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By BHARATHA MALLAWARACHI Associated Press COLOMBO, Sri Lanka (AP) — Sunil Perera, a versatile Sri Lankan singer, musician, composer and entertainer, has died of apparent complications from COVID-19. He was 68. Perera entertained generations of Sri Lankans with captivating songs, but won their minds and hearts with his outspoken comments against social injustice, corruption, racism

By PAUL WISEMAN AP Economics Writer WASHINGTON (AP) — Inflation at the wholesale level climbed 8.3% last month from August 2020, the biggest annual gain since the Labor Department started calculating the 12-month number in 2010. The Labor Department reported Friday that its producer price index — which measures inflationary pressures before they reach consumers

By MICHELLE CHAPMAN AP Business Writer Three of the nation’s largest food delivery companies are suing New York City over a limit on fees it put in place during the pandemic to protect restaurants devastated by the forced closure of their dining rooms. The city has continued to extend those caps even as vaccinations allow

BERLIN (AP) — The struggling center-right candidate to succeed German Chancellor Angela Merkel is touting his party’s law-and-order and security credentials as he tries to turn around disappointing polls, questioning his left-leaning rival’s stance toward the police and the military. Armin Laschet has been tapped by Merkel’s center-right Union bloc to succeed her after 16

Associated Press CHENNA TEKLEHAYMANOT, Ethiopia (AP) — At the scene of one of the deadliest battles of Ethiopia’s 10-month Tigray conflict, witness accounts reflect the increasingly blurred line between combatant and civilian after the federal government urged all capable citizens to stop the Tigray forces “once and for all.” Survivors in the village of Chenna

By MARI YAMAGUCHI Associatd Press TOKYO (AP) — Japan’s outspoken vaccinations minister, Taro Kono, has announced that he is running to become the head of the governing party, who usually is chosen prime minister, and pledged to be reform-minded and gets things done. Kono, a Georgetown University graduate who is fluent in English, has many

By MEG KINNARD and EMILY SWANSON Associated Press A decade after the 9/11 attacks, Americans were reasonably positive about the state of their rights and liberties. Today, 20 years since Sept. 11, not as much. That’s according to a poll by The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research. The survey builds on work conducted

MIAMI (AP) — Authorities say a fourth person has been accused of stealing the identities of victims in the South Florida condominium collapse that killed 98 people. Twenty-year-old Nelson Ronaldo Garcia-Medina was arrested on Wednesday. But his name was not included when the Miami-Dade state attorney announced three arrests in the case. He’s accused of

By ZEINA KARAM and SARAH EL DEEB Associated Press BEIRUT (AP) — Lebanon’s new prime minister has pledged to try and gain control of one of the world’s worst economic meltdowns, after forming a government following a year of political stalemate.  Lebanon has been without a fully empowered government since the catastrophic Aug. 4, 2020

LONDON (AP) — The head of Britain’s domestic intelligence agency says the Taliban takeover in Afghanistan has “heartened and emboldened” extremists and could lead to the return of major “al-Qaida-style” attack plots against the West. MI5 Director General Ken McCallum says the U.K. could face “more risk” because of the withdrawal of NATO troops and