AP World News

By NICOLE WINFIELD Associated Press ABOARD THE PAPAL PLANE (AP) — Pope Leo XIV on Tuesday shared for the first time what he was thinking when the votes started going his way during the conclave that elected him, saying he resigned himself to the inevitable and put the rest in God’s hands. “I took a

By CHRISTOPHER SHERMAN and MIKE CATALINI Associated Press TEGUCIGALPA, Honduras (AP) — Former Honduras President Juan Orlando Hernández, sentenced last year to 45 years in prison for his role in a drug trafficking operation that moved hundreds of tons of cocaine to the United States, was released from prison following a pardon from President Donald

SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico (AP) — Haiti’s transitional presidential council has backed an electoral law in the latest step toward holding a general election for the first time in nearly a decade. The approval late Monday means that the government can finally publish an official and long-awaited electoral calendar, after fears that the council would

By VESELIN TOSHKOV Associated Press SOFIA, Bulgaria (AP) — Bulgaria’s government said Tuesday it is withdrawing a controversial budget proposal after an evening demonstration drew tens of thousands of peaceful participants that was later marred by clashes between a much smaller group of masked men and police. Opposition and business groups have warned that plans

By The Associated Press Talks between Russia and the U.S. on ending the nearly four-year war in Ukraine were constructive, but much work remains, Yuri Ushakov, a senior adviser to President Vladimir Putin, told reporters on Wednesday. Putin met U.S. President Donald Trump’s envoy Steve Witkoff and son-in-law Jared Kushner in the Kremlin in talks

By CHAN HO-HIM AP Business Writer HONG KONG (AP) — Uncomfortable questions are being raised over who is to blame for Hong Kong’s deadliest blaze in decades. As the territory mourns over the high-rise apartment fire that killed at least 156 people, anger and frustration are mounting over building safety lapses, suspected construction corruption and

By NICOLE WINFIELD, KAREEM CHEHAYEB and BASSEM MROUE Associated Press BEIRUT (AP) — Pope Leo XIV prayed Tuesday at the site of a deadly 2020 Beirut port explosion that has become a symbol of dysfunction and official impunity and called for justice to prevail, as he offered words of consolation to Lebanon’s people — including

By WAFAA SHURAFA, MEGAN JANETSKY and SAMY MAGDY Associated Press DEIR AL-BALAH, Gaza Strip (AP) — Israel on Tuesday said it had received remains handed over by Palestinian militants in Gaza to the Red Cross. They were believed to be one of the two hostages still in the territory: an Israeli and a Thai national.

By BINSAR BAKKARA and NINIEK KARMINI Associated Press BATANG TORU, Indonesia (AP) — Emergency crews raced to reach survivors and recover more bodies Tuesday as the death toll from last week’s catastrophic floods and landslides surged past 1,300 in Indonesia, Sri Lanka and Thailand, with nearly 1,000 people missing. Days of heavy monsoon rains inundated

By JULIA FRANKEL Associated Press TURMUS AYYA, West Bank (AP) — The fear is palpable in this Palestinian village. It’s clear in how farmers gather their harvests quickly, how they scan the valley for movement, how they dare not stray past certain roads. At any time, they say, armed Israeli settlers could descend. “In a

By ELAINE KURTENBACH AP Business Writer BANGKOK (AP) — Behind the hoopla over the promise of artificial intelligence lay difficult realities, including how such technology might affect people already disadvantaged in a data-driven world. A new report by the United Nations Development Program notes most of the gains from AI are likely to be reaped

By CHAN HO-HIM and KEN MORITSUGU Associated Press HONG KONG (AP) — Hong Kong will set up an independent committee headed by a judge to determine the cause of a deadly apartment block fire that shocked the city, and to make recommendations to prevent a similar tragedy from happening again, its leader said Tuesday. John

By CARLOS VALDEZ Associated Press LA PAZ, Bolivia (AP) — Visiting Bolivia became a little easier for certain travelers on Monday, when the South American nation’s first conservative government in nearly 20 years eliminated visa requirements for citizens from the United States and Israel, among several other countries, as part of a broader geopolitical and

By ROB GILLIES Associated Press TORONTO (AP) — Canada has joined a major European Union defense fund, Prime Minister Mark Carney’s office said Monday, as the country looks to diversify its military spending away from the United States. The plan allows Canadian defense companies access to a 150 billion euro ($170 billion) EU loan program,

By JUNIOR RACINE, DÁNICA COTO and EVENS SANON Associated Press SAINT-MARC, Haiti (AP) — Heavily armed gangs attacked Haiti’s central region over the weekend, killing men, women and children as they set fire to homes and forced survivors to flee into the darkness. Police made emergency calls for backup, asserting that 50% of the Artibonite

By JILL LAWLESS Associated Press LONDON (AP) — British Prime Minister Keir Starmer on Monday defended his Treasury chief against opposition claims that she misled the public and the markets about the state of the public finances before last week’s budget, a tax-raising economic plan that was preceded by contradictory leaks to the media and

By CHAN HO-HIM and DAVID RISING Associated Press HONG KONG (AP) — Hong Kong officials said Monday that their investigation into a deadly blaze that killed at least 151 has revealed some of the netting that covered scaffolding used in renovations was not up to fire-safety codes, as a wave of public sympathy and support

By NICOLE WINFIELD, KAREEM CHEHAYEB and ABBY SEWELL Associated Press BEIRUT, Lebanon (AP) — Pope Leo XIV celebrated Lebanon’s tradition of interfaith coexistence Monday as a beacon of hope for a conflict-torn region, as he asked for “the divine gift of peace” alongside the country’s Christian and Muslim religious leaders. Leo received a raucous, ululating

By JULHAS ALAM Associated Press DHAKA, Bangladesh (AP) — A court in Bangladesh’s capital sentenced ousted Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina to five years in prison and her niece, British Labour Party lawmaker Tulip Siddiq, to two years in prison on Monday for corruption involving a government land project. Rabiul Alam, the judge of Dhaka’s Special

By BASSEM MROUE Associated Press BEIRUT (AP) — Over the past few decades, hundreds of thousands of Christians have left parts of the Middle East for good, driven by wars and the rise of Muslim extremists. In Lebanon, it has been different. Despite the many crises that have battered the small nation, Christians continue to

By DASHA LITVINOVA and ISOBEL KOSHIW Associated Press Diplomats face an uphill battle to reconcile Russian and Ukrainian “red lines” as a renewed U.S.-led push to end the war gathers steam, with Ukrainian officials attending talks in the U.S. over the weekend and Washington officials expected in Moscow early this week. U.S. President Donald Trump’s

By CHRISTOPHER SHERMAN Associated Press TEGUCIGALPA, Honduras (AP) — Former Honduran President Juan Orlando Hernández, who went from close U.S. ally in the war on drugs to a poster child for presidential corruption in Central America, is on the verge of becoming once again a friend of the United States with President Donald Trump’s intention

MEDAN, Indonesia (AP) — Some residents of the flood-hit Indonesian island of Sumatra have resorted to stealing food and water to survive, authorities said Sunday, while Sri Lankan officials said deaths from floods and mudslides in that island nation have risen to 193. The floods, which hit Indonesia nearly a week ago, have killed 442

By NICOLE WINFIELD Associated Press ABOARD THE PAPAL PLANE (AP) — Pope Leo XIV doubled down Sunday on the Holy See’s insistence on a two-state solution to resolve the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, saying in his first airborne news conference that it was the “only solution” that could guarantee justice for both sides. Leo made the comments