Associated Press
Latest stories
What is Holi, the Hindu festival of colors and how is it celebrated?

Holi, widely known as the Hindu festival of colors, is a joyful annual celebration at the advent of spring with cultural and religious significance.

Typically observed in March in India, Nepal, other South Asian countries and across the diaspora, the festival celebrates love and signifies a time of rebirth and rejuvenation — a time to embrace the positive and let go of negative energy.

W140 Full Story
Moroccan town protests water management plans

Regional and local leaders in eastern Morocco met this week with residents and civil society groups after months of protests over a water management plan set to take effect later this year.

Thousands in the town of Figuig stopped paying water bills and have taken to the streets since November to protest a municipal decision transitioning drinking water management from the town to a regional multi-service agency.

W140 Full Story
$3 bn deal with UK gets Australia closer to having fleet of nuclear-powered submarines

Australia is set to provide 4.6 billion Australian dollars ($3 billion) to British industry to support the construction of nuclear-powered submarines and ensure its new fleet arrives on time, the two countries said Friday.

The announcement came a day after the two countries signed a defense and security pact to better meet challenges such as China's increased activity in the South China Sea and South Pacific.

W140 Full Story
Attempts to rescue 13 people trapped in collapsed Russian gold mine continue for fifth day

Rescue workers labored for a fifth day on Friday to reach 13 people trapped deep underground in a collapsed gold mine in Russia's far east, news reports said.

They said no contact has been made with the miners in the Amur region, about 5,000 kilometers (3,000 miles) east of Moscow. At least 13 miners are trapped, regional officials said Tuesday.

W140 Full Story
Hungary's Orbán congratulates Putin on widely criticized Russian election win

Hungary's populist prime minister, Viktor Orbán, has congratulated Russian President Vladimir Putin on his victory in an election whose outcome was never in doubt after systematic crackdowns on dissent.

Orbán, widely seen as Putin's closest ally in the European Union, sent the letter of congratulations on Thursday after the release of official election results in Russia, according to his press chief. The Hungarian leader was the only head of a EU country to congratulate Putin on his reelection, which will extend his nearly quarter-century rule of Russia by another six years.

W140 Full Story
Neymar's father says his family won't bail Alves out of Spanish prison after rape conviction

The father of soccer star Neymar said Thursday that his family won't pay the one million euros ($1.1 million) required to bail Dani Alves out of a Spanish prison where the former Brazil defender awaits the result of an appeal to his rape conviction.

Neymar da Silva Santos said in a statement on behalf of his family that they financially supported Alves during his trial, but that they won't do it again now that the former player was found guilty of raping a woman in a Barcelona nightclub in 2022.

W140 Full Story
Robinho turns himself in to start serving 9-year prison sentence for rape

Former soccer star Robinho started serving a nine-year prison sentence in his native Brazil on Thursday more than 10 years after he was first accused of raping a woman in Italy.

The 40-year-old Robinho left his apartment building in the beachfront city of Santos, outside Sao Paulo, in a black police car after losing a bid to remain free pending appeals.

W140 Full Story
Higher temperatures mean higher prices: New study links climate change to inflation

Food prices and overall inflation will rise as temperatures climb with climate change, a new study by an environmental scientist and the European Central Bank found.

Looking at monthly price tags of food and other goods, temperatures and other climate factors in 121 nations since 1996, researchers calculate that "weather and climate shocks" will cause the cost of food to rise 1.5 to 1.8 percentage points annually within a decade or so, even higher in already hot places like the Middle East, according to a study in Thursday's journal Communications, Earth and the Environment.

W140 Full Story
US Jews say Trump doesn't get to tell them how to be Jewish

Since the start of his political career, Donald Trump has played on stereotypes about Jews and politics.

He told the Republican Jewish Coalition in 2015 that "you want to control your politicians" and suggested the audience used money to exert control. In the White House, he said Jews who vote for Democrats are "very disloyal to Israel."

W140 Full Story
Egypt increases fuel prices following depreciation of local currency

The Egyptian government raised fuel prices on Friday in a move that is bound to exacerbate inflationary pressures on an already-struggling population.

The new prices were announced on the Cabinet's Facebook page and came into effect Friday morning. The price of diesel, the main fuel for transport of people and goods, rose from 8.5 Egyptian pounds ($0.18) to 10 pounds ($0.21) per liter.

W140 Full Story