CANBERRA, Australia (AP) — Papua New Guinea authorities said Friday they had relocated the last asylum seekers who had refused for three weeks to leave a closed immigration camp for fear they would face violence in the alternative accommodations. Police Chief Superintendent Dominic Kakas said police and immigration officials removed all 378 men from the … Continue reading
NEW YORK (AP) — U.S. stock indexes are slipping for the second day in a row Wednesday as banks and small-company stocks continue to take steep losses. Energy companies are falling as the price of oil slides almost 4 percent. That’s canceling out gains for drug companies and household products makers. KEEPING SCORE: The Standard … Continue reading
MARAWI, Philippines (AP) — Militants who have laid siege to a southern Philippines city had been planning a spate of attacks during the holy month of Ramadan to earn recognition as a regional branch of the Islamic State group, the military said Tuesday. Soldiers have taken control of about 70 percent of Marawi, where the … Continue reading
NEW YORK (AP) — A man steered his car onto a sidewalk running through the heart of Times Square and mowed down pedestrians for three blocks Thursday, killing a teenager, then emerged from his wrecked vehicle wild-eyed and waving his arms before he was subdued by police and bystanders. The driver, a 26-year-old U.S. Navy … Continue reading
WASHINGTON (AP) — The Latest on President Donald Trump (all times local): 4:40 p.m. President Donald Trump has responded with a direct “no, no” to a question about whether he asked former FBI Director James Comey to shelve an investigation into his former national security adviser. Trump also was questioned Thursday over revelations that he … Continue reading
Investors were in a selling mood at the end of a mostly subdued week of trading, sending U.S. stocks lower for the third day in a row Thursday, April 13. Energy stocks led the broad decline, which gathered momentum in the final hour of trading ahead of the long Easter holiday weekend. The slide … Continue reading
CANBERRA, Australia (AP) — President Donald Trump had agreed to keep an Obama administration promise to resettle refugees languishing in Pacific island camps despite the U.S. toughening its stance on Muslim immigration, the Australian prime minister said Monday. Trump had agreed that during a 25-minute telephone conversation on Sunday to accept an unspecified number of … Continue reading
SYDNEY (AP) — The ship involved in the recently halted hunt for Malaysia Airlines Flight 370 returned to port in western Australia on Monday, where officials from the countries that funded the fruitless search gathered to thank them and to defend their decision to end the hunt despite recommendations from investigators that it continue. Transport … Continue reading
CANBERRA, Australia (AP) — A 10-year-old surfer has had a close encounter with a photo-bombing shark that shared a wave with him off an Australian beach. Chris Hasson said Thursday that he was taking photos of his son Eden riding a wave off Samurai Beach at Port Stephens, 180 kilometers (110 miles) north of Sydney, … Continue reading
JAKARTA, Indonesia (AP) — More than 10,000 Indonesians took to the streets of their capital to call for tolerance and unity in the world’s most populous Muslim nation, after police opened a blasphemy investigation into the city’s Christian governor. Earlier this month, Jakarta was rocked by a massive protest by conservative Muslims against the popular … Continue reading
BRISBANE, Australia (AP) — A bystander dressed only in underpants helped police arrest an unlicensed driver who allegedly crashed a car into an Australian takeout restaurant on Thursday then fled. Daniel McConnell said he was lying in bed at home in the Brisbane suburb of Hendra at 2 a.m. when a car slammed into the … Continue reading
A pro-Confederate flag group has withdrawn its request to hold a parade on Martin Luther King Jr. Day in Lexington. Media outlets report Grayson Jennings of the Virginia Flaggers sent an email to Lexington officials saying his organization requested the permit for a parade on Jan. 16 only in an effort to swap permits with an … Continue reading
MANILA, Philippines (AP) — A German kidnapped by Somali pirates eight years ago may now be held captive by Islamic militants in the southern Philippines, the country’s military said Monday, Nov.7, after finding the man’s yacht and a woman’s body inside. Regional military spokesman Maj. Filemon Tan said Abu Sayyaf spokesman Muamar Askali claimed the … Continue reading
