AP National News

By LLAZAR SEMINI Associated Press TIRANA, Albania (AP) — NATO has started work to upgrade Albania’s communist-era Kucova Air Base, which will allow it to be used for alliance operations. The 45.8 million-euro ($52 million) upgrade will include renovating the runway, taxiways, and storage facilities and is designed to increase NATO interoperability and support airborne

NEW YORK (AP) — Ghislaine Maxwell has formally requested a new trial, less than a month after her conviction on sex trafficking charges. In a Wednesday letter to U.S. District Judge Alison J. Nathan, Maxwell lawyer Bobbi Sternheim said the motion for a new trial had been filed under seal and requested that all submissions

By BABR DOGAR Associated Press LAHORE, Pakistan (AP) — Pakistani police say a powerful bomb has exploded in a crowded bazar in Lahore, the country’s second-largest city, killing at least two people and wounding 26. A newly formed separatist group from the southwestern province of Baluchistan claimed responsibility for Thursday’s bombing. A senior police official

WARSAW, Poland (AP) — Veterinarians in Poland say they have euthanized a brown bear cub after more than a week of treatment failed to ease its serious neurological symptoms. The veterinarians said the bear, named Ada, would not have been able to survive on his own. He was suffering from advanced anaplasmosis, spread by ticks.

LJUBLJANA, Slovenia (AP) — Slovenia’s president says parliamentary election in Slovenia will be held on April 24. The vote will test the popularity of right-wing Prime Minister Janez Jansa amid political divisions in the small European Union nation. President Borut Pahor said Thursday he will formally schedule the vote in early February. The April 24

BERLIN (AP) — Germany’s foreign minister says that the country’s diplomats during the Nazi era shared blame for the Holocaust and she wants more training for staff to speak up against all forms of discrimination. In a statement marking the 80th anniversary of the Wannsee Conference, Annalena Baerbock said Thursday it was important to recognize

WARSAW, Poland (AP) — LOT Polish Airlines says lightning struck one of its planes and prompted the aircraft to return to Warsaw. An airline spokesperson said the lighting hit a Boeing 787 Dreamliner that was en route to Puerto Plata in the Dominican Republic on Thursday. He said no one was hurt and the passengers

RAF CASERT Associated Press BRUSSELS (AP) — The 19-year-old Belgian-British pilot Zara Rutherford has set a world record as the youngest woman to fly solo around the world. Her small airplane down in western Belgium on Thursday. It came 155 days after she departed. Rutherford will find herself in the Guinness World Records book after

By JUSTIN SPIKE Associated Press BUDAPEST, Hungary (AP) — Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban plans to meet with President Vladimir Putin on Feb. 1 to discuss the progress of a project to expand a Hungarian nuclear power plan. Hungary’s foreign minister told Russian state news agency Tass on Thursday that Hungary wants the project to

By BHARATHA MALLAWARACHI Associated Press COLOMBO, Sri Lanka (AP) — Sri Lanka has paid $500 million due on sovereign bonds from its badly depleted foreign reserves despite calls by experts to defer it and use the sum to import essential food and medicine. The Indian ocean island nation is in its worst crisis in decades,

By GEIR MOULSON Associated Press BERLIN (AP) — A long-awaited report on sexual abuse in Germany’s Munich diocese has faulted retired Pope Benedict XVI’s handling of cases when he was archbishop in the 1970s and 1980s. The law firm that drew up the report said that Benedict strongly denies any wrongdoing. The report also faulted

BANGKOK (AP) — Thailand will ease entry requirements for vaccinated visitors from all countries next month as concerns about the omicron variant of the coronavirus decline. The country’s tourism-dominated economy was devastated by travel restrictions imposed in 2020 to fight the spread of COVID-19. The number of foreign tourists has remained low despite a relaxation

By RODNEY MUHUMUZA Associated Press KAMPALA, Uganda (AP) — A dispute over COVID-19 testing fees for truckers has created a fuel crisis in Uganda, highlighting an economic impact of the pandemic in a landlocked country with virtually no fuel reserves of its own. Mandatory COVID-19 testing at the country’s border with Kenya caused traffic congestion

By LAUREN SCHWAHN of NerdWallet Paying for gifts, travel, entertaining and other holiday expenses has caused many of us to start off the new year in debt. The sooner you create a plan, the sooner you can leave that debt behind. Here’s what experts say you can do to get a handle on your holiday

By LAURAN NEERGAARD AP Medical Writer U.S. researchers are reporting the latest in a surprising string of experiments in the quest to save human lives with organs from genetically modified pigs. This time, surgeons in Alabama transplanted a pair of pig kidneys into a brain-dead man. It was a step-by-step rehearsal for an operation they

WARSAW, Poland (AP) — A Polish news broadcaster has reported that a LOT Polish airlines plane was struck by lightning, prompting the plane to return to Warsaw. TVN24 cited a passenger who said that passengers experienced a moment of terror but that nobody was harmed and the plane landed safely. LOT’s press office did not

GENEVA (AP) — A U.N.-backed group says it has signed agreements with more than two dozen generic drug makers to produce versions of Merck’s coronavirus pill to supply 105 developing countries. In a statement on Thursday, the Medicines Patent Pool said the deals would allow drug companies to make both the raw ingredients for molnupiravir

By GEIR MOULSON Associated Press BERLIN (AP) — A long-awaited report on sexual abuse in Germany’s Munich diocese has faulted retired Pope Benedict XVI’s handling of cases when he was archbishop in the 1970s and 1980s. The law firm that drew up the report said that Benedict strongly denies any wrongdoing. The report also faulted

ANKARA, Turkey (AP) — Turkey’s central bank has kept a key interest rate unchanged, halting a string of rate cuts that triggered a currency crisis and sent prices skyrocketing. The bank’s Monetary Policy Committee said Thursday that it has decided to keep its policy rate “constant” at 14%. The moves puts on hold a rate-cutting

JERUSALEM (AP) — Israel’s police chief says he has ordered an extensive investigation into a newspaper’s claims that the force had used controversial Israeli spyware to hack the phones of protesters, mayors and other citizens under investigation without proper authorization. Police Commissioner Kobi Shabtai said Thursday that immediately following the report’s publication, police launched “a