AP

By HUIZHONG WU Associated Press BANGKOK (AP) — A suspected scam call operation and a suspicious network of companies was discovered with links to a new free trade zone in the nation of East Timor, according to a report published Thursday by the United Nations Office of Drugs and Crime. The report comes as scam

By FARNOUSH AMIRI, EDITH M. LEDERER AND JON GAMBRELL Associated Press UNITED NATIONS (AP) — Qatar’s prime minister accused Israel of ignoring the hostages in the Gaza Strip when it attacked Hamas leaders in Doha, but he vowed Thursday not to abandon efforts to end the nearly two-year war. Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al Thani

By MEGAN JANETSKY and FABIOLA SÁNCHEZ Associated Press MEXICO CITY (AP) — Families clustered outside hospitals awaiting word of their loved ones Thursday after the crash and explosion of a tanker truck a day earlier on a Mexico City highway that killed at least eight people and injured 90. The fire engulfed more than two

By KIM TONG-HYUNG and HYUNG-JIN KIM Associated Press SEOUL, South Korea (AP) — South Korea’s president said Thursday that Korean companies will likely hesitate to make further investments in the United States unless Washington improves its visa system for their employees, as U.S. authorities released hundreds of workers who were detained at a Georgia factory

By PETER SMITH Associated Press Before 2022, Sister Vassa Larin was best known as an Orthodox nun who taught thousands on YouTube about saints and holy days. She became one of the most prominent female intellectuals in Orthodoxy — widely respected within the highly patriarchal religion where all clergy and bishops are male. Then Russia

By JOSEPH FALZETTA Associated Press NAIROBI, Kenya (AP) — The number of aid workers kidnapped in South Sudan has more than doubled this year, according to two senior humanitarian officials working for international groups. Aid agencies are concerned about the well-being of their staff and the disruption of their life-saving services in a region suffering

BEIJING (AP) — China has approved the establishment of a national nature reserve at Scarborough Shoal, a hotly disputed territory that the Philippines also claims in the South China Sea. A notice posted online Wednesday by China’s State Council said that details about the area and size of the project would be released separately by

By JIM GOMEZ Associated Press MANILA, Philippines (AP) — The Philippines on Thursday protested a plan by China to establish a nature reserve in one of the most hotly disputed shoals in the South China Sea, calling it a “pretext to eventual occupation” and demanding that Beijing immediately withdraw the plan. China’s State Council on