AP National News

By MARI YAMAGUCHI Associated Press TOKYO (AP) — Tokyo and a dozen other areas in Japan will face new coronavirus restrictions effective Friday, with local leaders shortening hours for restaurants, as omicron cases hit a record high in the capital. Prime Minister Fumio Kishida announced a plan to put the areas under a three-week restraint

By ILAN BEN ZION Associated Press JERUSALEM (AP) — An Israeli Cabinet minister has dismissed claims that police used controversial spyware to surveil protesters, a day after a newspaper investigation prompted outraged lawmakers to seek a formal inquiry. The Wednesday comments came a day after a Hebrew-language business paper published allegations that Israeli Police used

BEIJING (AP) — China is condemning plans by Slovenia to upgrade relations with self-governing Taiwan, a move likely to spark diplomatic and economic retaliation against the tiny Central European country. China’s Foreign Ministry spokesperson on Wednesday said China was “shocked by this and strongly opposed to it,” but gave no immediate details on how Beijing

By YURI KAGEYAMA AP Business Writer TOKYO (AP) — Global shares have mostly fallen in cautious trading after stocks on Wall Street sank to a new low for the year. Paris was higher while Frankfurt and London declined. U.S. futures were lower. Asian benchmarks also were mostly lower, with Tokyo down nearly 3%. Sony Corp.

MADRID (AP) — Spanish authorities say six residents of a nursing home near Valencia have died in a fire. A regional official said Wednesday that another 17 residents were hospitalized. The official says the cause of the fire is under investigation but officials think it might have started with a short-circuit in a mechanism linked

By MIKE CORDER Associated Press AMSTERDAM (AP) — Dutch talent show The Voice of Holland has been taken off air in the Netherlands amid a sexual misconduct scandal. The furor is one of the most serious #MeToo reckonings to hit the Dutch entertainment world and focuses on a show created in the Netherlands but broadcast

ANKARA, Turkey (AP) — The Turkish central bank says it and the United Arab Emirates have agreed to a currency swap deal equivalent to $4.74 billion to boost Turkey’s depleted foreign exchange reserves. Under the agreement announced Wednesday, Turkey and the UAE agreed to swap 65 billion Turkish lira and 18 billion UAE dirham for

BEIJING (AP) — With just over two weeks before the opening of the Beijing Winter Olympics, residents of the Chinese capital are disappointed at not being able to attend events because of coronavirus restrictions. Organizers have announced no tickets will be sold to the general public and only selected spectators will be allowed. Access to

BERLIN (AP) — German news agency dpa has reported that police are investigating thousands of cases of suspected forgery of coronavirus vaccine certificates. The dpa report on Wednesday cited figures obtained from the country’s 16 states showing more than 12,000 police investigations have been opened nationwide. Dpa reported that the number of probes surged in

By MATTHEW LEE AP Diplomatic Writer KYIV, Ukraine (AP) — As U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken visits Ukraine the Biden administration says it’s providing an additional $200 million in defensive military aid to the country amid soaring fears of a Russian invasion. A senior State Department official said the assistance was approved last month

By SUZAN FRASER Associated Press ANKARA, Turkey (AP) — Turkey’s government and central bank have taken unconventional steps in recent weeks to prop up a beleaguered economy crippled by skyrocketing consumer prices, instead of ending a much-criticized plan to cut interest rates. President Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s insistence on cutting rates is the opposite of what

By JON GAMBRELL Associated Press DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) — Airlines across the world, including the long-haul carrier Emirates, are rushing to cancel or change flights heading into the U.S. over an ongoing dispute about the rollout of 5G mobile phone technology near American airports. The issue appeared to particularly impact the Boeing 777,

By CALEB M. LARSON Associated Press BERLIN (AP) — A court in Germany has begun hearing a case against a Syrian doctor accused of crimes against humanity for torturing and killing inmates at a government-run prison and two military hospitals in his home country. Federal prosecutors say the doctor worked at a military intelligence prison

MADRID (AP) — Spanish authorities say that at least five people have died in a fire at a nursing home near Valencia in eastern Spain. Emergency services for the Valencia region said Wednesday that in addition to the victims another 11 people required hospital treatment. Three of them are in serious condition. Firefighters said that

ANKARA, Turkey (AP) — An explosion has shut down a pipeline in southeastern Turkey that carries oil from Iraq to world markets. The state-run Anadolu Agency reported that the blast late Tuesday in Kahramanmaras province caused a huge fire that forced authorities to also shut down a highway. No one was hurt in the explosion.

By MOUSSA MOUSSA and DAVID RISING Associated Press SYDNEY (AP) — Three of Tonga’s smaller islands have suffered serious damage from tsunami waves, officials and the Red Cross say, as a wider picture begins to emerge of the destruction caused by the eruption of an undersea volcano near the Pacific archipelago nation. Communications have been

By JON GAMBRELL Associated Press DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) — Airlines across the world, including the long-haul carrier Emirates, are rushing to cancel or change flights heading into the U.S. over an ongoing dispute about the rollout of 5G mobile phone technology near American airports. Dubai-based Emirates, a key carrier for East-West travel, announced

By YURI KAGEYAMA AP Business Writer TOKYO (AP) — Asian shares have fallen in cautious trading after stocks on Wall Street sank to a new low for the year. Shares sank in Tokyo, Hong Kong, Shanghai, Seoul and Sydney. Technology shares led the decline Tuesday on Wall Street. Increasing coronavirus infections in Asia, linked to

By MATTHEW LEE AP Diplomatic Writer KYIV, Ukraine (AP) — U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken will meet with his Russian counterpart in Switzerland this week as tensions between the U.S. and Russia escalate over a possible Russian invasion of Ukraine. Blinken arrived in Kyiv on Wednesday to meet with President Volodymyr Zelenskyy. The American

By KATHY McCORMACK and JON GAMBRELL Associated Press CONCORD, N.H. (AP) — A recent development may open a path forward for an ambitious lawsuit filed by the family of a deceased Lebanese American man over allegations that Lebanon’s security agency kidnapped and tortured him. Amer Fakhoury was a New Hampshire restaurant owner. He made his