AP World News

By JON GAMBRELL and GIADA ZAMPANO Associated Press ROME (AP) — Iran and the United States made “some but not conclusive progress” Friday in a fifth round of negotiations in Rome over Tehran’s rapidly advancing nuclear program, the talks’ Omani mediator said. The remarks by Badr al-Busaidi suggested the negotiations between the two longtime enemies

By MARI YAMAGUCHI Associated Press TOKYO (AP) — Rice is essential to Japanese culture, tradition and politics. People take pride in the oval-shaped sticky Japonica grain, which is still a staple even though total consumption has fallen over the decades. But since last summer, prices have soared as supplies have fallen short of demand. The

By HYUNG-JIN KIM and KIM TONG-HYUNG Associated Press SEOUL, South Korea (AP) — North Korea is seeking to arrest those responsible for the failed launch of its second naval destroyer, as it denied the warship suffered major damage — a claim quickly met with outside skepticism. A statement from North Korea on its handling of

By ADRIANA GOMEZ LICON Associated Press The foreign men convicted of crimes who were placed on a deportation flight headed for the chaotic nation of South Sudan were originally from countries as far away as Vietnam. They had lived in various places from California to Iowa, Nebraska to Florida, with one serving a sentence of

By STEVEN GRATTAN Associated Press BOGOTA, Colombia (AP) — A civil court in Peru has issued a landmark ruling recognizing the territorial rights of the Kichwa people within a protected area in the Amazon — marking a major breakthrough for Indigenous land claims. The decision affirms that Indigenous stewardship is fully compatible with conservation goals,

By DÁNICA COTO Associated Press SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico (AP) — The Organization of American States came under pressure Thursday to help quash gang violence in Haiti as a U.N.-backed mission led by Kenyan police in the troubled Caribbean country struggles with a lack of funds and personnel. A U.S. Department of State official attending

By PAN PYLAS Associated Press LONDON (AP) — The British government will roll out the use of medication to suppress the sex drive of sex offenders, as part of a package of measures to reduce the risk of reoffending and alleviate the pressures on the prison system, which is running out of space. Justice Secretary

By TIA GOLDENBERG Associated Press They were colleagues, and they were a couple, days away from a marriage proposal. But the interwoven lives of Yaron Lischinsky and Sarah Milgrim were brutally cut short Wednesday evening, when the two Israeli Embassy staffers were shot while leaving a reception for young diplomats at the Capital Jewish Museum.

PANAMA CITY (AP) — Panama and Venezuela will resume commercial flights nearly a year after suspending them when they broke off diplomatic relations, Panama’s Civil Aviation Authority said Thursday. Venezuela pulled its diplomatic representation from Panama last July after Panamanian President José Raúl Mulino refused to recognize Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro’s reelection. The Association of

By DUSAN STOJANOVIC Associated Press BELGRADE, Serbia (AP) — The European Union’s top foreign policy official said Thursday that membership candidate Serbia faces a “strategic choice” of direction, just weeks after Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic defied EU warnings and attended Russia’s Victory Day parade in Moscow. “Serbia faces a strategic, geostrategic choice, where it wants

By NICOLE WINFIELD Associated Press ROME (AP) — Italy’s Constitutional Court on Thursday ruled that two women can register as parents of a child on a birth certificate, saying recognition of parental rights can’t be restricted to the biological mother alone in families with same-sex parents. The court ruled that it was unconstitutional for city

By MOHAMMED JAHJOUH, WAFAA SHURAFA, SARAH EL DEEB and SAM MEDNICK Associated Press KHAN YOUNIS, Gaza Strip (AP) — Grabbing her daughter’s feeble arm, Asmaa al-Arja pulls a shirt over the 2-year-old’s protruding ribs and swollen belly. The child lies on a hospital bed, heaving, then wails uncontrollably, throwing her arms around her own shoulders

By The Associated Press Russia and Ukraine have no direct peace talks scheduled, the Kremlin said Thursday, nearly a week after their first face-to-face session since shortly after Moscow’s invasion in 2022 and days after U.S. President Donald Trump said they would start ceasefire negotiations “immediately.” “There is no concrete agreement about the next meetings,”

By STEFANIE DAZIO Associated Press BERLIN (AP) — Global reactions poured in Thursday in the hours after two staff members of the Israeli Embassy in Washington were shot and killed Wednesday evening while leaving an event at a Jewish museum. Authorities say the suspect yelled, “Free, free Palestine” after he was arrested. The violence was

By GRANT PECK Associated Press BANGKOK (AP) — A retired high-ranking officer in Myanmar’s military was shot dead by a self-proclaimed urban guerrilla group on Thursday near his home in the country’s biggest city, marking the latest assassination attributed to militants opposed to army rule. The former army officer, Cho Tun Aung, was shot by

