Snowballing protests by French farmers crept closer to Paris on Thursday, with tractors driving in convoys and blocking roads in many regions of the country to ratchet up pressure for government measures to protect the influential agricultural sector from foreign competition, red tape, rising costs and poverty-levels of pay for the worst-off producers.Traffic-snarling drive-slows, barricades
KATHMANDU, Nepal (AP) — Nepal has asked Russia to send back hundreds of Nepali nationals who were recruited to fight against Ukraine and repatriate the bodies of those who died in the conflict, Nepal’s top diplomat said Thursday.The Russian army is estimated to have recruited more than 200 Nepali nationals to fight in Ukraine and
AUGUSTA, Maine (AP) — A commission investigating a mass shooting that killed 18 people in Maine last year is scheduled to hear Thursday from a police agency that had contact with the shooter before he committed the killings.Democratic Gov. Janet Mills and state Attorney General Aaron Frey assembled the commission to review the events that
ANKARA, Turkey (AP) — Turkey’s central bank raised its key interest rate by another 2.5 percentage points on Thursday, pressing ahead with a series of hikes aimed at combating inflation that reached nearly 65% in December.The bank brought its benchmark rate to 45%. It’s the eighth interest rate hike since President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has
ISLAMABAD (AP) — The Pakistani Taliban pledged Thursday not to attack election rallies, saying their targets are limited to the military and security forces, as political parties and independent candidates ramp up their campaigns ahead of the Feb. 8 vote.“We have nothing to do with these elections and the parties participating in them,” the Tehreek-e-Taliban
NEW DELHI (AP) — The French president arrived in India on Thursday, where he is expected to meet with Prime Minister Narendra Modi and will be the chief guest at the country’s national day celebrations.Emmanuel Macron began his visit with some sightseeing in the western city of Jaipur, a popular tourist destination, where he visited
SYDNEY (AP) — It’s a tiny Pacific island nation, one of the world’s smallest. But on Friday, elections in Tuvalu will be watched from Beijing and Taipei to Canberra, as voters choose a 16-seat parliament and, after negotiations, a prime minister.A big part of the international attention is linked to the increasing importance of China
Wall Street was slow to get moving early Thursday as markets absorbed more corporate earnings reports while waiting for the government’s first estimate of how the U.S. economy fared in the final quarter of 2023.Futures for the S&P 500 and the Dow Jones Industrial Average were little changed before the bell Thursday.Tesla tumbled more than
TAIPEI, Taiwan (AP) — A bipartisan delegation from the United States Congress reaffirmed support for Taiwan during a visit Thursday following its election of a new president. The delegation’s visit is the first by U.S. lawmakers to the island since the independence-leaning Democratic Progressive Party won a third-straight term in the Jan. 13 election. China
TOKYO (AP) — Weather officials in Japan predicted more heavy snow Thursday, a day after nearly 800 vehicles were trapped for hours on an expressway in central Japan. The 6-kilometer (4-mile) traffic jam happened after two trailers got stuck in the snow Wednesday, forcing soldiers to come in and help free the vehicles. Japan’s Meteorological
