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DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) — Veteran negotiators at the United Nations climate talks Saturday said that the push to wean the world from dirty fossil fuels had gained so much momentum that they had poked a powerful enemy: the oil industry. Late Friday, multiple news sources reported that the leader of OPEC, the powerful oil cartel, wrote to member countries earlier this week urging them to block any language that would phase out or phase down fossil fuels. The news had the effect of a thunderclap, shining a light on host and petrostate U...
STOCKHOLM (AP) — Two scientists won the Nobel Prize in medicine on Monday for discoveries that enabled the creation of mRNA vaccines against COVID-19 that were critical in slowing the pandemic — technology that's also being studied to fight cancer and other diseases. Hungarian-American Katalin Karikó and American Drew Weissman were cited for contributing "to the unprecedented rate of vaccine development during one of the greatest threats to human health," according to the panel that awarded the prize in Stockholm. The panel said the pair...
STOCKHOLM (AP) — This year's Nobel Prize in economic sciences has been awarded to former U.S. Federal Reserve Chair Ben Bernanke and two other U.S.-based economists. Bernanke, Douglas W. Diamond and Philip H. Dybvig were recognized Monday for their research into the fallout from bank failures. The Nobel panel at the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences in Stockholm said the trio's research had shown "why avoiding bank collapses is vital." The panel says that the findings of the three in the early 1980s laid the foundations for regulating f...
KYIV, Ukraine (AP) — The European Union's executive arm recommended putting Ukraine on a path to membership Friday, a symbolic boost for a country fending off a Russian onslaught that is killing civilians, flattening cities and threatening its very survival. In another show of Western support, British Prime Minister Boris Johnson met with President Volodymyr Zelenskyy in Kyiv to offer continued aid and military training. The European allies' latest embrace of Ukraine marked another setback for Russian President Vladimir Putin, who launched h...
KYIV, Ukraine (AP) — Russia pounded targets from practically one end of Ukraine to the other Thursday, including Kyiv, bombarding the city while the head of the United Nations was visiting in the boldest attack on the capital since Moscow's forces retreated weeks ago. Nearly a dozen people were wounded in the attack on Kyiv, including one who lost a leg and others who were trapped in the rubble when two buildings were hit, rescue officials said. The bombardment came barely an hour after Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy held a news confer...
KYIV, Ukraine (AP) — Russia unleashed a string of attacks Monday against rail and fuel installations deep inside Ukraine, far from the front lines of Moscow's new eastern offensive, in a bid to thwart Ukrainian efforts to marshal supplies for the fight. The U.S., meanwhile, moved to rush more weaponry to Ukraine and said the assistance from the Western allies is making a difference in the 2-month-old war. "Russia is failing. Ukraine is succeeding," U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken declared, a day after he and the U.S. secretary of defense...
STOCKHOLM (AP) — Two scientists won the Nobel Prize in chemistry Wednesday for finding an ingenious and environmentally cleaner way to build molecules — an approach now used to make a variety of compounds, including medicines and pesticides. The work of Benjamin List and David W.C. MacMillan has allowed scientists to produce those molecules more cheaply, efficiently, safely and with significantly less hazardous waste. "It's already benefiting humankind greatly," said Pernilla Wittung-Stafshede, a member of the Nobel panel. It was the second day...
STOCKHOLM (AP) — Three scientists won the Nobel Prize in physics Tuesday for work that found order in seeming disorder, helping to explain and predict complex forces of nature, including expanding our understanding of climate change. Syukuro Manabe, originally from Japan, and Klaus Hasselmann of Germany were cited for their work in developing forecast models of Earth's climate and "reliably predicting global warming." The second half of the prize went to Giorgio Parisi of Italy for explaining disorder in physical systems, ranging from those as...
