Month: July 2023

VILNIUS, Lithuania (AP) — Sweden’s foreign minister expressed optimism on Monday that Turkey will drop its objections to Swedish NATO membership, saying the Nordic’s country’s accession is a question of when, not if. Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and Swedish Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson were expected to meet later Monday in the Lithuanian capital, Vilnius,

KYIV, Ukraine (AP) — Authorities say a Russian airstrike on a school in southern Ukraine killed four adults as people gathered to receive humanitarian aid. The governor of Ukraine’s Zaporizhzhia region described the attack as a war crime. Officials say three women and a man, all in their 40s, died in Sunday’s attack in the

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) — Iran has sentenced a popular rapper to six years and three months in prison over his participation in protests that rocked the country last year. A social media account run by supporters of Toomaj Salehi announced the sentence on Monday. There was no immediate word from Iranian authorities. Salehi

By MIKE CORDER Associated Press THE HAGUE, Netherlands (AP) — Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte says he plans to leave politics after a general election sparked by his government’s resignation. Rutte announced his decision at a hastily arranged parliamentary debate on Monday. He says he will “not be available again” as leader of the conservative

TALLINN, Estonia (AP) — Uzbekistan’s incumbent president, Shavkat Mirziyoyev, has overwhelmingly won a new seven-year term in a snap election in which he faced three weak opponents, preliminary results showed Monday. The national elections commission says Mirziyoyev received more than 87% of the vote and each of the challengers about 4%. Sunday’s vote followed a

By KANIS LEUNG Associated Press HONG KONG (AP) — Hong Kong’s newly named Roman Catholic cardinal says he hopes for reconciliation and wants the city to give young people more hope following the economic downturn and a campaign to crush a pro-democracy movement. Chow said on Monday that it’s a new mission that God assigned

The Associated Press Russia’s Defense Ministry has released a video of the country’s military chief. The video made public on Monday is the first time Gen. Valery Gerasimov has been shown since the leader of a mercenary army sought his dismissal during a brief rebellion last month. In the video, Gerasimov is shown hearing a

WELLINGTON, New Zealand (AP) — A U.S. honeymoon couple who survived severe burns when New Zealand’s White Island volcano erupted in 2019 are listed as the first witnesses to testify in a trial of tourism industry operators over the disaster that claimed 22 lives. Prosecutors open their case in the Auckland District Court on Tuesday

NEW DELHI (AP) — Schools in New Delhi have closed after heavy monsoon rains battered the Indian capital, caused landslides and flash floods in the country’s north and killed at least 15 people over the last three days. The torrential rain over the weekend left parts of New Delhi on Monday overflowing with water that

By BOBBY CAINA CALVAN and HALLIE GOLDEN NEW YORK (AP) — Heavy rain spawned extreme flooding in New York’s Hudson Valley that killed at least one person, swamped roadways and forced road closures on Sunday night, as much of the rest of the Northeast U.S. began bracing for potentially punishing rains. As the storm moved

SAN SALVADOR, El Salvador (AP) — President Nayib Bukele of El Salvador has been nominated by his New Ideas party to run for reelection in next year’s contest. The nominations comes despite objections from legal experts and opposition figures who say the country’s constitution prohibits his candidacy. New Ideas also announced Sunday that current Vice

By ERIKA KINETZ Associated Press BRUSSELS (AP) — Nearly 50,000 Russian men have died in the war in Ukraine, according to the first independent statistical analysis of Russia’s war dead. Two independent Russian media outlets, Mediazona and Meduza, working with a data scientist from Germany’s Tübingen University, used Russian government data to shed light on

By LORNE COOK Associated Press BRUSSELS (AP) — When it comes to criticizing the NATO members who fail to spend enough on defense, tiny Luxembourg is an easy target. One of NATO’s richest countries, and routinely ranked at the top of Europe’s economic growth tables, the Grand Duchy currently spends 0.72% of gross domestic product