AP World News

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

By GIADA ZAMPANO and SALVATORE LAPORTA Associated Press NAPLES, Italy (AP) — At long last, vindication is at hand for an Oscar-winning composer who sought to prove he was just as capable of breathing life into Italy’s grand theaters as gritty Hollywood films. On Friday night, Naples’ Teatro San Carlo will stage Ennio Morricone’s only

By CHRISTOPHER SHERMAN Associated Press TEGUCIGALPA, Honduras (AP) — For over 30 years, Javier Gámez and María Barahona worked, scrimped and studied to push their family ahead. Gámez filled bags with sand from the Choluteca River winding through the Honduran capital and shined shoes in a downtown park; Barahona sold bananas and oranges from a

TORONTO (AP) — A Canadian man who died in 2019 has been identified as the perpetrator of three cold case homicides in Toronto, and investigators believe there could be more victims. Toronto police said Thursday recent forensic testing and genetic genealogy has conclusively identified Kenneth Smith, 72, of Windsor, Ontario, as the person who killed

By ROB GILLIES Associated Press TORONTO (AP) — Canada’s governing Liberals were one seat short of a simple majority in Parliament after a Conservative lawmaker defected and joined Prime Minister Mark Carney’s party Thursday. Michael Ma was the second Canadian Conservative opposition lawmaker to join the Liberals in just over a month. Ma, who represents

By JINTAMAS SAKSORNCHAI and GRANT PECK Associated Press BANGKOK (AP) — Thailand’s Parliament was dissolved Friday for new elections early next year as the country engaged in deadly fighting with Cambodia. Prime Minister Anutin Charnvirakul dissolved the House of Representatives after getting approval from King Maha Vajiralongkorn, whose endorsement became effective Friday with its publication

By FU TING Associated Press China will soon start collecting a value-added tax on contraceptive drugs and products for the first time in over three decades, a move aligned with Beijing’s effort to get families to have more children after decades of limiting most to one child. “Contraceptive drugs and products” will not be tax-exempt

By FATIMA HUSSEIN Associated Press WASHINGTON (AP) — The U.S. imposed sanctions on three nephews of Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro, among others, on Thursday as President Donald Trump looks to inflict further pressure on the South American nation. The new sanctions on Franqui Flores, Carlos Flores and Efrain Campo come a day after Trump announced

By JUSTIN KABUMBA and MONIKA PRONCZUK Associated Press GOMA, Congo (AP) — More than 400 civilians have been killed since the Rwanda-backed M23 armed group escalated its offensive in the South Kivu province in eastern Congo, regional officials said, adding that Rwandan special forces were in the strategic city of Uvira. “More than 413 civilians

By JOSHUA GOODMAN and MICHAEL BIESECKER Associated Press MIAMI (AP) — The oil tanker was navigating near the coast of Guyana recently when its location transponder showed it starting to zigzag. It was a seemingly improbable maneuver and the latest digital clue that the ship, the Skipper, was trying to obscure its whereabouts and the

By ELENA BECATOROS Associated Press ATHENS, Greece (AP) — Greek Finance Minister Kyriakos Pierrakakis was elected Thursday as president of the Eurogroup — a move that would have been unthinkable just 10 years ago when the country was in the throes of a deep financial crisis that almost saw it tossed out of the eurozone

By MEG KINNARD Associated Press Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem on Thursday linked the seizure of an oil tanker off the coast of Venezuela to the Trump administration’s counterdrug efforts in Latin America as tensions escalate with the government of President Nicolás Maduro. Noem’s assertion, which came during her testimony to the House Homeland Security

GENEVA (AP) — Switzerland’s long-celebrated yodeling has received a response from the U.N. cultural agency: The Alpine tradition of chant and song is indeed worthy of classification in a list of the world’s cultural heritage. A committee of Paris-based UNESCO, meeting in New Delhi, on Thursday listed yodeling in its list of intangible cultural heritage.

By WAFAA SHURAFA, BASSEM MROUE, and JULIA FRANKEL Associated Press DEIR AL-BALAH, Gaza Strip (AP) — Rains drenched Gaza’s tent camps and dropping temperatures chilled Palestinians huddling inside them Thursday as winter storm Byron descended on the war-battered territory, showing how two months of a ceasefire have failed to sufficiently address the spiraling humanitarian crisis

By JAMES BROOKS Associated Press LYNGBY, Denmark (AP) — It was a wedding that captivated the world — in 1981, Lady Diana Spencer said “I will” to Prince Charles, becoming Princess of Wales and bringing youth and glamour to Britain’s royal family. More than 40 years after the wedding and many years after the marriage

By VESELIN TOSHKOV Associated Press SOFIA, Bulgaria (AP) — Bulgaria’s government resigned on Thursday after mass protests gripped the country and just weeks before the European Union nation is due to join the eurozone. The resignation of the minority coalition, led by the center-right GERB party, was announced minutes before parliament was scheduled to vote