By LIUDAS DAPKUS and GEIR MOULSON Associated Press VILNIUS, Lithuania (AP) — Chancellor Friedrich Merz inaugurated a groundbreaking German brigade in Lithuania that is meant to help protect NATO’s eastern flank and declared Thursday that “the security of our Baltic allies is also our security” as worries about Russian aggression persist. He said Berlin’s strengthening

By The Associated Press Israeli tanks and drones attacked a hospital in northern Gaza overnight, igniting fires and causing extensive damage, Palestinian hospital officials said on Thursday. Videos taken by a health official at Al-Awda Hospital show walls blown away and thick black smoke billowing wreckage. The Israeli military said its forces were operating “adjacent”

By JILL LAWLESS Associated Press LONDON (AP) — Britain signed an agreement Thursday to hand sovereignty over the contested Chagos Islands to Mauritius, a move the government says ensures the future of a U.S.-U.K. military base that is vital to British security. The Indian Ocean archipelago is home to a strategically important naval and bomber

By YURAS KARMANAU Associated Press TALLINN, Estonia (AP) — A Belarusian man has died in prison while serving a sentence for insulting the country’s authoritarian president, a human rights group said Thursday, adding to a growing number of political prisoners who perished amid a relentless crackdown on dissent in the tightly controlled country. Valiantsin Shtermer,

By STEPHEN McGRATH Associated Press BUCHAREST, Romania (AP) — A top Romanian court on Thursday rejected as unfounded a request to annul the presidential election by the hard-right candidate who decisively lost the race to his pro-European Union opponent on Sunday. After deliberations on Thursday, Romania’s Constitutional Court unanimously rejected the annulment request, filed on

By MOLLY QUELL Associated Press THE HAGUE, Netherlands (AP) — International Criminal Court prosecutors have urged judges to reject a request by Israel to scrap arrest warrants for Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his former defense minister while the court reconsiders its jurisdiction over Gaza and the West Bank. In a 10-page written submission posted

By THOMAS ADAMSON Associated Press PARIS (AP) — Decades before transgender became a household word and “RuPaul’s Drag Race” became a worldwide hit — before visibility brought rights and recognition — there was Bambi, the Parisian icon who danced for Hollywood. The moment that changed queer history occurred on a sweltering summer day in early

By TIA GOLDENBERG Associated Press TEL AVIV, Israel (AP) — Killing babies “as a hobby.” “Expelling a population.” “Fighting against civilians.” It is some of the harshest language against Israel’s wartime conduct in Gaza and it came this week from a prominent Israeli politician, sparking a domestic uproar as the country faces heavy international criticism.

By AIJAZ HUSSAIN Associated Press SRINAGAR, India (AP) — There are hardly any tourists in the scenic Himalayan region of Kashmir. Most of the hotels and ornate pinewood houseboats are empty. Resorts in the snowclad mountains have fallen silent. Hundreds of cabs are parked and idle. It’s the fallout of last month’s gun massacre that

By JIM GOMEZ Associated Press MANILA, Philippines (AP) — Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. asked all of his Cabinet secretaries to submit resignations on Thursday in a “bold reset” of his administration following last week’s mid-term elections, which saw more opposition candidates win crucial Senate seats. Marcos, the 67-year-old son of a late Philippine dictator

By KIM TONG-HYUNG and HYUNG-JIN KIM Associated Press SEOUL, South Korea (AP) — North Korea’s second naval destroyer was damaged in a failed launch this week, state media reported Thursday, sparking fury from leader Kim Jong Un, who wants bigger warships to deal with what he calls escalating U.S.-led threats against his country. It’s not

By ROB GILLIES Associated Press TORONTO (AP) — Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney said Wednesday his government is talking to the U.S. about joining President Donald Trump’s future Golden Dome missile defense program. The multilayered, $175 billion system would for the first time put U.S. weapons in space. Trump said the previous day he expected

By NICOLE WINFIELD Associated Press VATICAN CITY (AP) — Pope Leo XIV called Wednesday for humanitarian aid to reach the Gaza Strip and for an end to the “heartbreaking” toll on its people, as he presided over his first general audience in St. Peter’s Square. The Vatican said that around 40,000 people were on hand

By EDITH M. LEDERER Associated Press UNITED NATIONS (AP) — The top U.N. official for Syria warned Wednesday of the “real dangers of renewed conflict and deeper confrontation” in the war-battered country but also hoped for a better life for its people following decisions by the U.S. and European Union to lift sanctions. Geir Pedersen