PARIS (AP) — A special court cleared France’s justice minister of conflict of interest Wednesday, ruling he was not guilty of having used his office to settle personal scores. Once a high-profile lawyer, Eric Dupond-Moretti was accused of abusing his position to order probes targeting magistrates who investigated him, his friends and his former clients.
SURAMA, Guyana (AP) — Congregants of an Anglican church in a sparsely populated rainforest village in Guyana gathered recently to bid on a bounty of bananas, squash and other produce during a community event. They sang hymns and rang a bell after each successful bid.They offered grateful devotions typical of a harvest festival but also
JOHANNESBURG (AP) — Members of South African political parties, civil society organisations and other supporters marched through the streets of Johannesburg on Wednesday demanding a permanent cease-fire in Gaza as they marked the International Day of Solidarity with the Palestinian People.Rival political parties including the ruling African National Congress and the leftist opposition Economic Freedom
DETROIT (AP) — Electric vehicles have proved far less reliable, on average, than gasoline-powered cars, trucks and SUVs, according to the latest survey by Consumer Reports, which found that EVs from the 2021 through 2023 model years encountered nearly 80% more problems than did vehicles propelled by internal combustion engines. Consumer Reports said EV owners
LANSING, Mich. (AP) — Michigan is joining an effort to curb deceptive uses of artificial intelligence and manipulated media through state-level policies as Congress and the Federal Elections Commission continue to debate more sweeping regulations ahead of the 2024 elections.Campaigns on the state and federal level will be required to clearly say which political advertisements
ABUJA, Nigeria (AP) — Nigeria’s leader on Wednesday presented a 27.5 trillion naira ($34.8 billion) spending plan for 2024 to federal lawmakers, with a focus on stabilizing Africa’s largest but ailing economy and tackling the nation’s deadly security crisis.The primary objective next year is to sustain the “robust foundation for sustainable economic development” that the
BERLIN (AP) — A 15-year-old boy has been arrested in Germany on suspicion of planning and preparing a terror attack, authorities said Wednesday.Prosecutors in Duesseldorf said the teenager was detained Tuesday during a search at his home. A court in nearby Leverkusen ordered him kept in custody Wednesday pending a possible indictment, they said in
HELSINKI (AP) — NATO member Finland on Wednesday closed its last remaining border crossing with Russia after the government decided to seal the entire border with its eastern neighbor amid rising political tensions.The Cabinet of Finnish Prime Minister Petteri Orpo decided to temporarily close the entire 1,340-kilometer (830-mile) border between the two countries a day
WARSAW, Poland (AP) — A teenage student attacked classmates with a knife at a high school in northeastern Poland and injured three of them on Wednesday, police said. The attack took place during lessons at the high school in the town of Kadzidlo, local police spokeswoman Katarzyna Kucharska said. Two of the teenage victims —
COPENHAGEN, Denmark (AP) — Sweden’s main adoption agency said Wednesday it was halting adoptions from South Korea, following claims of falsified papers on the origins of children adopted from the Asian country.Swedes have been adopting children from South Korea since the 1950s. On Wednesday, the head of Adoptionscentrum — the only agency in Sweden adopting