STOCKHOLM (AP) — Two scientists won the Nobel Prize in medicine on Monday for their discoveries into how the human body perceives temperature and touch, revelations that could lead to new ways of treating pain or even heart disease. Americans David Julius and Ardem Patapoutian separately identified receptors in the skin that respond to heat and pressure, and researchers are working on drugs to target them. Some hope the discoveries could eventually lead to pain treatments that reduce dependence on highly addictive opioids. But the breakthroughs...
STOCKHOLM (AP) — If you're reading this on a cellphone or laptop computer, you might thank the three winners of this year's Nobel Prize in chemistry for their work on lithium-ion batteries. The batteries power cellphones, laptops, electric cars and countless other devices of modern life, and could become the foundation for a greener future. Batteries that economically store energy from renewable sources like the wind and sun open up new possibilities to curb global warming. "This is a highly charged story of tremendous potential," quipped O...
STOCKHOLM (AP) — Three scientists won the Nobel Prize in Chemistry on Wednesday for their work developing lithium-ion batteries, which have reshaped energy storage and transformed cars, mobile phones and many other devices — and reduced the world's reliance on fossil fuels that contribute to global warming. The prize went to John B. Goodenough, 97, a German-born engineering professor at the University of Texas; M. Stanley Whittingham, 77, a British-American chemistry professor at the State University of New York at Binghamton; and Japan's Aki...
STOCKHOLM (AP) — American rapper A$AP Rocky was found guilty of assault Wednesday in Sweden, where his jailing after a Stockholm street brawl drew the close attention of U.S. President Donald Trump. A judge and jury found the rapper, whose real name is Rakim Mayers, and his two bodyguards hit and kicked a 19-year-old man during the June 30 fight. The defendants did not have to be at Stockholm District Court for the verdict and don't face an immediate return to detention. After nearly a month behind bars, the three were released Aug. 2 and r...
STOCKHOLM (AP) — Greta Thunberg, the Swedish teenager whose social media-savvy brand of eco-activism has inspired tens of thousands of students in Europe to skip classes and protest for faster action against climate change, said Monday that she plans to take her message to America the old-fashioned way: by boat. The 16-year-old tweeted that she'll sail across the Atlantic aboard a high-tech racing yacht, leaving Britain next month to attend U.N. climate summits in New York in September and Santiago, Chile, in December. Thunberg told The A... Full story
JOENSUU, Finland (AP) — Armed with needles and a yarn of wool, teams of avid knitters danced Thursday to the deafening sounds of drums beating and guitars slashing at the first-ever Heavy Metal Knitting World Championship in eastern Finland. With stage names such as Woolfumes, Bunny Bandit and 9" Needles, the participants shared a simple goal: to showcase their knitting skills while dancing to heavy metal music in the most outlandish way possible. "It's ridiculous but it's so much fun," said Heather McLaren, an engineering PhD student who t...
SONKAJARVI, Finland (AP) — A Lithuanian man and his wife have won the world 'wife carrying' title, leaping over timber and wading through waist-high water to beat dozens of other couples for a second year running. The prize is the wife's weight in beer. Vytautas Kirkliauskas and his wife Neringa Kirkliauskiene cleared a grueling 253.5 meter (278-yard) obstacle course in 1 minute 6.72 seconds Saturday. That was just a tenth of a second ahead of former six-time world champion, Finland's Taisto Miettinen and his new partner Katja Kovanen. "... Full story
ST. JOSEPH ISLAND, Seychelles (AP) — The submersible dropped from the ocean's surface faster than I had expected. With a loud "psssssss" the air escaped from the ballast tanks and the small craft suddenly tilted forward. Within seconds, aquanaut Robert Carmichael and I were enveloped by a vibrant shade of blue, watching streaks of sunlight pierce the water's surface. Soon a large manta ray appeared from the darkness below, gently gliding toward our small craft before vanishing into the distance. The dive took place off a coral atoll called S...
ALPHONSE ISLAND, Seychelles (AP) — A British-led scientific mission to document changes taking place beneath the Indian Ocean has broadcast its first live, television-quality video transmission from a two-person submersible. Monsoon storms and fierce underwater currents continued to present a challenge at greater depths as scientific work began in earnest on Tuesday off the Seychelles. The Associated Press has successfully broadcast the first multi-camera live signal in full broadcast quality from manned submersibles using optical video t...
