LONDON (AP) — British lawmakers were set Wednesday to renew the government’s sweeping powers to impose emergency restrictions to curb the coronavirus pandemic, though many slammed the way Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s Conservative administration has used them.
PARIS (AP) — Is dislodging African artwork from a European museum a political statement, or a criminal act? That's the question a French court weighed Wednesday in an emotionally charged trial centered around a Congolese activist campaigning to take back art he says was plundered by colonizers.
Some 40% of the world's species of plants are threatened with extinction, the Royal Botanic Gardens Kew says in a new report.
ROME (AP) — Cardinal George Pell, who left the Vatican in 2017 to face child sexual abuse charges in Australia, returned to Rome on Wednesday to find a Holy See mired in the type of corruption scandal he worked to expose and clean up.
LONDON (AP) — As much of Britain’s economy emerged from the coronavirus lockdown, its theaters stayed dark, with performers and staff unwillingly idled.
WARSAW, Poland (AP) — Polish Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki presented a reshuffled Cabinet on Wednesday that formally brings the conservative ruling party's leader into a government position, together with a new education minister who has said LGBT people are “not equal” to others.
TOKYO (AP) — A Japanese court on Wednesday found the government and the operator of the wrecked Fukushima nuclear plant negligent for failing to take measures to prevent the 2011 nuclear disaster, ordering them to pay some 1 billion yen ($9.5 million) in damages to thousands of residents for their lost livelihoods.
BRUSSELS (AP) — Democratic standards are facing “important challenges” in some European Union countries, particularly in Hungary and Poland, where the judicial systems are under threat, the EU's executive commission said Wednesday in its first report on adherence to the rule of law.
PARIS (AP) — A tennis player at the French Open was visibly startled by a sonic boom Wednesday just as he was about to serve a ball.
BUDAPEST, Hungary (AP) — The Hungarian government says its official Twitter account was temporarily suspended and then restored without explanation.
BERLIN (AP) — A study has concluded that the founding director of the Berlin International Film Festival made a “not insignificant” contribution to the German film system under Nazi rule and later covered up his role, festival organizers said Wednesday.
PARIS (AP) — A hybrid Paris Fashion Week continued Wednesday featuring a stand out live runway show from socially-distanced Kenzo, but no sign of any A-list celebrities.
BERLIN (AP) — German Chancellor Angela Merkel praised women in Belarus for staging peaceful protests in the wake of the country's disputed presidential election and said Wednesday that she plans to meet soon with the main opposition candidate.
YEREVAN, Armenia (AP) — Heavy fighting between Armenian and Azerbaijani forces over the separatist region of Nagorno-Karabakh continued for a fourth straight day on Wednesday, in the biggest escalation of a decades-old conflict in years that has killed dozens and left scores of others wounded.
FRANKFURT, Germany (AP) — The former head of Volkswagen's Audi luxury car division and three others went on trial Wednesday on charges related to the company's cheating on diesel car emissions tests. The proceedings represent the first criminal trial in Germany over the scandal that erupted five years ago and has cost the Volkswagen Group more than 32 billion euros ($35 billion) in fines and settlements.
SEOUL, South Korea (AP) — South Korea has reported 113 new cases of COVID-19, its first daily increase over 100 in five days, as the country entered a holiday break that officials fear would possibly worsen transmissions.
LONDON (AP) — Energy producer Royal Dutch Shell said Wednesday it's planning to cut between 7,000 and 9,000 jobs worldwide by the end of 2022 following a collapse in demand for oil and a subsequent slide in prices during the coronavirus pandemic.
PARIS (AP) — Saying she is “struggling to walk,” Serena Williams ended her latest bid for a 24th Grand Slam title and withdrew from the French Open before her second-round match Wednesday because of an injured Achilles heel.
MADRID (AP) — Madrid and its suburbs, the region in Europe where a second coronavirus wave is expanding by far the fastest, are edging toward stricter curbs on personal movement and social gatherings after a political dispute that has angered many Spaniards.
BRUSSELS (AP) — Almost 500 days after Belgian parliamentary elections, seven parties from both sides of the linguistic aisle agreed early Wednesday on forming a fully functioning majority government under new Prime Minister Alexander De Croo that will center on dealing with the pandemic and its devastating economic impact.
LUCKNOW, India (AP) — An Indian court on Wednesday acquitted all 32 people accused of crimes in a 1992 attack and demolition of a 16th century mosque that sparked Hindu-Muslim violence leaving some 2,000 people dead.
LEIPZIG, Germany (AP) — It's been three decades since the reunification of Germany, but camping enthusiasts from the former East Germany allow themselves twice a year to relive the past and forget about how much has changed.
BERLIN (AP) — German Chancellor Angela Merkel has welcomed China's plan to be carbon-neutral by 2060, contrasting it with the U.S. failure to abide by the goals of the Paris climate accord.
BERLIN (AP) — Germany's unemployment rate declined in September despite the coronavirus pandemic, official data showed Wednesday. Jobless figures have been kept lower by extensive use of a short-term salary support program, but estimates show that the number of people receiving that support is also falling.
