News

By SAM MCNEIL Associated Press BEIJING (AP) — China says three astronauts who lived on its space station for 90 days have left in preparation for returning to Earth. The national space agency said Nie Haisheng, Liu Boming and Tang Hongbo boarded the Shenzhou-12 spacecraft and undocked from the space station Thursday morning. State broadcaster

By JILL LAWLESS Associated Press LONDON (AP) — London’s Old Vic Theatre is reopening at full capacity for the first time since the pandemic began. The show is “Camp Siegfried,” American writer Bess Wohl’s play about a summer camp for Nazis on New York’s Long Island. It’s based on a real-life camp in the 1930s

By JOEAL CALUPITAN and DAVID RISING Associated Press MANILA, Philippines (AP) — Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte’s top legal adviser has lashed out at the International Criminal Court’s decision to investigate allegations of crimes against humanity during his bloody war on drugs, accusing the body of being used as a pawn by the popular leader’s political

By FRANK JORDANS and JAMEY KEATEN Associated Press GENEVA (AP) — The head of the United Nations is calling for “immediate, rapid and large-scale” cuts in greenhouse gas emissions to curb global warming. Antonio Guterres warned governments ahead of next week’s annual U.N. General Assembly that climate change is proceeding faster than predicted and fossil

By FADI TAWIL and BILAL HUSSEIN Associated Press AL-AIN, Lebanon (AP) — A convoy of tanker trucks carrying Iranian diesel has arrived from Syria to Lebanon. The delivery was organized by the militant Hezbollah group to ease crippling fuel shortages in the crisis-hit Mediterranean country. The shipment violates U.S. sanctions imposed on Tehran after former

By NINIEK KARMINI Associated Press JAKARTA, Indonesia (AP) — An Indonesian court has ruled that President Joko Widodo and six top officials have neglected citizens’ rights to clean air and has ordered them to improve the poor air quality in the capital. The Central Jakarta District Court panel voted 3-0 in favor of the group

By BHARATHA MALLAWARACHI Associated Press COLOMBO, Sri Lanka (AP) — Environmentalists in Sri Lanka are challenging a court order that would allow the return of 14 illegally captured wild elephants to people accused of buying them from traffickers. Rights groups and lawyers say the Sept. 6 court order is based on a government decree that

By JIM HEINTZ Associated Press MOSCOW (AP) — Russia has begun three days of voting for a new parliament that is unlikely to change the country’s political complexion. There’s no expectation that United Russia, the party devoted to President Vladimir Putin, will lose its dominance in the State Duma. The main question is whether it

By JOSEF FEDERMAN Associated Press ATLIT, Israel (AP) — Israel’s just-retired navy chief says the military has stepped up its activities in the Red Sea “exponentially” in the face of growing Iranian threats to Israeli shipping. Vice Adm. Eli Sharvit spoke in an interview with The Associated Press days after completing his five-year term. He

By ISABEL DEBRE Associated Press DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) — A month after the fall of Kabul, the question of how the world will help Afghanistan’s impoverished people without propping up their Taliban rulers grows more urgent by the day. Donor countries have pledged $1.2 billion in humanitarian aid through the United Nations. But

By ELAINE KURTENBACH AP Business Writer Asian shares are mixed after a hodge-podge of economic data led Wall Street to close mostly lower.  Benchmarks rose in Tokyo, Hong Kong and Seoul but fell in Shanghai and Sydney. The S&P 500 and the Dow Jones Industrial Average each lost about 0.2% Thursday, while the tech-heavy Nasdaq

By JEFFREY COLLINS Associated Press COLUMBIA, S.C. (AP) — A prominent South Carolina lawyer has surrendered to face insurance fraud and other charges in what’s described as a failed plot to arrange his own death. Alex Murdaugh was issued a $20,000 bond and released Thursday on his own recognizance to return to drug rehab after