ACCRA, Ghana — Shoppers may get a bitter surprise in their Easter baskets this year. Chocolate eggs and bunnies are more expensive than ever as changing climate patterns eat into global cocoa supplies and the earnings of farmers in West Africa. About three-quarters of the world’s cocoa — the main ingredient in chocolate — are … Read more
FLORENCE, Italy — Michelangelo’s David has been a towering figure in Italian culture since its completion in 1504. But in the current era of the quick buck, curators worry the marble statue’s religious and political significance is being diminished by the thousands of refrigerator magnets and other souvenirs sold around Florence focusing on David’s genitalia. … Read more
DEIR AL-BALAH, Gaza — An international team of doctors visiting a hospital in central Gaza was prepared for the worst. But the gruesome impact Israel’s war against Hamas is having on Palestinian children still left them stunned. One toddler died from a brain injury caused by an Israeli strike that fractured his skull. His cousin, … Read more
LISBON, Portugal — Portugal’s newly-elected Parliament on Wednesday voted in a new house speaker, following a potentially important deal between the country’s two main centrist parties. The chamber elected José Aguiar Branco of the Social Democrats by 160 votes in favor, well above the 116 needed. The vote came after the Social Democrats reached a … Read more
VATICAN CITY — VATICAN CITY (AP) — Pope Francis appeared in better health on Wednesday, walking into the Vatican audience hall on his own with a cane for his weekly general audience and delivering his prepared text with a clear voice. The encounter was Francis’ first public event since Palm Sunday Mass in St. Peter’s … Read more
ATHENS, Greece — Police in Greece clashed late Wednesday with Communist-backed demonstrators who tried to prevent a concert by U.S. military cadets. The violent protest occurred in the central Greek city of Larissa ahead of a concert by members of the West Point Glee Club, a musical group of the U.S. Military Academy which is … Read more
LONDON — A British financial trader, who has been described as the ringleader in the manipulation of a key interest rate before and after the global financial crisis, lost his appeal Wednesday to have his conviction quashed. Tom Hayes, 44, who was a former trader at U.S. bank Citigroup and Switzerland’s UBS, became in 2015 … Read more
MOSCOW — The death toll from last week’s Moscow concert hall attack rose to 143, Russian authorities said Wednesday. Around 80 other people wounded in the siege by gunmen remain hospitalized. The Friday night massacre in Crocus City Hall, a sprawling shopping and entertainment venue on the northwestern outskirts of Moscow, was the deadliest extremist … Read more
AZACUALPA, Honduras — The construction workers who went missing in the Baltimore bridge collapse all hailed from Mexico or Central America before they settled in the Maryland area. Police managed to close bridge traffic seconds before a cargo ship slammed into one of the Francis Scott Key Bridge’s supports early Tuesday, causing the span to … Read more
VIENNA — Two large portraits of the late Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny have been spray-painted on a property owned by the family of a former Czech foreign minister behind a monument to Soviet soldiers in Vienna. The portraits were completed Wednesday on the wall behind the monument, which was already painted in Ukraine’s blue … Read more