AP National News

By COSTAS KANTOURIS Associated Press THESSALONIKI, Greece (AP) — A Greek police officer is appearing in court in northern Greece over the shooting and serious injury of a Roma teenager during a police chase over an allegedly unpaid gas station bill. Monday’s shooting sparked days of violent protests by members of the Roma community in

By JOE McDONALD Associated Press BEIJING (AP) — A rash of COVID-19 cases in schools and businesses were reported Friday in areas across China after the ruling Communist Party loosened anti-virus rules as it tries to reverse a deepening economic slump. While official data showed a fall in new cases, they no longer cover large

By VANESSA GERA Associated Press WARSAW, Poland (AP) — Poland’s nationalist conservative ruling party has ratcheted up its anti-German rhetoric ahead of elections next year.  The Law and Justice party also is seeking to cast its main domestic challenger as loyal to Berlin. Critics see the strategy as a campaign tactic that could harm ties

By DAVID McHUGH AP Business Writer FRANKFURT, Germany (AP) — Ukraine’s finance minister says crucial Western financial support is “not charity” but “self-preservation” in the fight to defend democracy as his country deals with growing costs to repair electrical and heating infrastructure wrecked by Russian attacks. Serhiy Marchenko also told The Associated Press in an

BANGKOK (AP) — Myanmar’s military says more than 150 Rohingya have been rescued off the coast of Myanmar after their boat started taking on water. Myanmar’s state-run Oil and Natural Gas Corporation sent two boats from an offshore operation to rescue the people after spotting their boat in trouble. It was not clear whether the

By KIRSTEN GRIESHABER Associated Press COLOGNE, Germany (AP) — An unprecedented crisis of confidence is shaking a historic center of Catholicism in Germany — the Archdiocese of Cologne. Catholic believers have protested their deeply divisive archbishop and are leaving in droves over allegations that he may have covered up clergy sexual abuse reports. While Cardinal

By MARI YAMAGUCHI Associated Press TOKYO (AP) — K-Pop star T.O.P. is among the eight people that Japanese billionaire Yusaku Maezawa says will join him on a flyby around the moon aboard a SpaceX spaceship next year. Maezawa made the announcement on Twitter and the dearMoon Project website on Friday, after he tweeted last week

By SYLVIA HUI Associated Press BIRMINGHAM, England (AP) — As the school bell rings, dozens of children begin filing into the canteen at Hillstone Primary School. The day’s offering, a roast dinner, is a popular one, and many are eager to tuck into their plates of turkey slices, roasted potatoes, broccoli and gravy. For some

By KIM TONG-HYUNG Associated Press SEOUL, South Korea (AP) — Thousands of South Korean truckers are returning to work after voting to end their 16-day walkout that has disrupted construction and other domestic industries. Thousands of truckers seeking financial protections in the face of rising fuel costs went on strike Nov. 24. The vote Friday

By OLGA R. RODRIGUEZ Associated Press BERKELEY, Calif. (AP) — A month into the nation’s largest strike involving higher education, the work stoppage by University of California academic workers at 10 campuses is causing stress for many undergraduate students. They are facing canceled classes, no one to answer their questions and uncertainty about how they

By KIM TONG-HYUNG Associated Press SEOUL, South Korea (AP) — Nearly 400 South Koreans adopted as children by families in the West have requested South Korea’s Truth and Reconciliation Commission investigate their adoptions through Friday’s application deadline, as Seoul faces growing pressure to reckon with a child export frenzy driven by dictatorships that ruled the

By STEPHEN GROVES and AMY FORLITI Associated Press MINNEAPOLIS (AP) — The former Minneapolis police officer who kneeled on George Floyd’s back as one of his colleagues pinned the Black man’s neck to the pavement is being sentenced on a state count. J. Alexander Kueng pleaded guilty in October to aiding and abetting second-degree manslaughter.

By MARK THIESSEN Associated Press NUIQSUT, Alaska (AP) — Though the weather outside was frightful, schoolchildren in the northern Alaska Inupiac community of Nuiqsut were so delighted for a visit by Santa that they braved wind chills of 25 degrees below zero just to see him land on a snow-covered airstrip. Once again, it was

By KAREEM CHEHAYEB Associated Press BEIRUT (AP) — Lebanon has been without a president for over a month, its legislators unable to agree on a new head of state. The impasse is holding up a range of initiatives, from putting into place structural reforms for an International Monetary Fund program to allowing the country’s state-owned

By ELAINE KURTENBACH AP Business Writer BANGKOK (AP) — Shares rose in Asia on Friday after an advance on Wall Street led by the latest rally in technology companies. Chinese benchmarks rose on reports the government is planning new measures to support the ailing property sector, which has dragged on growth over the past several

By GONZALO SOLANO Associated Press QUITO, Ecuador (AP) — Sara Milena is barely 20 days old. Her mother, Tania Herrera, lives with her parents, who are the breadwinners of an Ecuadorian household where they earn $5 to $7 a day to feed five adults and support the new arrival. That income is stretched in hopes

By FRANKLIN BRICEÑO Associated Press LIMA, Peru (AP) — Peru’s first female president is pushing to cement her hold on power, saying she expects to complete the term of her ousted predecessor and buck the trend of presidential failures blighting the Andean nation. Yet, even as Dina Doluarte made the call Thursday, some politicians already