AP

By KEN MORITSUGU and KANIS LEUNG Associated Press BEIJING (AP) — For most Chinese, the 36th anniversary of a bloody crackdown that ended pro-democracy protests in China passed like any other weekday. And that’s just how the ruling Communist Party wants it. Security was tight Wednesday around Beijing’s Tiananmen Square, where weeks of student-led protests

By WAFAA SHURAFA Associated Press DEIR AL-BALAH, Gaza Strip (AP) — An Israeli- and U.S.-backed group paused food delivery at its three distribution sites in the Gaza Strip after health officials said dozens of Palestinians were killed in a series of shootings near the sites this week. Israeli strikes across the territory, meanwhile, killed 26

By MIKE CORDER Associated Press THE HAGUE, Netherlands (AP) — Dutch opposition parties called Wednesday for fresh elections as soon as possible, a day after anti-Islam lawmaker Geert Wilders sparked the collapse of the country’s four-party coalition government. Prime Minister Dick Schoof’s 11-month-old administration fell apart when Wilders withdrew his Party for Freedom ministers. Schoof

By CHARLOTTE GRAHAM-McLAY Associated Press WELLINGTON, New Zealand (AP) — Before Erin Patterson’s in-laws and their relatives arrived at her home for lunch, she bought pricey ingredients, consulted friends about recipes and sent her children out to a movie. Then, the Australian woman served them a dish containing poisonous death cap mushrooms — a meal

By ANIRUDDHA GHOSAL Associated Press HANOI, Vietnam (AP) — Vietnam abolished its long-standing two-child limit Tuesday to try and reverse declining birth rates and ease the pressures of an aging population. The National Assembly passed amendments scrapping rules that limit families to having one or two children, state media Vietnam News Agency reported Wednesday. The

By LORNE COOK Associated Press BRUSSELS (AP) — Ukraine’s president on Wednesday urged Western backers to speed up deliveries of air defense systems to counter Russian missile strikes and to help boost weapons production. The emphasis should be on U.S.-made Patriot systems, President Volodymyr Zelenskky told a Ukraine Defense Contact Group meeting at NATO headquarters

By FOSTER KLUG Associated Press SEOUL, South Korea (AP) — Images from the election of South Korea’s new president, liberal Lee Jae-myung, are everything you’d expect to see in one of the world’s most vibrant democracies. Peaceful. Orderly. And, because this is South Korea, compulsively eye-catching, with crowds singing raucously along to blaring K-pop, dancers

By KIM TONG-HYUNG and HYUNG-JIN KIM Associated Press SEOUL, South Korea (AP) — Winning a tense election that capped off months of political turmoil, new South Korean President Lee Jae-myung described his victory as the start of the country’s return to normalcy following the crisis sparked by then-conservative leader Yoon Suk Yeol’s imposition of martial

By JON GAMBRELL Associated Press DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) — Iran’s supreme leader on Wednesday criticized an initial proposal from the United States in negotiations over Tehran’s rapidly advancing nuclear program, though he stopped short of entirely rejecting the idea of agreement with Washington. The remarks by Ayatollah Ali Khamenei colored in the red

COLOGNE, Germany (AP) — More than 20,000 residents were being evacuated from part of Cologne’s city center on Wednesday as specialists prepared to defuse three unexploded U.S. bombs from World War II that were unearthed earlier this week. Even 80 years after the end of the war, unexploded bombs dropped during wartime air raids are

By SAM MEDNICK and LEE KEATH Associated Press TEL AVIV, Israel (AP) — Shootings have erupted nearly daily since last week in the Gaza Strip in the vicinity of new hubs where desperate Palestinians are being directed to collect food. Witnesses say nearby Israeli troops have opened fire. Hospital officials say at least 80 people

By ANDREA RODRÍGUEZ Associated Press HAVANA (AP) — For Marylín Álvarez and her family, like countless other Cubans, the question is no longer if the power will go out, but when — forcing them to implement ingenious alternatives to sustain daily life as the island undergoes its most severe energy crisis in decades. Since December,

By HYUNG-JIN KIM and KIM TONG-HYUNG Associated Press SEOUL, South Korea (AP) — South Korea’s new President Lee Jae-myung vowed Wednesday to restart dormant talks with North Korea and bolster a trilateral partnership with the U.S. and Japan, as he laid out key policy goals for his single, five-year term. Lee, who rose from childhood