Tag Archives: General news

BATON ROUGE, La. (AP) — State officials are continuing discussions of a possible $2.5 billion sale of Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Louisiana, a non-profit health insurer used by nearly half of the state’s residents, to a much larger for-profit insurer based in Indiana. A legislative committee held a nearly eight-hour meeting Monday to consider the proposed sale of …

CORTINA D’AMPEZZO, Italy (AP) — Construction on the much-debated bobsled track hasn’t even begun. Plans for the San Siro Stadium, where the opening ceremony is slated to be held, remain unclear. And an all-new 15,000-seat hockey arena that’s supposed to welcome back NHL players to the Olympics for the first time in more than a decade is a giant construction …

MEXICO CITY (AP) — Mexico’s president said Monday he will propose guaranteeing people pensions equal to their full salaries at the time they retire, something done by no other country, not even those much richer than Mexico. It was among a raft of 20 constitutional reforms that President Andrés Manuel López Obrador has almost no hope of getting passed in …

BRUSSELS (AP) — The European Union’s executive arm shelved an anti-pesticide proposal Tuesday in yet another concession to farmers after weeks of protests that blocked many capitals and economic lifelines across the 27-nation bloc. Although the proposal had languished in EU institutions for the past two years, the move by European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen was the latest …

COPENHAGEN, Denmark (AP) — A Russian man who reportedly defected from a high-ranking position in the Wagner Group has been given permission to stay in Norway but was refused permanent asylum, a Norwegian newspaper reported Tuesday. The lawyer for Andrey Medvedev, Brynjulf Risnes, told Dagbladet that his client was granted temporary residence “due to the security risk involved in sending …

WASHINGTON (AP) — The Pentagon believes it has identified the mechanical failure that led to a fatal crash of an Osprey aircraft in Japan and the grounding of the fleet for two months, a U.S. defense official told The Associated Press. It is now weighing how the aircraft can be returned to service. The Pentagon’s Joint Safety Council is now …

ISLAMABAD (AP) — The United Nation’s top human rights body warned Tuesday of a “pattern of harassment” against members of former Pakistani Prime Minister Imran Khan’s party ahead of this week’s parliamentary election. During a news briefing in Geneva, Liz Throssell, spokesperson for the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, urged Pakistani authorities to ensure a fully free and fair …

MONTGOMERY, Ala. (AP) — Alabama Gov. Kay Ivey called Tuesday night for the creation of a limited school voucher program and announced support for two controversial measures before lawmakers this year: gambling legislation and absentee ballot restrictions. Lawmakers kicked off the 2024 legislative session with key votes on gambling, elections and education looming. Ivey used her annual State of the …

MADRID (AP) — More than 1,000 migrants from sub-Saharan countries arrived in Spain’s Canary Islands in 18 boats over the past three days, Spain’s marine rescue service said Monday. A body was found in one of the boats. The archipelago off northwest Africa has seen a surge in migrant arrivals in recent weeks as more people from West Africa attempt …

LOS ANGELES (AP) — A crowded primary contest to fill the U.S. Senate seat once held by the late Democratic Sen. Dianne Feinstein is showing again that money matters in notoriously expensive California while testing whether the state’s long-squabbling Republicans can unite behind a single candidate for an outside chance at the seat. Voting is about to start, with a …