NewsAFP NewsItaly driver hijacks, torches school bus carrying dozens of children
Italian police on Wednesday rescued 51 children taken hostage by their school bus driver, who doused the vehicle in petrol and set it alight apparently in protest at migrant deaths in the Mediterranean. Some of the children were tied up during the 30-minute ordeal, which saw the bus slam into a car
FinanceAssociated PressLevi Strauss readies for prime time in the public markets
Levi Strauss & Co., which gave America its first pair of blue jeans, is going public for the second time. The move comes as the iconic brand is staging a comeback under its CEO Chip Bergh even as it faces increasing competition and a changing retail landscape. Bergh also has created buzz with partnerships
- FinanceAssociated Press
AP Top Extended Financial Headlines at 12:17 a.m. EDT
Levi Strauss, the company behind America's first blue jeans, prepares to go public
FinanceAssociated PressNew Fed forecast for 2019: Slower growth and zero rate hikes
The Federal Reserve sent a stark message Wednesday: The economy is slowing. The Fed left its key short-term rate unchanged and projected no rate hikes this year, reflecting a dimmer view of the economy as growth weakens in the United States and abroad. The central bank said it was keeping its benchmark
NewsAFP NewsPost-IS, north Iraq's minority mosaic blown apart by trauma
Now, like other Sunni Arab farmers in Iraq's diverse north, Mahdi Abu Enad is cut off from his fields, fearing reprisal attacks. Yazidis, whose men IS killed en masse and whose women and girls were enslaved by the group, say they have suffered the most. Displaced Sunni Arabs, on the other hand,
- FinanceAssociated Press
Bring on the mead: NY state now licensing farm meaderies
New York state is offering new licenses to operate farms for the production of mead, an alcoholic beverage made by fermenting honey with water. Gov. Andrew Cuomo announced Wednesday that applications for operating farm meaderies are now being accepted. The Democrat says the move builds on New York&
FinanceAssociated PressEuropean, Canadian regulators to do own review of Boeing jet
Boeing's grounded airliners are likely to be parked longer now that European and Canadian regulators plan to conduct their own reviews of changes the company is making after two of the jets crashed. The Europeans and Canadians want to do more than simply take the U.S. Federal Aviation Administration
NewsAFP NewsCanned air and water-spraying drones: Smog remedies
As millions of people in Asia choke under polluted skies, authorities have turned to water-dispersing drones and outdoor air purifiers to improve air quality, while companies have tried to cash in by selling everything from canned air to lung-purifying teas. According to the World Health Organisation
FinanceAssociated PressAP PHOTOS: Remembering the Exxon Valdez oil spill
It was just after midnight on March 24, 1989, when an Exxon Shipping Co. tanker ran aground outside the town of Valdez, Alaska, spewing millions of gallons of thick, toxic crude oil into the pristine Prince William Sound. The world watched the aftermath unfold: scores of herring, sea otters and birds
NewsAFP News'Hello brother': Words that countered a gunman's hate
"Hello brother." The warm-hearted words an elderly Muslim reportedly used to greet a white supremacist gunman have become Christchurch's answer to his volley of hate. Mohemmed Daoud Nabi, a 71-year-old from war-torn Afghanistan, was buried on Thursday. The gunman's footage showed
NewsAFP NewsA tale of two Delhis: Deadly air exposes rich poor divide
Walls draped in lush vertical gardens and air filtered through purifiers insulate diners at a swanky New Delhi food court from the choking haze outside in one of the most polluted places on earth. Air pollution kills more than one million Indians every year, according to a study by Lancet Planetary
NewsAFP News20 years on, Serbian victims of NATO bombings feel forgotten
This is the final resting place of some of the hundreds of civilians killed by the NATO air attacks launched 20 years ago this Sunday, a tragedy survivors feel is as forgotten as the overgrown burial ground. Nobody," said 34-year-old Ivana Mitic. Mitic's brother, grandmother, uncle, aunt and
NewsAFP NewsNew Zealand bans assault weapons less than a week after massacre
New Zealand is banning the sale of assault rifles and semi-automatic weapons with immediate effect, Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern said Thursday, rapidly making good on a pledge to tighten the country's gun laws. The move comes less than a week after a white supremacist rampaged through two mosques