RIMBO, Sweden (AP) — Both sides in Yemen's civil war agreed Tuesday to exchange more than 15,000 prisoners by Jan. 20, a member of the rebel delegation said, in what could be the first major breakthrough in the 4-year-old conflict that has killed thousands of people and left millions more facing hunger. Delegations from the internationally recognized government of President Abed Rabbo Mansour Hadi and Iran-backed Shiite rebels said at news conferences in Sweden that they have exchanged prisoner lists. The lists will be reviewed over four w...
RIMBO, Sweden (AP) — Yemen's warring sides agreed to a broad prisoner swap Thursday, sitting down in the same room together for the first time in years at U.N.-sponsored peace talks in Sweden aimed at halting a catastrophic war that has brought the country to the brink of famine. Hopes were high that the talks wouldn't deteriorate into further violence as in the past, and that the prisoner exchange would be an important first step toward building confidence between highly distrustful adversaries. The 3-year-old conflict pits the i...
STOCKHOLM (AP) — Sweden's foreign minister concluded three days of talks Saturday with her North Korean counterpart, saying they discussed the "opportunities and challenges for continued diplomatic efforts to reach a peaceful solution" to the Koreas' security dispute. Minister Margot Wallstrom stopped short of saying whether North Korean Ri Yong Ho's trip to Sweden had led to any further developments concerning a possible meeting between President Donald Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un. "The main focus for the talks was the s...
STOCKHOLM (AP) — North Korea's foreign minister met with his Swedish counterpart Thursday after making a surprise trip to Stockholm that has fueled speculation about a meeting between U.S. President Donald Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un. Foreign Minister Ri Yong Ho landed at Stockholm Arlanda Airport on a direct flight from Beijing and spent several hours at the Swedish Foreign Ministry before returning to the North Korean Embassy. Ri's talks with Foreign Minister Margot Wallstrom are expected to resume on Friday. Sweden has had d...
STOCKHOLM (AP) — Sweden's foreign minister held what she called "good and constructive" talks with her North Korean counterpart on Friday amid growing speculation about a possible meeting in the Scandinavian country between President Donald Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un. Foreign Minister Margot Wallstrom refused to say as she left the Stockholm villa where the meeting took place whether she and North Korea's Ri Yong Ho discussed a Trump-Kim meeting. The villa is close to the embassies of South Korea and the United States. "We'll s...
DROTTNINGHOLM, Sweden (AP) — Despite a cold wind and chilling temperatures, spring has come to Sweden. At least, spring for the milk cows. In an annual event that warms hearts across the country, "koslapp" (KOOH-slep) — the cow release — has become a popular family outing for urban residents. That's when the farmers of Sweden free their cows from the barns and stables where they have spent the long, dark, cold winter. Dozens of dairy cows were frolicking and jumping Saturday on the outskirts of Stockholm, the capital. "I live in the city and it...
OSLO, Norway (AP) — If you want to pursue happiness, grab a winter coat. A new report shows Norway is the happiest country on Earth, Americans are getting sadder, and it takes more than just money to be happy. What makes Norway and other northern European countries top the happiness list has a lot to do with a sense of community and broad social welfare support, according to experts and cheerful Norwegians, including one whose job it is to make people laugh. "The answer to why Norwegians are happy — it's a bit boring — it's well funct...
OSLO, Norway (AP) — A preschool in Arctic Norway is facing online criticism for taking 5-year-old children on an outing to view the slaughter and skinning of reindeer at a nearby farm. The criticism erupted on Facebook after the school posted photos of eight children looking at reindeers, a culled animal hanging above a blood pool, a child dragging bloodied skins in the snow and snowsuit-clad children tossing carcass bits into a container. Dag Olav Stoelan, head of the Granstubben Barnehage preschool, says Tuesday's daytrip was designed to t...
