European Court of Human rights rejects French virus lawsuit

BRUSSELS (AP) — The European Court of Human Rights has dismissed a legal complaint from a French citizen who claimed the anti-COVID 19 measures put in place by the French government were insufficient. In its decision Thursday, the Strasbourg-based court said Renaud Le Mailloux's application is inadmissible...

Late French ex-president Giscard helped reshape Europe

PARIS (AP) — No one who saw it will forget Valery Giscard d’Estaing’s imperious exit from the Elysee Palace. Seated alone at his desk, he offered a stiff televised farewell to the French who had voted him out of office, then stood and left the room. For 45 seconds, the camera kept rolling on...

The Latest: Young S. Koreans taking crucial university exam

SEOUL, South Korea — Hundreds of thousands of masked students in South Korea, including 35 COVID-19 patients, are taking the country’s highly competitive university entrance exam despite a viral resurgence that has forced authorities to toughen social distancing rules. The Education Ministry says...

Asian shares inch higher on optimism over vaccines, stimulus

Shares were mostly higher in Asia on Thursday, helped by progress toward rolling out coronavirus vaccines and talk of reaching a compromise on new help for the U.S. economy. Shares rose in Hong Kong, Tokyo, Seoul and Sydney but fell in Shanghai. The rollout of a vaccine in the U.S. could begin this month, if...

France and UN rally aid for Lebanon, urge political reforms

PARIS (AP) — France and the United Nations vowed Wednesday to keep providing humanitarian aid to Lebanon but urged the country's leaders to form a new government as a political deadlock in Beirut has blocked billions of dollars in assistance for the cash-strapped country hit by multiple crises. A meeting...

Ex-French leader Valery Giscard d'Estaing dies at age 94

PARIS (AP) — Valery Giscard d’Estaing, the president of France from 1974 to 1981 who became a champion of European integration, died on Wednesday. He was 94. Giscard d’Estaing's office said he passed away in his family home in the Loir-et-Cher region, in central France, after contracting...

Former French President Valery Giscard d’Estaing has died at the age of 94, his office and the French presidency say

EU looks forward to Biden resetting trans-Atlantic relations

BRUSSELS (AP) — The European Union is grasping the imminent arrival of the incoming Biden administration as a moment to reset relations with the United States after four years of trans-Atlantic acrimony under President Donald Trump. With a series of initiatives, the 27-nation bloc is seeking to rekindle...

UN calls on humanity to end 'war on nature,' go carbon-free

As an extreme year for hurricanes, wildfires and heat waves comes to an end, the head of the United Nations challenged world leaders to make 2021 the year that humanity ends its “war on nature” and commits to a future free of planet-warming carbon pollution. With new reports highlighting...

The Latest: Tucson votes in mandatory nightly curfew

TUCSON, Ariz. -- At the urging of Mayor Regina Romero, the Tucson City Council voted Tuesday night to establish a mandatory nightly curfew for three weeks in an attempt to slow the spread of COVID-19. The 10 p.m.-to-5 a.m. curfew will take effect Friday and run through Dec. 23. Romero says she sought the curfew...