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‘I feel trapped’: Scores of underage Rohingya girls forced into abusive marriages in Malaysia

Published Mon, 23 Dec 2024 23:35:43 GMT

KUALA LUMPUR, Malaysia (AP) — In a bedroom in Malaysia that has become a prison, the 14-year-old girl wipes away tears as she sits cross-legged on the concrete floor. It is here, she says, where her 35-year-old husband rapes her nearly every night.Last year, the Rohingya girl sacrificed herself to save her family, embarking on a terrifying journey from her homeland of Myanmar to a country she had never seen, to marry a man she had never met.It wasn’t her choice. But her family, she says, was impoverished, hungry and terrified of Myanmar’s military, which attacked the country’s Rohingya Muslim minority in 2017. In desperation, a neighbor found a man in Malaysia who would pay the 18,000 ringgit ($3,800) fee for the girl’s passage and — after she married him — send money to her family for food.And so, the teenager — identified along with all the girls in this story by her first initial to protect her from retaliation — hugged her parents goodbye. Then M climbed into a trafficker’s car ...

Newest, bluest resort on Las Vegas Strip aims to bring Miami Beach vibe to southern Nevada

Published Mon, 23 Dec 2024 23:35:43 GMT

LAS VEGAS (AP) — A developer’s drive to open a Las Vegas Strip resort with a vibe echoing Miami Beach’s venerable Fontainebleau reaches reality on Wednesday, with the opening of a 67-story hotel-casino tower that became famous as it sat unfinished for more than a decade.“Bringing Fontainebleau Las Vegas to life has been an extraordinary journey,” said Jeffrey Soffer, who started the project, lost it and reacquired it to finish it. “Opening a resort of this size and scope is a once-in-a-lifetime experience.”The Fontainebleau is the tallest, newest and bluest hotel in southern Nevada’s glittery resort corridor. At $3.7 billion, it’s second in cost to the $4.3 billion, 66-story Resorts World that opened in June 2021 a short walk down Las Vegas Boulevard.The name of the 3,644-room Fontainebleau recalls Miami Beach’s icon among destination resorts, which Soffer’s family acquired in 2005. But the project in the Mojave Desert has its own lore about starts, sto...

New Mexico Supreme Court weighs whether to strike down local abortion restrictions

Published Mon, 23 Dec 2024 23:35:43 GMT

SANTA FE, N.M. (AP) — The New Mexico Supreme Court is weighing whether to strike down local abortion restrictions by conservative cities and counties at the request of the attorney general for the state where abortion laws are among the most liberal in the country.Oral arguments were scheduled for Wednesday in Santa Fe. At least four state supreme courts are grappling with abortion litigation this week in the aftermath of the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision last year to rescind the constitutional right to abortion.In New Mexico’s Lea and Roosevelt counties and the cities of Hobbs and Clovis, where opposition to abortion runs deep, officials argue that local governments have the right to back federal abortion restrictions under a 19th century U.S. law that prohibits the shipping of abortion medication and supplies. They say the local abortion ordinances can’t be struck down until federal courts rule on the meaning of provision within the “anti-vice” law known as the Comstoc...

Bank of Japan survey shows manufacturers optimistic about economy, as inflation abates

Published Mon, 23 Dec 2024 23:35:43 GMT

BANGKOK (AP) — The Bank of Japan’s quarterly survey on business sentiment shows large Japanese manufacturers have grown more optimistic in the past several months, the third straight quarter of improvement even while other data showed the economy in a contraction. The central bank’s “tankan” survey, released Wednesday, measured business sentiment among major manufacturers at plus 12, up from plus 9 in October and plus 5 in June.The tankan survey, conducted every three months, measures corporate sentiment by subtracting the number of companies saying business conditions are negative from those replying they are positive. It’s considered a leading indicator of future trends in the world’s third-largest economy. The survey showed sentiment among major non-manufacturers rose 3 points to plus 30 from plus 27 in the previous survey. It was the seventh consecutive quarter of improvement and the most positive result in about three decades.A recovery of foreign tourism and ...

House set for key vote on Biden impeachment inquiry as Republicans unite behind investigation

Published Mon, 23 Dec 2024 23:35:43 GMT

WASHINGTON (AP) — The House is pushing toward a vote Wednesday to formally authorize the impeachment inquiry into President Joe Biden as Republicans rally behind the charged process despite lingering concerns among some in the party that the investigation has yet to produce evidence of misconduct by the president.The vote comes as House Speaker Mike Johnson and his leadership team face growing pressure to show progress in what has become a nearly yearlong probe centered around the business dealings of Biden’s family members. While their investigation has raised ethical questions, no evidence has emerged that Biden acted corruptly or accepted bribes in his current role or previous office as vice president.Ahead of the vote, Johnson called it “the next necessary step.” He acknowledged there are “a lot of people who are frustrated this hasn’t moved faster.“ But Johnson said on Fox News he believes the resolution will pass the House and “we’ll be in the best position to do o...