SYDNEY (AP) — Australian police have made an unusual find while searching the bag of a woman who was being arrested: a baby koala. Police in Brisbane said that when they asked the 50-year-old woman if she had anything to declare Sunday night, she handed over a zipped canvas bag that she said contained a … Continue reading
CANBERRA, Australia (AP) — Gay rights advocates on Tuesday, Nov. 8, welcomed Australia’s Senate voting down a government plan to hold a nonbinding public vote on recognizing gay marriage and called on Parliament to legislate for marriage equality soon. The Senate voted 33-29 late Monday against holding the plebiscite Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull’s conservative government … Continue reading
MANILA, Philippines (AP) — The Philippines’ Supreme Court ruled Tuesday, Nov.8, that the late dictator Ferdinand Marcos can be buried at a heroes’ cemetery, a decision that opponents said rolled back the democratic triumph of the “people power” revolt that ousted the strongman three decades ago. “While he was not all good,” the 15-member court … Continue reading
WELLINGTON, New Zealand (AP) — A U.S. Navy warship will visit New Zealand next month for the first time since the 1980s, ending a 30-year-old military stalemate between the countries that was triggered when New Zealand banned nuclear warships. New Zealand Prime Minister John Key announced Tuesday, October 18, 2016, that he has given clearance … Continue reading
SYDNEY (AP) — Four people including a young mother and her brother were killed Tuesday,October 25, 2016, after a river rapids ride malfunctioned at a popular theme park on Australia’s east coast, officials said. Two men and two women died while on the ride at Dreamworld, a park on Queensland state’s Gold Coast, Queensland police … Continue reading
THE HAGUE, Netherlands (AP) — The International Criminal Court’s chief prosecutor said Thursday, October 13, 2016, that she is “deeply concerned” about reports of extrajudicial killings of suspected drug dealers and users in the Philippines. Prosecutor Fatou Bensouda also said that statements by “high officials” in the Asian nation “seem to condone such killings.” The written … Continue reading
JAKARTA, Indonesia (AP) — Indonesian authorities say they have evacuated most tourists from Mount Barujari on Lombok island after it spewed a massive column of ash into the atmosphere. The volcano, a popular attraction that is known as the Child of Rinjani because it sits within the Mount Rinjani caldera, erupted without warning on Tuesday, … Continue reading
HONOLULU (AP) — Prosecutors are calling the scourge of sex trafficking a form of modern-day slavery that touches every state in the nation, and they’re working to draw connections between active investigations around the globe at a summit in Hawaii. Representatives from eight countries more than a dozen U.S. states met to share details about … Continue reading
BALI, Indonesia (AP) — Two foreign tourists were killed and about 20 other people were injured in an explosion Thursday, September 15, 2016, on a speedboat that was ferrying them from the Indonesian tourist island of Bali to neighboring Lombok, police said. Karangasem district police chief Sugeng Sudarso said the “Gili Cat 2” fast boat … Continue reading
KANEOHE, Hawaii (AP) — Hawaii officials on Thursday, September 8, 2016, proposed a series of steps to fight coral bleaching that’s threatening the state’s reefs, including new marine protected areas, limits on fishing and controlling polluted runoff from land. Hawaii’s ocean temperatures have been rising as greenhouse gases in the atmosphere have increased, forcing corals … Continue reading
SYDNEY (AP) — A man charged with committing a terrorist act and attempted murder after allegedly stabbing a man in Sydney was inspired by the Islamic State group, police said Sunday, September 11, 2016. Wayne Greenhalgh, 59, was stabbed several times while walking through a park in suburban Minto in southwest Sydney on Saturday, September … Continue reading
SYDNEY (AP) — The beer ran out in some sections of the Olympic stadium, but most of the 61,247 spectators at Saturday’s, August 27, 2016, U.S. college football opener in Sydney between California and Hawaii appeared to be enjoying their American “gridiron” experience. The favored Pac 12 conference’s California Golden Bears from Berkeley across the … Continue reading
Spartan Echo 