AP National News

BERLIN (AP) — A 30-year-old German man has been found guilty of an attack on a Jewish restaurant three years ago in the eastern German city of Chemnitz in which the owner was injured and the restaurant damaged. The court ruled Wednesday that the man was found guilty of severe aggravated assault and breach of

By TARIK EL BARAKAH Associated Press RABAT, Morocco (AP) — Moroccans are choosing a new parliament and local leaders in elections reshaped by the pandemic. Candidates are promising to create jobs and boost the North African country’s economy, education and health care. The governing Islamist party is eyeing a third term at the helm of

By CHRISTOPH NOELTING and GEIR MOULSON Associated Press RAMSTEIN AIR BASE, Germany (AP) — U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken says that any legitimacy or international support for the Taliban “will have to be earned” after Afghanistan’s new rulers announced an interim government that drew a deeply skeptical Western response. Blinken said Wednesday that the

By KIKO ROSARIO and DAVID RISING Associated Press MANILA, Philippines (AP) — The Philippines’ governing party has nominated President Rodrigo Duterte as its vice presidential candidate in next year’s elections. His candidacy is seen as an attempt to stay near the center of power while avoiding constitutional term limits. The party’s nominee for president declined

By ROD McGUIRK Associated Press CANBERRA, Australia (AP) — Australia’s foreign and defense ministers are visiting Indonesia, India, South Korea and the United States to bolster economic and security relationships within the Asia-Pacific region, where tensions are rising with China. Foreign Minister Marise Payne and Defense Minister Peter Dutton left Australia on Wednesday despite pandemic

MOSCOW (AP) — Russian law enforcement officials say a gas explosion in an apartment building outside Moscow has killed two people and injured at least five others. The blast occurred Wednesday morning in a nine-story building in the town of Noginsk, 50 kilometers (30 miles) east of Moscow. The blast affected the lower part of

By MARI YAMAGUCHI Associated Press TOKYO (AP) — One of the main candidates to be Japan’s next prime minister says the country needs a new type of capitalism to address income and social gaps caused by the pandemic. Former Foreign Minister Fumio Kishida says deregulation and structural reforms strengthened Japan’s economy and promoted growth, but

By ARNO PEDRAM Associated Press PARIS (AP) — Twenty men accused in the Islamic State group’s 2015 attacks on Paris that left 130 people dead and hundreds injured are on trial in the French capital. The proceedings began Wednesday in an enormous custom-designed chamber. Nine gunmen and suicide bombers struck within minutes of each other

By MICHAEL LIEDTKE and BARBARA ORTUTAY AP Technology Writers SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — Thriving Silicon Valley companies were among the first to embrace remote work during the pandemic, but they’ve struggled over how to recall their high-paid employees to the office. Their varied — and sometimes quickly reversed — attempts to justify free food and

By JOSEPH PISANI AP Retail Writer NEW YORK (AP) — There will be something missing at two Whole Foods stores opening next year: the rows of cashiers. Amazon, which owns the grocery chain, said Wednesday that it will bring its cashier-less technology to two Whole Foods stores for the first time, letting shoppers grab what

By STEPHEN McGRATH Associated Press VELIKO TARNOVO, Bulgaria (AP) — Bulgaria has one of the highest coronavirus death rates and the lowest vaccination rate in the 27-nation European Union. The country is now facing a rapid surge of infections due to the more infectious delta variant. The chief vaccination nurse at a hospital in northern

By LORI HINNANT and NICOLAS VAUX-MONTAGNY Associated Press PARIS (AP) — The trial of 20 men accused in a series of coordinated attacks on Paris in 2015 that spread fear across Europe and transformed the nation has opened in a custom-built complex embedded within a 13th-century courthouse. Nine Islamic State group gunmen and suicide bombers

By The Associated Press KABUL, Afghanistan — The interior ministry of the new Taliban government is seeking to end protests in Afghanistan after days of demonstrations that have brought heavy-handed assaults on protesters. The minister has issued an order to end all protests in the country — unless demonstrators get prior permission, including approval of

By JERRY SCHWARTZ Associated Press Rudolph Giuliani was a hero before he was a punchline. Lisa Beamer was a wife and mother before she became a symbol of Sept. 11, and though her celebrity passed, her widowhood cannot. In the aftermath of the planes falling from the sky, America and the world were introduced to

By ELAINE KURTENBACH AP Business Writer Shares have fallen in Asia after further losses on Wall Street following a Federal Reserve report showing U.S. economic activity slowed this summer. The report pointed to resurgent coronavirus cases and mounting supply chain problems and labor shortages. Benchmarks fell in Tokyo, Hong Kong, Shanghai and Sydney. On Wednesday,

By BOBBY CAINA CALVAN Associated Press NEW YORK (AP) — Nearly 3,000 people who died from the terrorist attacks on Sept. 11, 2001 aren’t being forgotten. Their stories endure at the 9/11 Memorial & Museum, where personal artifacts help memorialize some of those who perished. From scorched and bloodied shoes to mangled eyeglasses, the growing

By ALANNA DURKIN RICHER Associated Press BOSTON (AP) — The first trial of “Operation Varsity Blues” will begin this week with the potential to shed light on investigators’ tactics and brighten the spotlight on a college admissions process many complain favors the rich. Jury selection is beginning Wednesday in federal court in Boston in the

By BRIAN MELLEY Associated Press LOS ANGELES (AP) — Prosecutors say there is overwhelming evidence proving New York real estate heir Robert Durst killed his best friend 21 years ago. Deputy District Attorney Habib Balian told jurors Wednesday in closing arguments in Los Angeles Superior Court that Durst killed Susan Berman in 2000 because he

By SARAH RANKIN and DENISE LAVOIE Associated Press RICHMOND, Va. (AP) — A statue of Gen. Robert E. Lee that towered over Richmond, Virginia, for generations has been taken down, cut into pieces and hauled away. It happened as the former capital of the Confederacy erased the last of the Civil War figures that once

SOUTH LAKE TAHOE, Calif. (AP) — California’s interior is hot and dry and the forecast calls for a risk of fire-starting dry lightning as thousands of firefighters already have their hands full with wildland blazes. A heat advisory for Wednesday stretches down the Central Valley and through inland Southern California, with an excessive heat warning