France / AP A French activist farmer faces up to five years in prison as he goes on trial accused of helping African migrants cross the border from Italy. The case has called attention to residents of the Roya valley in the Alps and others who have resisted anti-migrant sentiment and are offering food, lodging or other aid to …

  WASHINGTON / AP Officials are investigating after a prominent part of Washington’s skyline went dark. The National Park Service tweeted Tuesday night that the Washington Monument’s lights went out around 7 p.m. Officials later said they believe there’s a problem with the automated program that controls the monument’s lights and electricians will be able to confirm whether that is …

  PARIS / AP A French court has granted the son of Equatorial Guinea’s president more time to prepare his defense against charges that he spent millions in government funds on high-end cars, art and real estate abroad while his compatriots languish in poverty. Teodoro Nguema Obiang Mangue’s lawyer requested a delay in the trial, arguing that he hadn’t had …

  NEW YORK / AP His inauguration less than three weeks away, President-elect Donald Trump is raising new doubts about the nation’s intelligence community, tweeting fresh criticism at the same people who will help inform his most sensitive decisions once he takes office. Trump charged on Twitter, without evidence, that the timing of an upcoming intelligence briefing on suspected Russian …

  COPENHAGEN / AP A judge in Denmark said on Wednesday she is strongly considering taking legal steps against South Korean journalists for violating Danish law by filming inside a courtroom the daughter of the impeached South Korean president’s confidante during a detention hearing. Malene Urup says South Korean reporters filmed and spoke to Yoora Chung on Sunday, hours after …

  Bloomberg The chances that the UK will make a disruptive break from its biggest market have grown with the resignation of the British envoy to the European Union, an experienced Brussels insider who was reviled by leading Brexit supporters. Ivan Rogers quit as Britain’s permanent representative to the 28-nation EU urging officials working for the UK in Brussels to …

  Reuters Stock markets in the Middle East where foreign funds are most active outperformed for a second straight day on Wednesday, with Egypt’s index hitting a record high while Saudi Arabia was dragged lower by profit-taking. Egypt’s main index gained 1.5 percent to 12,608 points in the highest trading volume this week, surpassing the intra-day record high of 12,534 …

  NEW YORK / AP US stocks rose on Wednesday as December auto sales start to roll in. General Motors and Ford are trading higher. That’s helping consumer-focused companies. The market is building on its gains from the day before. KEEPING SCORE: The Dow Jones industrial average added 30 points, or 0.2 percent, to 19,911 as of 10 a.m. Eastern …

  Bloomberg Indonesia won’t stop JPMorgan Chase & Co. from conducting private-sector business in the country, a finance ministry official said, days after the government severed commercial ties with the US bank for cutting its assessment of the nation’s stocks. “For business here, JPM is still allowed to operate just like other banks,” Suahasil Nazara, head of the fiscal agency …

  Bloomberg China’s benchmark money-market rate declined the most in two years after the central bank took measures to ease a liquidity crunch. The benchmark seven-day repurchase rate fell 37 basis points to 2.30 percent, according to weighted average prices from the National Interbank Funding Center. The average interbank repo rate surged to a 20-month high in December on a …