AP National News

By RISDEL KASASIRA Associated Press KAMPALA, Uganda (AP) — A health official in Uganda has announced the East African country’s first seven cases of the omicron variant of the coronavirus. The director of clinical services, Charles Olaro, said the variant was detected in travelers from South Africa and Nigeria who arrived in Uganda on Nov.

By COLLEEN BARRY Associated Press MILAN (AP) — While many European theaters remain closed due to the pandemic, the famed Teatro alla Scala in Milan opens its new season Tuesday with the gala premiere of Verdi’s “Macbeth” to a fully seated house. La Scala resumed performances at full capacity in September, but there remain considerations

By JUSTIN SPIKE Associated Press BUDAPEST, Hungary (AP) — Hungary’s chief prosecutor has submitted a motion to the speaker of parliament to revoke the immunity of a governing party lawmaker who is suspected of accepting bribes and other crimes. The chief prosecutor said in a statement Tuesday that governing party lawmaker and deputy justice minister

SARAJEVO, Bosnia-Herzegovina (AP) — Bosnian authorities have arrested 5 ex-soldiers for crimes against Serb civilians in Sarajevo during the 1992-95 war. The prosecutor’s office on Tuesday said that they are suspected of killing at least eight civilians and of crimes against at least 100 victims, including unlawful imprisonment, torture, abuse, forced labor and inflicting bodily

By SEBABATSO MOSAMO Associated Press DINOKENG GAME RESERVE, South Africa (AP) — Recent travel bans imposed on South Africa and neighboring countries as a result of the discovery of the omicron variant in southern Africa have hammered the country’s safari business, already hard hit by the pandemic. South Africa’s tourism industry, which suffered a more

PARIS (AP) — French rescue workers have dug out the body of a man but also pulled a toddler and the child’s mother alive from the rubble of a three-story apartment building that collapsed in a suspected gas explosion on southern France’s Mediterranean coast. Firefighters are still searching Tuesday through the building remains for two

By DANICA KIRKA and JILL LAWLESS Associated Press LONDON (AP) — A whistleblower has alleged that Britain’s Foreign Office abandoned many of the nation’s allies in Afghanistan and left them to the mercy of the Taliban during the fall of the capital, Kabul, because of a dysfunctional and arbitrary evacuation effort. In devastating evidence to

BASRA, Iraq (AP) — An explosion has rocked the center of Iraq’s southern city of Basra, killing at least four people and wounding four others. The blast on Monday sent a column of black smoke into the sky. Local news reports initially reported a car bomb, but the governor of Basra told reporters on the

By MIKE CORDER Associated Press THE HAGUE, Netherlands (AP) — A Dutch appeals court has upheld a lower court’s decision to throw out a civil case against Israel’s defense minister and another former senior military officer over their roles in a deadly 2014 airstrike. The Hague District Court ruled in January 2020 that the case

BASRA, Iraq (AP) — An explosion has rocked the center of Iraq’s southern city of Basra, killing at least two people and wounding two others. The blast on Monday sent a column of black smoke into the sky. Local news reports initially reported a car bomb, but the governor of Basra told reporters on the

PARIS (AP) — French rescue workers have pulled a toddler and the child’s mother from the rubble of a three-story apartment building that collapsed in a suspected gas explosion on southern France’s Mediterranean coast. Firefighters are still searching Tuesday through rubble for three other people feared buried in the blast in the coastal town of

BASRA, Iraq (AP) — A large explosion has rocked the center of Iraq’s southern city of Basra, with local news reports saying there are multiple casualties. It was not immediately clear what caused the explosion on Monday. The blast sent a column of black smoke into the sky. Local reports said it was likely a

By KIRSTEN GRIESHABER Associated Press BERLIN (AP) — Germany’s parliament is set to debate a proposed vaccine mandate for hospital and nursing home staff, among other measures meant to help break the country’s biggest wave so far of coronavirus infections. At a special session Tuesday, parliament’s lower house also will discuss plans for vaccinations to

By JOE McDONALD AP Business Writer BEIJING (AP) — Global stock markets have followed Wall Street higher as anxiety about the coronavirus’s latest variant eases. London, Frankfurt, Tokyo and Shanghai advanced. Oil prices gained for a second day. Wall Street futures were higher after the chief White House medical adviser said the omicron variant might

By JOE McDONALD AP Business Writer BEIJING (AP) — Global investors are watching nervously as one of China’s biggest real estate developers tries to avoid a default on its $310 billion mountain of debt. Evergrande Group, which is scrambling to turn assets into cash, rattled financial markets Friday when it warned it might run out

BERLIN (AP) — Germany’s incoming governing parties have signed their agreement for what they portray as a progressive coalition, a day before Olaf Scholz is due to succeed longtime leader Angela Merkel as chancellor. The agreement hammered out last month between Scholz’s center-left Social Democrats, the environmentalist Greens and the pro-business Free Democrats received strong

By ISABEL DEBRE Associated Press DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) — The United Arab Emirates says that it is changing its official workweek to Monday to Friday, a change that will start next month. The UAE’s state-run WAM news agency said on Tuesday that as of January, government employees would work a half-day on Friday,

PARIS (AP) — French firefighters are searching through rubble for four people feared buried in an explosion that collapsed a three-story apartment building on southern France’s Mediterranean coast. Authorities for the southern Var region said one person was pulled in critical condition from the building’s remains and three others required emergency medical treatment following the

MILAN (AP) — Carmaker Stellantis announced a strategy Tuesday to embed AI-enabled software in 34 million vehicles across its 14 brands targeting 20 billion euros ($22.6 billion) in annual revenues by 2030.  CEO Carlos Tavares heralded the move as part of a strategy that would transform the car company into a “sustainable mobility tech company,”