AP National News

By DAVID RISING and SOPHENG CHEANG Associated Press PHNOM PENH, Cambodia (AP) — A Cambodian court has released five activists, including a prominent labor leader who has been a longtime critic of the government. The Phnom Penh Court of Appeals says it ordered the release of Rong Chhun and four others, but gave no immediate

TEL AVIV, Israel (AP) — An Israeli appeals court says a 6-year-old boy who survived a cable car crash in Italy must be returned to his relatives there within 15 days, upholding an earlier ruling in a bitter custody battle with family members in Israel. Eitan Biran’s parents and younger sibling were among 14 people

By LAURIE KELLMAN Associated Press JERUSALEM (AP) — A Palestinian doctor living in Canada is back in Israel, seeking justice for his three daughters and a niece killed in 2009 by a direct Israeli strike on his house in Gaza. Israel’s highest court will hear his appeal on Monday, demanding an official apology and compensation

LOS ANGELES (AP) — Graeme Edge, a drummer and co-founder of The Moody Blues, has died. He was 80. The band’s frontman Justin Hayward confirmed Edge’s death Thursday on the group’s website. The cause of his death has not been revealed. Hayward called Edge the backbone of the British rock band, which was inducted into

By GRANT PECK Associated Press BANGKOK (AP) — A court in military-ruled Myanmar has sentenced U.S. journalist Danny Fenster to 11 years in prison with hard labor. It’s the maximum penalty under three charges and was imposed despite calls by the United States and rights groups for Fenster’s release. It is also harshest punishment yet

By AMY BETH HANSON Associated Press HELENA, Mont. (AP) — A little girl who lost a teddy bear she’d had since being adopted from an Ethiopian orphanage thought it was gone forever when she forgot it along a trail in Glacier National Park last year. But thanks to a social media plea, the sharp eyes

By ANDREW DALTON AP Entertainment Writer LOS ANGELES (AP) — Britney Spears’ independence day may have arrived. At a hearing in Los Angeles Friday, a judge will decide whether to terminate the conservatorship that has controlled the pop superstar’s life and money for nearly 14 years. With no significant opposition, it appears likely Judge Brenda

By MATT SEDENSKY AP National Writer Police continue to investigate a concert last week in Houston that left nine in the audience dead. A clearer timeline of the tragedy is emerging from those in the crowd. Concertgoers describe mounting anticipation for headline rapper Travis Scott that led people to push toward the stage. Meantime, lunges

By SCOTT BAUER, MICHAEL TARM and AMY FORLITI Associated Press KENOSHA, Wis. (AP) — Prosecutors and defense attorneys for Kyle Rittenhouse will return to the courthouse without the jury present on Friday to finalize how jurors will be instructed when they get the case next week and begin deliberating. Rittenhouse’s lawyers rested their case Thursday,

By ELAINE KURTENBACH AP Business Writer Shares are mostly higher in Asia after Wall Street benchmarks managed to close mostly higher. Stocks advanced in Tokyo, Hong Kong, Seoul and Sydney in early trading. Shanghai was flat. The S&P 500 is still on track for its first weekly loss in six weeks after eking out a

By CURT ANDERSON Associated Press CLEARWATER, Fla. (AP) — A prosthetic-tailed dolphin named Winter that starred in the “Dolphin Tale” movies has died at a Florida aquarium despite life-saving efforts by animal care experts. The Clearwater Marine Aquarium said the 16-year-old female bottlenose dolphin died Thursday evening while being treated for a gastrointestinal abnormality. It

JEFFERSON COUNTY, Ohio (AP) — Authorities say the bodies of an Ohio couple missing since 2018 are believed to have been found in a car submerged in the Ohio River. Joni Davis and her longtime boyfriend and caregiver, Brian Goff, disappeared in June 2018. Jefferson County Sheriff Fred Abdalla said at a news conference that

By RUSS BYNUM Associated Press BRUNSWICK, Ga. (AP) — An attorney for one of three white men standing trial in the death of Ahmaud Arbery in Georgia says he doesn’t want “any more Black pastors” in the courtroom. Attorney Kevin Gough made the comment to the trial judge Thursday, a day after the Rev. Al

COLUMBIA, Mo. (AP) — A Missouri man has been found guilty of killing his wife, whose remains were not found for more than a year. A jury on Thursday convicted Joseph Elledge of second-degree murder in the October 2019 death of 28-year-old Mengqi Ji. Her remains were found in March in a park near Columbia.

By STEPHEN WADE AP Sports Writer Human Rights Watch is asking leading sponsors of the Beijing Winter Olympics to explain why they remain largely silent about alleged human rights abuses in China with the Games opening there in just under three months. The rights group said in an on-line briefing that it had reached out

By JONATHAN J. COOPER Associated Press PHOENIX (AP) — A jury has awarded $2.75 million to an Arizona legislative staffer who said she was fired from her job as a policy adviser for state Senate Democrats because of discrimination based on her race and gender. Tuesday’s verdict marks the second trial victory for Talonya Adams,

By ELAINE KURTENBACH AP Business Writer Shares are mostly higher in Asia after Wall Street benchmarks managed to close mostly higher. Stocks advanced in Tokyo, Hong Kong, Shanghai, Seoul and Sydney in early trading. The S&P 500 is still on track for its first weekly loss in six weeks after eking out a gain of

By EDITH M. LEDERER Associated Press UNITED NATIONS (AP) — Russia’s deputy U.N. ambassador says Moscow is never going to invade Ukraine unless it is first provoked by its neighbor or someone else — and he immediately pointed to what he called many threats from Ukraine and provocative actions by U.S. warships in the Black

CORPUS CHRISTI, Texas (AP) — The attorney for a Black teenager from Texas says several other teens attacked his client with a stun gun on Halloween while wearing costumes resembling Ku Klux Klan robes. At a news conference, Matt Manning says the Halloween assault involved high school students in Woodsboro, a small town 30 miles

CHICAGO (AP) — U.S. Rep. Lauren Underwood is recovering after surgery to remove uterine fibroids. Her office says surgery for the second-term Democrat went as planned Thursday and she’ll be recovering in Illinois “over the coming weeks.” In a statement, Underwood thanked the medical team at the University of Chicago Medical Center. Uterine fibroids are