GUALBA, Spain (AP) — Plastic jugs in hand, Joan Torrent takes a path into the woods in search of drinking water. He fills them at a natural spring and then hauls them back to his home in Gualba, a picturesque village near Barcelona that like many towns in Spain is bearing the worst of a
GENEVA (AP) — Julius Baer says its CEO is resigning and the Swiss bank is quitting the private debt business as well as setting aside more than a half-billion Swiss francs (dollars) reportedly over its exposure to bankrupt Austrian asset manager Signa. Chairman Romeo Lacher expressed “regret” during a presentation Thursday on the bank’s 2023
NEW DELHI (AP) — India’s finance minister unveiled on Thursday a short-term budget to meet government expenditures until national elections are held by May, saying it will boost spending on infrastructure projects, build homes for poor villagers and cut the fiscal deficit by reducing subsidies.Nirmala Sitharaman announced plans to raise skills for young people and
COPENHAGEN, Denmark (AP) — Norway’s most powerful storm in more than three decades ripped off roofs, heightened avalanche risks, canceled flights and cut power as it raged in parts of the Scandinavian country Thursday.Hurricane-force winds brought gusts of up to 180 kilometers (112 miles) per hour in some places. A new national wind speed record
LONDON (AP) — Just like the U.S. Federal Reserve, the Bank of England is edging toward cutting interest rates — though not quite yet.The United Kingdom’s central bank kept its main interest rate at a near 16-year high of 5.25% on Thursday and indicated that borrowing costs have probably peaked. However, with inflation still too
TAIPEI, Taiwan (AP) — Han Kuo-yu of Taiwan’s pro-unification Nationalists was elected speaker of the island’s legislature on Thursday, a sort of consolation prize for China, which claims the self-governing democracy as its own territory. The Nationalists, also known as the Kuomintang or KMT, won 52 of the legislature’s 113 seats in a Jan. 13
NEW YORK (AP) — U.S. stocks are holding steadier Thursday following their worst tumble in months.The S&P 500 was 0.6% higher in morning trading. The Dow Jones Industrial Average was up 113 points, or 0.3%, as of 10:15 a.m. Eastern time, and the Nasdaq composite was 0.8% higher.A suite of reports suggested the economy remains
BERLIN (AP) — Security workers at most of Germany’s major airports walked off the job Thursday in a one-day strike to step up pressure in a pay dispute, prompting widespread flight cancellations.The ver.di union, which announced the walkout on Tuesday afternoon, called on workers to strike at 11 airports: Frankfurt, Berlin, Cologne, Duesseldorf, Hamburg, Stuttgart
SEOUL, South Korea (AP) — A South Korean judge convicted a man of murder Thursday for an unprovoked car-and-stabbing rampage that killed two people and injured 12 others in a city near Seoul last year.Prosecutors had sought a death penalty for 23-year-old Choi Won-jong, who was arrested in August after he rammed his car into
TOKYO (AP) — Tokyo’s fish market on Thursday opened a long-awaited outer section with Japanese-style seafood restaurants and a spa for relaxation, as the wholesale venue that has struggled since relocating from the beloved Tsukiji market seeks to lure more visitors.Toyosu Senkyaku Banrai includes a food court resembling an Edo samurai-era street, lined with about
