AP National News

By SYLVIE CORBET Associated Press PARIS (AP) — French customers will be encouraged to adopt more environmentally friendly habits under a series of new regulations to take effect in 2022. Beginning Saturday, leeks and carrots, tomatoes and potatoes, apples and pears and about 30 other items will no longer be sold in plastic. Starting in

By DAVID SHARP Associated Press PORTLAND, Maine (AP) — The U.S. Postal Service pulled out all the stops to avoid a repeat of the 2020 holiday shipping disaster, and it worked. The Postal Service and several other private shippers reported that holiday season deliveries went smoothly, for the most part. ShipMatrix, which analyzes shipping package

By WILSON RING Associated Press From minimum wage increases to animal protection to police accountability to both cutting and increasing taxes a series of new laws are taking effect across the country on Saturday, the first day of 2022. Some of the laws such as abortion restrictions in New Hampshire or police reform measures in

By FRANK JORDANS Associated Press BERLIN (AP) — Germany has shut down half of the six nuclear plants it still has in operation. It comes a year before the country draws the final curtain on its decades-long use of atomic power. The decision to phase out nuclear power and shift from fossil fuels to renewable

By DAVID McHUGH AP Business Writer FRANKFURT, Germany (AP) — This New Year’s the European Central Bank is celebrating the 20th anniversary of the euro’s notes and coins. The physical euro was introduced on January 1, 2002, three years after the euro was adopted for noncash purposes by fixing its exchange rate to legacy national

BRUSSELS (AP) — The International Federation of Journalists says that 45 reporters and media workers were killed doing their jobs over the last year. Strife-torn Afghanistan was the most dangerous country in 2021. The federation said Friday that the figure represents one of the lowest death tolls in 30 years. Sixty-five deaths were recorded in

RAMALLAH, West Bank (AP) — The Israeli military says troops shot and seriously wounded a Palestinian man as he ran toward a bus stop in the occupied West Bank wielding a knife in an attempted stabbing attack. It said the alleged attacker exited a car at a junction on Friday and advanced toward a group

BERLIN (AP) — Germany is shutting down half of the six nuclear plants it still has in operation. It comes a year before the country draws the final curtain on its decades-long use of atomic power. The decision to phase out nuclear power and shift from fossil fuels to renewable energy was first taken by

By NOHA ELHENNAWY Associated Press CAIRO (AP) — The World Food Program has suspended its operations across Sudan’s province of North Darfur following recent attacks on its warehouses. The U.N. food agency’s decision Thursday is expected to affect around 2 million people who live in the area. All three of the agency’s warehouses in the

By ANDREW MELDRUM Associated Press CAPE TOWN, South Africa (AP) — South Africans of all walks of life are paying their respects to Desmond Tutu. The Nobel Peace Prize-winning retired Anglican archbishop’s plain pine casket was on view Friday in St. George’s Anglican Cathedral in Cape Town. Anglican clergy — women and men, Black and

By ELAINE KURTENBACH AP Business Writer BANGKOK (AP) — Global shares are mixed after a late slide pulled major indexes into the red on Wall Street, leaving the S&P 500 and the Dow Jones Industrial Average slightly below record highs they set a day earlier. Paris and London were lower while Hong Kong and Shanghai

SYDNEY (AP) — New coronavirus infections have soared again in Australia to a record of more than 32,000, just days after surpassing 10,000 for the first time. Experts say the explosion is being driven by the omicron variant and a recent relaxation of virus rules in Sydney and other areas. While hospitalizations and deaths have

HONG KONG (AP) — Hong Kong’s Cathay Pacific Airlines is suspending cargo flights for a week due to stricter quarantine requirements for air crews, potentially adding to strain on global supply chains. The airline says long-haul flights to Europe, across the Pacific and to Riyadh and Dubai are suspended through Jan. 6. On Friday, Hong

By NICK PERRY Associated Press WELLINGTON, New Zealand (AP) — In many places around the world, plans for New Year’s Eve celebrations are muted or canceled for the second straight year due to a surge of coronavirus infections, this time driven by the highly contagious omicron variant. New Zealand was one of the first places

By CHRISTOPHER TORCHIA Associated Press An anguished encounter between two titans of South Africa’s anti-apartheid struggle during the country’s Truth and Reconciliation Commission hearings still rankles some Black South Africans. They think Desmond Tutu mistreated Winnie Madikizela-Mandela in begging her to apologize for her links to a gang known as the Mandela United Football Club

By ELENA BECATOROS Associated Press SHEDAI CAMP, Afghanistan (AP) — A woman displaced by war and drought in Afghanistan is fighting to save her daughter. Aziz Gul’s husband sold their 10-year-old into marriage without telling his wife, taking a down payment so he could feed his family of five children. He told her that without

BEIJING (AP) — A survey shows Chinese factory activity edged higher in December as supply disruptions eased and export demand weakened. The monthly purchasing managers’ index issued by the national statistics agency and an industry group gained to 50.3 from November’s 50.1 on a 100-point scale on which numbers above 50 show activity accelerating. Chinese

By PATTY NIEBERG, BRADY McCOMBS and COLLEEN SLEVIN Associated Press/Report for America DENVER (AP) — Late season wildfires fueled by strong winds have burned hundreds of homes, a hotel and a shopping center outside Denver. The fires have forced thousands of people to flee their homes. At least one first responder and six others have

By BOBBY CAINA CALVAN and JENNIFER PELTZ Associated Press NEW YORK (AP) — New York City has revived its annual New Year’s Eve celebration in Times Square, as an uneasy nation tries to muster optimism that the worst days of the pandemic are now behind it. The city said it would limit the number of