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THE HAGUE, Netherlands (AP) — An international task force formed to crack down on violence as a criminal service has led to 280 arrests in its first year, the European Union’s police agency, Europol, reported Wednesday. The arrests underscore a trend across the continent of criminals hiring people — many of them youngsters — via social media and messaging apps to carry out acts of violence ranging from assaults to […]

PUERTO TRIUNFO, Colombia (AP) — Along the Magdalena River, one of Colombia’s primary arteries, fishermen move with wary precision. From the silty, tea-colored current, hippopotamuses can surface without warning, closing the distance to a vessel in a single heartbeat. “These hippos are a true nightmare,” said fisherman Wilinton Sánchez about the semi-aquatic animals capable of charging at speeds of up to 8 kilometers (5 miles) per hour in water and […]

TEHRAN, Iran (AP) — Iran’s national rial currency hit a record low Wednesday of 1.8 million to $1 as a shaky ceasefire with the U.S. and Israel still holds. The rial had remained stable for weeks during the war, which began Feb. 28, in part because there was little trading or imports coming into the country. The rial began to slide two days ago, hitting the record low Wednesday. Experts […]

MILAN (AP) — Italian luxury brand Ferragamo said it can map the country of origin for much of the leather used to make its coveted footwear and handbags, which is a first step in traceability according to experts. The announcement comes during a wave of EU sustainability rules that are increasing pressure on fashion brands to account for materials in their supply chains. The family-run and publicly traded fashion house […]

SEOUL, South Korea (AP) — A South Korean appeals court on Wednesday sentenced ousted President Yoon Suk Yeol to seven years in prison for resisting arrest and bypassing a legitimate Cabinet meeting before his brief imposition of martial law in December 2024. The conviction for obstruction of justice and other charges comes on top of a life sentence he has already received on rebellion charges stemming from his baffling authoritarian […]

By Howard Schneider WASHINGTON, April 29 (Reuters) – The Federal Reserve is expected to hold interest rates steady on Wednesday as officials debate whether to flag risks of rising inflation in a policy statement issued after what may be Jerome Powell’s final meeting as head of the U.S. central bank. With oil prices high and rising again due to the U.S.-led war with Iran, policymakers ahead of the Fed’s latest […]

By Mike Scarcella WASHINGTON, April 29 (Reuters) – A coalition of historic preservation and architecture groups will ask a judge on Wednesday to halt plans by President Donald Trump’s administration for a major renovation of the Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, marking the latest clash over Trump’s legal authority to reshape Washington. U.S. District Judge Christopher Cooper in Washington will hold a hearing at 10 a.m. Eastern Time (1400 GMT) […]

By Howard Schneider WASHINGTON, April 29 (Reuters) – On a chilly spring day in 2017, Jerome Powell made a six-hour round trip by car through heavy mountain fog from Washington to West Virginia University for an evening talk with students about Federal Reserve history and the political balance of its structure, topics that can be ponderous even for close watchers of the U.S. central bank. At the time a Fed […]

PRISTINA, Kosovo (AP) — Kosovo is heading for its third parliamentary election in over a year after lawmakers repeatedly failed to elect a new president, pushing the young Balkan nation into renewed political uncertainty. Parliament, which is tasked with choosing the presidents of Kosovo, on Tuesday faced a deadline by midnight to choose a successor to President Vjosa Osmani, whose term expired earlier this month. When it failed to do […]