AP National News

By PETER PRENGAMAN Associated Press SHARM el-SHEIKH, Egypt (AP) — Six weeks before taking power, Brazilian President-elect Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva on Wednesday told cheering crowds at the U.N. climate conference that he would crack down on illegal deforestation in the Amazon, reinitiate relationships with countries that finance forest protection efforts and push to

By FARAI MUTSAKA Associated Press HARARE, Zimbabwe (AP) — A top official says that Zimbabwe has made “very impressive” progress in meeting conditions to rejoin the Commonwealth, the group of 56 mainly former British colonies, even as the opposition and other groups warned that the human rights situation is fast deteriorating. Commonwealth Assistant Secretary-General Luis

By DAVID KOENIG AP Business Writer Airbnb is looking for more people to turn their homes into short-term rentals. The company said Wednesday that it is rolling out a simpler process of enrolling, with online help from a “superhost.” And it’s increasing the amount of liability coverage to attract owners of nicer houses in high-cost

By ELEANOR H. REICH Associated Press TEL AVIV, Israel (AP) — Israel’s Foreign Ministry has launched a campaign to educate Israeli soccer fans about how to navigate the laws and customs of Qatar ahead of the World Cup there. The conservative Muslim country has no diplomatic relations with Israel but in a landmark first, Israeli

By CURT ANDERSON Associated Press ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. (AP) — Lettuce will be on the menu again this year for Florida manatees in an effort to slow the starvation deaths of the beloved marine mammals. Wildlife officials said Wednesday that plans are in place to resume an experimental feeding program at a warm-water power plant

By ELLIOT SPAGAT Associated Press SAN DIEGO (AP) — A federal judge has granted the Biden administration a five-week delay to end far-reaching asylum restrictions, writing in upper-case letters that he was doing so “WITH GREAT RELUCTANCE.” In Washington, U.S. District Judge Emmet Sullivan acknowledged in his brief order Wednesday that attorneys for asylum-seeking families

By DENISE LAVOIE Associated Press CHARLOTTESVILLE, Va. (AP) — A witness who saw a University of Virginia student open fire on a bus returning from a field trip described to police how the gunman targeted specific victims — many of them football players — shooting one of them as he slept, a prosecutor said in

GENEVA (AP) — The head of the World Health Organization says he expects the first doses of Ebola vaccine targeting the strain causing the current outbreak in Uganda to arrive in the country next week. At a press briefing on Wednesday, WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said a committee convened by the agency evaluated three

By DAMIAN J. TROISE AP Business Writer NEW YORK (AP) — Stocks fell in afternoon trading on Wall Street Wednesday as investors reviewed a dismal financial report from Target and a broader update on the retail sector from the government. The S&P 500 fell 0.5% as of 12:01 p.m. Eastern. The Dow Jones Industrial Average

BOSTON (AP) — The former leader of a Massachusetts Native American tribe convicted of accepting bribes from an architectural firm working with the tribe to build a casino has been sentenced to three years in prison. Cedric Cromwell, former chair of the Mashpee Wampanoags, was also sentenced in federal court on Tuesday to a year

LONDON (AP) — Britain’s Crown Prosecution Service says actor Kevin Spacey will be charged with seven further sex offenses, all relating to the same alleged victim. It brings the number of charges the Hollywood star faces in the U.K. to 12 The service said Wednesday that the charges against the former “House of Cards” star

By MARK KENNEDY AP Entertainment Writer NEW YORK (AP) — In the summer of 1997, audiences in Minneapolis at the Orpheum Theatre saw something no one had ever seen before: leaping antelopes, fluttering birds and elephants lumbering through the orchestra seats. It was “The Lion King,” and it would soon transfer to Broadway and start

By CHRISTOPHER RUGABER AP Economics Writer WASHINGTON (AP) — Americans stepped up their spending at retailers, restaurants, and auto dealers last month, a sign of consumer resilience as the holiday shopping season begins amid painfully high inflation and rising interest rates. The government said Wednesday that retail sales rose 1.3% in October from September, up

WHITTIER, Calif. (AP) — Authorities say multiple Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department recruits were struck by a vehicle early Wednesday. TV news broadcasts show a large response of firefighters and ambulances in Whittier, as well as numerous individuals in uniform workout clothes. County fire senior dispatcher Martin Rangel confirms that the incident involves sheriff’s recruits

By JON GAMBRELL Associated Press DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) — Tracking data shows two Greek tankers held by Iran since May are sailing away from the Islamic Republic. Greece says the ships’ sailors have also been freed. The announcement from Athens on Wednesday was not immediately acknowledged by Tehran. Iran’s paramilitary Revolutionary Guard seized

By DENISE LAVOIE Associated Press CHARLOTTESVILLE, Va. (AP) — The University of Virginia canceled its final home football game of the season Wednesday, the same day a student accused of killing three members of the team and wounding two other students in an on-campus shooting was due in court for his first hearing. University officials

By EVELYNE MUSAMBI Associated Press NAIROBI, Kenya (AP) — Authorities in Kenya say that at least three people died when a building collapsed in the capital city, Nairobi. Six other people were rescued from the rubble and are being treated at a hospital in the Kasarani suburb, where the multi-story building is located. Witnesses told

By LEANNE ITALIE AP Entertainment Writer NEW YORK (AP) — Here’s the sitch, Scrabble stans. Your convos around the board are about to get more interesting with about 500 new words and variations added to the game’s official dictionary: stan, sitch, convo, zedonk, dox and fauxhawk among them. Out this month, the add-ons in the

PESHAWAR, Pakistan (AP) — Pakistan says armed militants ambushed a routine police patrol in the country’s northwest, killing all six policemen in the vehicle. A gunbattle elsewhere in the northwest left two soldiers and one militant dead. A police officer says the suspects in the ambush on Wednesday in the Dadewala area of the Lakki

By DEE-ANN DURBIN AP Business Writer In early November, Hays Culbreth’s mother sent a poll to a few family members. She said she could only afford to make two sides for their group of 15 this Thanksgiving and asked them each to vote for their favorites. Culbreth guesses green beans and macaroni and cheese will