BEIRUT (AP) — A judge ordered a gunman who took up to 10 hostages at a Beirut bank to force the release of his trapped savings to stay behind bars Friday, apparently a bid to prevent copycats as desperation deepens over Lebanon's economic meltdown.
NEW YORK (AP) — Early this year, with the S&P 500 near its all-time high, famed investor Jeremy Grantham warned that stocks were in a “super bubble.” Since then, their prices have fallen about 20%, and Grantham says they can still drop more.
BEIRUT (AP) — Nour never felt entirely safe as a queer person in Lebanon. But in the past few years, the 25-year-old pharmacist had begun letting his guard down, meeting with friends in LGBTQ-friendly spaces in Beirut and even performing in drag shows.
BANGKOK (AP) — Sri Lanka is desperate for help with weathering its worst crisis in recent memory. Its schools are closed for lack of fuel to get kids and teachers to classrooms.
BEIRUT (AP) — Lebanese Prime Minister Najib Mikati won the support of more than 50 legislators Thursday to keep his post following last month's parliamentary elections as the country's multiple crises deepen with no solution in sight.
UNITED NATIONS (AP) — The ripple effects of the war in Ukraine are increasing the suffering of millions of people by escalating food and energy prices and worsening a financial crisis, coming on top of the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic and climate change, a U.N.
BEIRUT (AP) — A leading international credit ratings agency warned Friday that the results of this month’s parliamentary elections in Lebanon make it difficult for any coalition to have a governing majority, potentially complicating implementation of reforms.
TOKYO (AP) — Sri Lankan President Gotabaya Rajapaksa asked for urgent international help on Thursday as his country suffers from a financial crisis.
“We are presently undergoing a severe economic crisis that has profoundly impacted the lives of all Sri Lankans, resulting in social unrest,” Rajapaksa said in a video message to an international conference in Tokyo.
COLOMBO, Sri Lanka (AP) — China says its initiative to build ports and other infrastructure across Asia and Africa, paid for with Chinese loans, will boost trade. But in a cautionary tale for borrowers, Sri Lanka's multibillion-dollar debt to Beijing threatens to hinder efforts to resolve a financial crisis so severe that the Indian Ocean nation cannot import food or gasoline.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average slumped more than 900 points Friday as another sharp sell-off led by technology stocks added to Wall Street's losses in April, leaving the S&P 500 with its biggest monthly skid since the start of the pandemic.
BEIRUT (AP) — Lebanon's military on Friday said it has detained five people in the northern city of Tripoli as they prepared to smuggle 85 migrants by boat to Europe.
The announcement came days after a boat carrying more than 60 migrants capsized on April 23 off the coast of Tripoli.
COLOMBO, Sri Lanka (AP) — Authorities in Sri Lanka are imposing rolling power cuts across the island nation as its deepening financial crisis leads to shortages of fuel and handicaps its power grid.
ATHENS, Greece (AP) — Greece’s parliament on Tuesday approved a 3 billion euro ($3.4 billion) agreement for three new French-made frigates that defense officials say are vital for addressing ongoing tensions with neighboring Turkey.
BEIRUT (AP) — An investigative judge said Tuesday she may sue Lebanon’s police chief, accusing him of preventing a security force from bringing in for questioning the central bank governor, who is accused of corruption.
LONDON (AP) — The Bank of England raised interest rates for the second time in three months on Thursday, putting the United Kingdom far ahead of the rest of Europe and the U.S.
AMHERST, Mass. (AP) — Hampshire College has received an anonymous $5 million gift in honor of one of its most famous alumni, award-winning documentary filmmaker Ken Burns, that will help the Massachusetts school continue its academic transformation.
BEIJING (AP) — A troubled Chinese real estate developer with $310 billion of debt is asking investors in one of its bonds to postpone when they will be repaid.
Evergrande Group will conduct a three-day online vote starting Friday for holders of the 4.5 billion yuan ($700 million) bond, according to an announcement made through the Shenzhen Stock Exchange in southern China.
WASHINGTON (AP) — Presidents and former Senate colleagues are lauding longtime Majority Leader Harry Reid for a political legacy that included an expansion of health insurance coverage for millions of Americans and helping secure an economic aid package and banking overhaul following the 2008 financial crisis.
ATHENS, Greece (AP) — Karolos Papoulias, a former president of Greece has died at the age of 92, Greece’s state news agency ANA reports.
Papoulias, a longtime socialist lawmaker and minister, was close to Andreas Papandreou, the founder of the Socialist PASOK party, and an opponent of Papandreou’s successor, the moderate modernizer Costas Simitis.
BEIRUT (AP) — The U.N. chief warned Tuesday that the international community is unlikely to come forth with much-needed support for Lebanon amid its persistent government paralysis and as the country struggles through a “very dramatic” crisis.