NewsAFP NewsPyongyang sanctions workarounds failing to soften impact
North Korea's illicit and highly sophisticated efforts to circumvent UN sanctions may have sought to cushion their impact, but they offer no long-term solution to the fallout of tightened economic isolation, analysts say. Sanctions relief was top of leader Kim Jong Un's agenda for his Hanoi
NewsAFP NewsGlum Wolves and a baby: Five talking points in Super Rugby
Five talking points ahead of this week's games in Super Rugby: - Sad time for Sunwolves - The Sunwolves will play under a heavy cloud when they face the Golden Lions in Singapore on Saturday, after it was widely touted that Super Rugby are about to announce the axing of Japan franchise for next season
NewsAFP NewsAll to prove: Smith, Warner face World Cup test in IPL
The big-bucks Indian Premier League begins Saturday with disgraced Australian duo Steve Smith and David Warner back in action and looking to get some runs under their belts before the World Cup. The timing of the Twenty20 extravaganza, tentatively scheduled to end on May 12, is awkward, however, wrapping
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Manila Water turns on treatment plant in Cardona, Rizal
RIZAL, Philippines – Manila Water has switched on its Cardona Water Treatment Plant on March 14, 2019 following completion of Phase 1 of the project, just in time when La Mesa Dam’s water level dropped to critical and the water shortage began hitting customers hard. Running in full capacity, it can produce
NewsAFP NewsToniBler and Klinton: Gratitude for West lives on in Kosovar names
Streets lined with US flags, murals thanking NATO, and boys named ToniBler and Klinton: Kosovars have no shortage of ways to thank Western powers for intervening 20 years ago to end the war with Serbia. "If it was not for (Bill) Clinton, we would all be dead, this country would not be independent
- FinanceAssociated Press
Missouri regulators approve Midwest wind energy power line
Missouri regulators reversed course Wednesday and gave the go-ahead to one of the nation's largest renewable energy projects — a high-voltage power line delivering wind energy from the Midwest to a power grid for eastern states. The proposed Grain Belt Express transmission line would stretch 780
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EDSA-bound lanes of North Avenue to close on March 21 to 22
MANILA, Philippines – Motorists coming from Elliptical Road to EDSA via North Avenue will have to temporarily take Quezon Avenue starting Thursday evening (March 21) at 11:00 p.m. until Friday (March 22) at 5:00 a.m. The Department of Transportation (DOTr) Metro Rail Transit 7 (MRT-7) Project Traffic
FinanceAssociated PressCleanup underway after fire at Texas petrochemicals facility
Crews on Wednesday extinguished a fire that had burned for days at a Houston-area petrochemicals storage facility and led to concerns about air quality among some residents and environmental groups despite reassurances from officials that testing shows nothing amiss. Intercontinental Terminals Company
NewsAFP NewsPolice, tradesmen rush to prepare ravaged mosque for Friday prayers
New Zealand police and tradesmen are working intensively in the hope of readying the Al Noor mosque to hold Friday prayers, just a week after it was the centre of a racist shooting which left 50 dead. "Police have been working relentlessly, doing everything in our power to gather all appropriate
NewsAFP NewsCuba a thriving hang-out for Soviet era motorcycle sidecars
Cuba's love affair with 1950s-era American cars is still intact, but the communist-run island also has a lingering attachment to a stalwart of Soviet-era leftovers, the motorcycle sidecar. The retro appeal gets a lot of attention from tourists "but here it's common, normal," says Enrique
- FinanceAssociated Press
Last customers being reconnected to Puerto Rico power grid
Crews shut down generators Wednesday that have powered an island off Puerto Rico's coast — the last customers to be reconnected to the U.S. territory's main power system 18 months after Hurricane Maria destroyed the grid. The Electric Power Authority said it connected an underwater cable to
NewsAFP News'Lorena' documentary tells Lorena Bobbitt's story in a new light
Mention the name Lorena Bobbitt and the reactions are all too predictable: the knowing snigger, the grimace that indicates pain combined with a protective gesture over the crotch area. Less frequently do people talk of the sensational case in terms of the domestic violence that led Lorena Bobbitt to