US credibility is on the line in Ukraine funding debate

Published Mon, 23 Dec 2024 23:35:43 GMT

WASHINGTON (AP) — One of President Joe Biden’s favorite stories is about his first international summit after taking office, when he declared that “America is back” in the wake of Donald Trump’s erratic and isolationist leadership.“For how long?” responded one of the other leaders in the room.It’s a question that echoes this week as Biden struggles to secure congressional support for continuing American assistance to Ukraine. Even though he’s repeatedly promised that the United States would back Ukraine for “as long as it takes” to defeat the Russian invasion, there’s no sign of a bipartisan deal to maintain the flow of supplies as the war approaches its third year. A hastily arranged trip to Washington by Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, including a White House visit on Tuesday, did not appear to jolt lawmakers out of their inaction. The stakes are highest in Ukraine, which faces dwindling supplies of the artillery shells and air defense munitions needed to repe...

Maine is considering California-style incentives to encourage electric vehicle sales

Published Mon, 23 Dec 2024 23:35:43 GMT

PORTLAND, Maine (AP) — Maine environmental regulators are set to decide next week whether the state should join others in adopting California-style regulations to drastically limit the sale of new gas-powered vehicles.Supporters say the proposal before the Board of Environmental Protection on Dec. 21 simply accelerates the adoption of electric vehicles, which is already happening, and that delaying a decision would push back the standards by a year.If approved, the standards would go into effect for 2027 vehicles and would eventually require 82% of new vehicles sold to be considered zero emissions by the 2032 model year, said Jeff Crawford, director of the Bureau of Air Quality for the Maine Department of Environmental Protection. A dozen states already have signed onto California’s standards for boosting electric vehicle sales and reducing traditional vehicle sales to meet climate goals.Maine has a long history of going beyond federal baseline standards to adopt stronger stan...

Serbian democracy activists feel betrayed as freedoms, and a path to the EU, slip away

Published Mon, 23 Dec 2024 23:35:43 GMT

KRALJEVO, Serbia (AP) — When Serbia began talks to join the European Union in 2014, pro-Western Serbs were hopeful the process would set their troubled country on an irreversible path to democratization. A decade later, that optimism is gone, replaced by feelings of betrayal — both toward their government, which has slid toward autocracy, and the EU, which has done little to stop it.Predrag Vostinic, 48, says he became a democracy activist by necessity — his way of pushing back against the rising authoritarianism, government corruption and organized crime gripping the Balkan nation. Since May, a grassroots movement he founded in the central city of Kraljevo has joined weekly protests against the government of President Aleksandar Vucic, part of a wider movement.He and other members of the group faced threats in the streets and on social media. Other government opponents, in Kraljevo and elsewhere, have been sidelined at work or sacked from their jobs in state-run companies, he said....

US Asians and Pacific Islanders view democracy with concern, AP-NORC/AAPI Data poll shows

Published Mon, 23 Dec 2024 23:35:43 GMT

WASHINGTON (AP) — About 7 in 10 Asian American and Pacific Islanders in the United States believe the country is headed in the wrong direction and only about 1 in 10 believe democracy is working “extremely” or “very” well, according to a new poll from AAPI Data and The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research.About half say they disapprove of President Joe Biden, though more lean toward the Democratic Party than toward the Republicans. The poll shows Asian Americans are more likely to trust Democrats over Republicans to handle issues like the spread of misinformation, election administration, student debt and climate change, but slightly more likely to trust Republicans than Democrats on handling the economy and split on which is better suited to handle immigration. Many in the community trust neither party to handle major issues, especially election integrity and misinformation. The poll is part of a series of surveys designed to reflect the views of Asian Ame...

Analysis: It’s uncertain if push to ‘Stop Cop City’ got enough valid signers for Atlanta referendum

Published Mon, 23 Dec 2024 23:35:43 GMT

ATLANTA (AP) — Opponents of an Atlanta police and fire training center exulted as they marched into City Hall in September with 16 boxes of petitions to force a referendum on the issue. “116,000 signatures — can you hear us now?” they asked, confident they had enough.But an analysis by four news organizations finds the outcome — if city officials ever count the petitions — could be decided by a narrow margin.Organizers of the monthslong petition drive to “Stop Cop City” still say they have 116,000 signatures, but a hand count by The Associated Press, Georgia Public Broadcasting, WABE and The Atlanta Journal-Constitution tallied only about 108,500.The news organizations found nearly half of a statistical sample of 1,000 entries couldn’t be matched to an eligible registered city of Atlanta voter. Some signers live outside the city, some seemingly fabricated addresses, and others provided far too little information — like the “Lord Jesus” who signed with an address of “homeless.”...