BEIRUT (AP) — The U.N. children’s agency said Friday the number of cases of child abuse and exploitation it has handled in Lebanon has nearly doubled in the past year amid the Mideast country’s economic meltdown.
BEIJING (AP) — A Chinese developer that is struggling under $310 billion in debt warned Friday it may run out of money to “perform its financial obligations” — sending regulators scrambling to reassure investors that China’s financial markets can be protected from a potential impact.
Laughter and tears. Fun and disappointment. Affection and insults. Anxieties, hostilities, too much food, too much alcohol.
In other words: Thanksgiving.
This year, Thanksgiving stories in the news are about COVID, and how families will navigate inter-generational mingling.
SANTA FE, N.M. (AP) — New Mexico's public pension and investment funds will receive $24 million from several major financial institutions to resolve a lawsuit over mortgage-backed securities and the financial crisis more than a decade ago, state prosecutors said.
WASHINGTON (AP) — Randal Quarles announced Monday that he will resign from the Federal Reserve's Board of Governors at the end of the year after completing a four-year term as its top bank regulator, opening up another vacancy on the Fed's influential board for President Joe Biden to fill.
JAKARTA, Indonesia (AP) — Indonesian authorities on Friday seized four plots of land owned by the youngest son of former dictator Suharto as part of efforts to recover money owed the government since the 1997-1998 Asian financial crisis.
BEIRUT (AP) — Lebanon’s Daily Star, one of the leading English-language newspapers in the Arab world and Lebanon’s oldest, has folded following a years-long financial struggle.
An email reviewed Tuesday by The Associated Press informed employees of the decision to lay off all staff as of October 31.
BEIRUT (AP) — Lebanese politicians scrambled to resolve a diplomatic spat with Saudi Arabia and other Gulf nations on Saturday, after comments by a Cabinet minister about the war in Yemen stoked their ire.
BERLIN (AP) — German Chancellor Angela Merkel says she is satisfied with the timing of her departure after 16 years at the helm of the country and is now looking forward to dedicating time to things she had to neglect during her chancellorship.
ATHENS, Greece (AP) — Greece’s often-strained relations in past years with European economic powerhouse Germany took center stage Friday during a visit to Athens by outgoing Chancellor Angela Merkel as both the country's president and prime minister aired past grievances.
ATHENS, Greece (AP) — Germany’s outgoing Chancellor Angela Merkel arrived in Greece Thursday for a visit to the country whose financial crisis marked much of her tenure and Germany’s relationship with Europe.
ATHENS, Greece (AP) — Greek officials sought to expand Chinese investment in the country during talks on Wednesday with China's Foreign Minister Wang Yi, that also touched on regional geopolitics, sports and minorities.
DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) — Emirati prosecutors said Sunday they launched a major investigation into Dubai-based real estate developer Union Properties, saying they would probe allegations the long-troubled firm committed fraud and other offenses while trying to claw its way out of debt.
WASHINGTON (AP) — The U.S. budget deficit totaled $2.77 trillion for 2021, the second highest on record but an improvement from the all-time high of $3.13 trillion reached in 2020. The deficits in both years reflect trillions of dollars in government spending to counteract the devastating effects of a global pandemic.
BEIJING (AP) — A troubled Chinese developer whose struggle to avoid a multibillion-dollar debt default has rattled global financial markets wired $83.5 million on Friday to make an overdue payment to foreign bondholders, a government newspaper reported.
Former Greek Prime Minister George Papandreou says he will seek the leadership of the once-powerful Socialist party founded by his father, the late politician Andreas Papandreou, in an effort to revive its popularity that plummeted during a recent financial crisis.
BEIJING (AP) — A major Chinese real estate developer whose struggle to avoid defaulting on billions of dollars of debt rattled financial markets says it has called off the sale of a $2.6 billion stake in a subsidiary and has made no progress in selling other assets.
BEIRUT (AP) — A trove of leaked documents confirmed that for years, Lebanon’s politicians and bankers have stowed wealth in offshore tax havens and used it to buy expensive properties — a galling revelation for masses of newly impoverished Lebanese, caught in one of the world's worst economic meltdowns in decades.
The foreign minister of the Mediterranean island of Cyprus on Wednesday urged Lebanon's new government to implement reforms quickly, in order for the international community to unlock aid to crisis-stricken Lebanon.
WASHINGTON (AP) — Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen sounded an urgent call Tuesday for Congress to raise the government's borrowing limit, a day after Senate Republicans blocked consideration of a bill that would have done so.
BEIRUT (AP) — Lebanon’s new government raised the price of fuel on Wednesday by 16%, the second time in five days, part of a gradual lifting of subsidies in the crisis-struck country.
The new hike brings the price of fuel, in short supply, closer to black market rates and comes after warnings from Lebanon’s central bank that it can no longer continue to subsidize fuel purchases that have drained its foreign reserves.