Month: March 2022

By QASSIM ABDUL-ZAHRA Associated Press BAGHDAD (AP) — Iraqi lawmakers have failed to elect a head of state for a second time further deepening a political crisis. Only 202 lawmakers arrived to Iraq’s parliament, falling short of the two-thirds quorum required for the 329-member legislature to conduct an electoral session to select the country’s president.

By MARGARET STAFFORD Associated Press LIBERTY, Mo. (AP) — A radio station based in suburban Kansas City is facing criticism for airing Russian state-sponsored programming during the Ukrainian war. Peter Schartel owns KCXL in Liberty, Missouri, a small station run on a shoestring budget. He began airing programming from Radio Sputnik, which is run by

By ROB GILLIES Associated Press TORONTO (AP) — In 2009, Pope Benedict XVI met with a First Nations delegation from Canada and privately expressed regret over abuse suffered by Indigenous children at church-run boarding schools. That’s no longer seen as sufficient after the discovery last year of about 200 unmarked graves of children at what

KATHMANDU, Nepal (AP) — Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi has met top Nepalese officials during a three-day trip, which comes just weeks after Nepal’s parliament approved a contentious half-billion-dollar aid grant from the United States. Wang held talks with his counterpart and Prime Minister Sher Bahadur Deuba on Saturday. He is scheduled to meet several

By JOSEPH KRAUSS Associated Press RAMALLAH, West Bank (AP) — Palestinians have voted in local elections in the occupied West Bank. They come less than a year after President Mahmoud Abbas called off parliamentary elections that would have likely loosened his party’s grip on power. Most candidates are running as independents, though many have ties

By MICHAEL TARM AP Legal Affairs Writer GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. (AP) — A foster care director, a plastics plant manager and an IT employee are among the 12 jurors and four alternates hearing testimony at the trial of four men charged with plotting to kidnap Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer in 2020. For security reasons, the

By AARON MORRISON and LISA MASCARO Associated Press NEW YORK (AP) — Supreme Court nominee Ketanji Brown Jackson had to endure hours of public scrutiny from skeptics during her Senate hearings this past week, and that’s something familiar to many Black women. The Harvard-educated Jackson is making history as the first Black woman nominated for

By HALELUYA HADERO, ANNE D’INNOCENZIO and JAY REEVES Associated Press Amazon is gearing up for its toughest labor fight yet. Two separate union elections are coming to a head as soon as next week that could provide further momentum to the recent wave of organizing efforts across the country. Warehouse workers in Staten Island, New

By SCOTT BAUER Associated Press MADISON, Wis. (AP) — The push by Republicans to conduct partisan ballot reviews like the one that unfolded last year in Arizona has spread beyond battleground states disputed by former President Donald Trump. Lawmakers in GOP-dominated state legislative chambers are calling not only for another look at the 2020 presidential

By THALIA BEATY Associated Press NEW YORK (AP) — People around the world have donated millions of dollars directly to Ukraine’s war effort via cryptocurrencies such as bitcoin. Ukrainian officials began tweeting calls for cryptocurrency donations on Feb. 26. Since then, the government says it has taken in donations worth almost $67 million. Proponents have