Month: February 2023

By SUSIE BLANN Associated Press KYIV, Ukraine (AP) — Russian forces unleashed a barrage of missile and drone strikes against targets in eastern and southern Ukraine early Friday, as a Moscow offensive that has been brewing for days appeared to pick up pace ahead of the one-year anniversary of its invasion. The Kremlin’s forces focused

By STEPHEN McGRATH Associated Press BRASOV, Romania (AP) — University student Vlada Yushchenko was still in her teens and nearly three months pregnant when she hugged her husband at the border, turned away and walked into Moldova. Now she’s in Romania, one of the millions of Ukrainians forced to flee Russia’s invasion. Her baby, Daniel,

By DAKE KANG and HUIZHONG WU Associated Press BEIJING (AP) — China has dismissed a U.S. House of Representatives resolution condemning Beijing over a suspected Chinese spy balloon shot down above U.S. waters as “purely political manipulation and hyping up.” A Foreign Ministry spokesperson says China is “strongly dissatisfied with this and firmly opposes it.”

ZEYNEP BILGINSOY and SUZAN FRASER Associated Press ISTANBUL (AP) — Turkey has for years tempted fate by not enforcing modern construction codes while allowing — and in some cases, encouraging — a real estate boom in earthquake-prone areas, experts say. The lax enforcement, which experts in geology and engineering have long warned about, is gaining

By MENELAOS HADJICOSTIS Associated Press NICOSIA, Cyprus (AP) — A youthful foreign minister who campaigned as a unifier unconstrained by antiquated ideological and party lines will take on a veteran diplomat with broad voter appeal in a Feb. 12 runoff for the presidency of ethnically divided Cyprus. Former minister Nikos Christodoulides, 49, came out on

BEIJING (AP) — Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Sen has met with Chinese President Xi Jinping on a visit to his close ally. No details were immediately released of the meeting Friday that comes in the middle of Hun Sen’s three-day visit. Cambodia is a key Chinese diplomatic partner, helping dampen criticism of Beijing within the

By MARK PRATT Associated Press BOSTON (AP) — Rhapsody Stiggers has been dancing since she was 2, but the 20-year-old college junior has never taken a dance class quite as challenging as the one she’s in now. She is one of 38 students at the Boston Conservatory at Berklee enrolled in the first for-credit college

By JUSTIN SPIKE, GHAITH ALSAYED and ZEYNEP BILGINSOY Associated Press ISKENDERUN, Turkey (AP) — Emergency crews made a series of dramatic rescues in Turkey on Friday, pulling several people, some almost unscathed, from the rubble, four days after a catastrophic earthquake killed more than 20,000. The 7.8 magnitude earthquake hit the border region between Turkey

By ELLEN KNICKMEYER Associated Press WASHINGTON (AP) — Within hours of an Air Force F-22 downing a giant Chinese balloon that had crossed the United States, Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin reached out to his Chinese counterpart via a special crisis line, aiming for a quick general-to-general talk that could explain things and ease tensions. But