfully sedated and captured a tiger that was spotted roaming a residential area to the east of the capital Johannesburg. Guards monitoring security cameras on an office building in the Johannesburg suburb of Edenvale say they spotted the big cat early

By SUZAN FRASER Associated Press ANKARA, Turkey (AP) — Turkey’s foreign minister says his country could greenlight Finland’s membership in NATO before that of Sweden, if the military alliance and the Nordic countries agree to it. Mevlut Cavusoglu on Monday defined Finland’s application as “less problematic” than that of Sweden. Turkey accuses Stockholm of failing

By MIKE CORDER Associated Press THE HAGUE, Netherlands (AP) — Armenia is pleading with judges of the United Nations’ highest court on Monday to order Azerbaijan to break up a road blockade that is isolating the disputed territory of Nagorno-Karabakh, calling the action part of an act of “ethnic cleansing.” Monday’s hearing at the International

By MARI YAMAGUCHI Associated Press TOKYO (AP) — Japanese rescuers have found two foreign men who were hit by an avalanche while backcountry skiing. The two were found without vital signs in a famous ski resort in central Japan. Police are waiting until the men’s identities are confirmed before confirming their deaths. Nagano Prefectural police

By ANDI JATMIKO Associated Press JAKARTA, Indonesia (AP) — Hundreds of Indonesian Muslims have marched to the heavily guarded Swedish Embassy in Jakarta to denounce the recent desecration of Islam’s holy book by far-right activists in Sweden and the Netherlands. Waving white flags bearing the Islamic declaration of faith, more than 300 demonstrators filled a

LJUBLJANA, Slovenia (AP) — Slovenian media say that authorities have apprehended two alleged Russian spies who used an agency dealing in real estate and antiques as a front for their activities. Slovenia’s respected Delo newspaper and the Siol news portal on Monday cited the public prosecutor’s office as confirming the arrests. According to the two