AP

CEBU, Philippines (AP) — A plan proposed five years ago by Southeast Asian leaders to end Myanmar’s civil war has failed but could still be used to help restore peace by engaging with leaders who emerge from its recent election, Thailand’s top diplomat said Friday. The nationwide violence that followed the army’s forcible seizure of

By SAM METZ Associated Press JERUSALEM (AP) — Israel said Friday that it will reopen the pedestrian border crossing between the Gaza Strip and Egypt in both directions over the weekend, marking an important step forward for U.S. President Donald Trump’s Gaza ceasefire plan. COGAT, the Israeli military body in charge of coordinating aid to

By HOGIR AL ABDO Associated Press QAMISHLI, Syria (AP) — The Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces announced a new agreement Friday with the country’s central government intended to stabilize a ceasefire that ended weeks of fighting and to lay out the steps toward integration between the two sides. Under the agreement, the SDF said, security forces

By SAMUEL GETACHEW Associated Press ADDIS ABABA, Ethiopia (AP) — Ethiopia’s national carrier canceled flights to and from the troubled northern region of Tigray, as fears grow of renewed fighting between federal troops and regional forces. For a second day, Ethiopian Airlines wasn’t flying to Tigray on Friday, with customers receiving messages that cited “unplanned

By JONATHAN LANDRUM Jr. AP Entertainment Writer LOS ANGELES (AP) — At a pre-Grammy event celebrating Black music’s cultural power, Pharrell Williams used the Recording Academy stage to deliver a prayer — not for himself, but for U.S. leaders. “I want to pray for the leaders of this nation and the powers that be,” Williams

By MARK BANCHEREAU Associated Press DAKAR, Senegal (AP) — The Islamic State extremist group on Friday claimed responsibility for an attack in Niger on an air force base in the capital that wounded four soldiers and damaged an aircraft. The claim of responsibility was contained in a statement on Amaq News Agency, the group’s propaganda

By SUSIE BLANN Associated Press KYIV, Ukraine (AP) — The terms of a Russian commitment to U.S. President Donald Trump to temporarily halt its bombardment of Ukraine during one of the country’s bleakest winters in years remained unclear Friday, as Ukrainians braced for even worse conditions to come next week. Trump said late Thursday that

By HOGIR AL ABDO Associated Press ROJ CAMP, Syria (AP) — Foreign women linked to the Islamic State group and living in a Syrian camp housing more than 2,000 people near the border with Iraq are hoping that an amnesty may be on the horizon after a government offensive weakened the Kurdish-led force that guards

By RODNEY MUHUMUZA Associated Press KAMPALA, Uganda (AP) — Uganda’s army chief accused U.S. Embassy officials of helping opposition leader Bobi Wine as he went into hiding, in an escalation of political tensions that have alarmed Ugandans days after a disputed presidential election. Gen. Muhoozi Kainerugaba, President Yoweri Museveni’s son and presumptive heir, wrote on

By KEN MORITSUGU Associated Press BEIJING (AP) — U.K. Prime Minister Keir Starmer arrived in the Chinese financial center of Shanghai on Friday in his bid to boost business opportunities for British firms in the world’s second-largest economy, just hours after U.S. President Donald Trump signaled a possible opposition to any deal between Beijing and

By ALMA SOLÍS Associated Press PANAMA CITY (AP) — Panama’s president moved to assure the public on Friday that critical ports at both ends of the Panama Canal will continue to operate without interruption — a day after the country’s Supreme Court ruled that the concession held by a subsidiary of Hong Kong’s CK Hutchison