Month: September 2025

By PETER SMITH Associated Press Before 2022, Sister Vassa Larin was best known as an Orthodox nun who taught thousands on YouTube about saints and holy days. She became one of the most prominent female intellectuals in Orthodoxy — widely respected within the highly patriarchal religion where all clergy and bishops are male. Then Russia

By JOSEPH FALZETTA Associated Press NAIROBI, Kenya (AP) — The number of aid workers kidnapped in South Sudan has more than doubled this year, according to two senior humanitarian officials working for international groups. Aid agencies are concerned about the well-being of their staff and the disruption of their life-saving services in a region suffering

BEIJING (AP) — China has approved the establishment of a national nature reserve at Scarborough Shoal, a hotly disputed territory that the Philippines also claims in the South China Sea. A notice posted online Wednesday by China’s State Council said that details about the area and size of the project would be released separately by

By JIM GOMEZ Associated Press MANILA, Philippines (AP) — The Philippines on Thursday protested a plan by China to establish a nature reserve in one of the most hotly disputed shoals in the South China Sea, calling it a “pretext to eventual occupation” and demanding that Beijing immediately withdraw the plan. China’s State Council on

By MEGAN JANETSKY and FERNANDO LLANO Associated Press MEXICO CITY (AP) — A gas tanker truck exploded and burned multiple vehicles under a Mexico City highway overpass Wednesday, killing three people and injuring 70 others, some with their entire bodies charred and others waiting for help in the road with burns and torn clothing. The