AP

By JAMEY KEATEN Associated Press GENEVA (AP) — U.N. Secretary-General António Guterres has recommended that former Iraqi President Barham Salih become the next head of the U.N. refugee agency, and the first from the Middle East in a half-century, according to a letter from the U.N. chief. Salih, 65, is set to succeed longtime UNHCR

By MEHMET GUZEL and ANDREW WILKS Associated Press IZNIK, Turkey (AP) — Archaeologists in Turkey have uncovered one of the most important finds from Anatolia’s early Christian era: a fresco of a Roman-looking Jesus as the “Good Shepherd.” The painting was discovered in August in an underground tomb near Iznik, a town in northwestern Turkey

By DASHA LITVINOVA and ILLIA NOVIKOV Associated Press KYIV, Ukraine (AP) — A senior Kremlin official says that the Russian police and National Guard will remain in eastern Ukraine’s Donbas to oversee the prized industrial region, even if a peace settlement ends the nearly four-year war — a possibility that is likely to be rejected

By JON GAMBRELL Associated Press DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) — Iran has arrested Nobel Peace Prize laureate Narges Mohammadi, her supporters said Friday. A foundation in her name said she was detained in Mashhad, some 680 kilometers (420 miles) northeast of the capital, Tehran, while attending a memorial for a human rights lawyer recently

By PIETRO DE CRISTOFARO and STEFANIE DAZIO Associated Press BERLIN (AP) — Germany summoned Russia’s ambassador Friday following accusations of sabotage, cyberattacks and election interference, an official said. The German government has also accused Moscow of perpetrating disinformation campaigns. “The goal of these Russian cyber and disinformation attacks is clear: It is to divide society,

By YURAS KARMANAU Authoritarian President Alexander Lukashenko on Friday hosted a U.S. envoy for talks in the Belarus capital of Minsk, the latest step in the isolated leader’s effort to improve ties with the West. Lukashenko met with President Donald Trump’s special envoy for Belarus, John Coale, according to state news agency Belta and the

By SAM MEDNICK Associated Press TEL AVIV (AP) — New footage of six Israeli hostages shows them celebrating the Jewish holiday of Hanukkah while being held captive in a tunnel in Gaza, several months before they were killed. Israel said all six were killed last August by Hamas, shortly before Israeli troops arrived. The videos

By LORNE COOK Associated Press BRUSSELS (AP) — The European Union is expected on Friday to lock up Russia’s assets held in Europe until it gives up its war in Ukraine and compensates its neighbor for the heavy damage that it has inflicted for almost four years. The move is an important step that would

By ROD McGUIRK Associated Press MELBOURNE, Australia (AP) — Australian accident investigators on Thursday released dramatic images of a skydiver’s parachute becoming entangled on an airplane’s tail, leaving him dangling at 4,500 meters (15,000 feet.) The skydiver, Adrian Ferguson, used a hook knife to cut himself free and sustained minor leg injuries during the incident

By ISABEL DEBRE Associated Press SANTIAGO, Chile (AP) — Ask many Chileans how their country fared in the past several years and they’ll describe a descent into disaster: Venezuelan gangs surged across porous borders, bringing unprecedented kidnappings and contract killings to one of the region’s safest nations. A social uprising unleashed violent chaos on once-sleepy

By MOLLY QUELL Associated Press THE HAGUE, Netherlands (AP) — Judges and prosecutors at the International Criminal Court are trying to live and work under the same U.S. financial and travel restrictions brought against Russian President Vladimir Putin and Osama bin Laden. Nine staff members, including six judges and the ICC’s chief prosecutor, have been