AP-National

By KONSTANTIN TESTORIDES Associated Press SKOPJE, North Macedonia (AP) — The foreign ministers of the three Baltic states and of Ukraine say they will boycott a meeting by the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe being held this week in North Macedonia. They object to the participation of Russia’s foreign minister. The top diplomats

BEIJING (AP) — A violent rock burst in a coal mine has killed 11 people in China’s northeastern Heilongjiang province. Mining work can release pressure from surrounding formations and trigger a literal explosion of rocks. Chinese state broadcaster CCTV reports an initial assessment determined that is what caused the fatalities in Heilongjiang province on Tuesday.

By ERIC TUCKER Associated Press WASHINGTON (AP) — Former President Donald Trump’s lawyers are arguing that he had a good faith basis to question the outcome of the 2020 election that he lost. A defense motion filed late Monday in federal court in Washington asserts that Trump was not obligated to accept at face value

By TIA GOLDENBERG Associated Press TEL AVIV, Israel (AP) — Kfir Bibas has spent nearly a fifth of his life as a Hamas hostage. The 10-month-old baby was taken from his home in a southern Israeli kibbutz on Oct. 7 when Palestinian militants abducted about 240 people and dragged them to Gaza. His family says

By JENNIFER McDERMOTT Associated Press Google announced Tuesday that an advanced geothermal project has begun pumping carbon-free electricity onto the Nevada electric grid to feed Google data centers there. Google and Houston-based Fervo Energy partnered to develop next-generation geothermal power that runs 24 hours a day. Fervo says getting electrons onto the grid for the

By MARIAM FAM Associated Press The woman refused to sell Captain Saleha Jabeen a hijab to don with her military uniform. While many civilian Muslims tell Jabeen she makes them proud, others are horrified by her decision to serve. “You’re gonna go kill Muslims,” the store owner told her that day. Major Rafael Lantigua Jr.

By KIRSTEN GRIESHABER Associated Press BERLIN (AP) — A German-Israeli singer who claimed he had been turned away from a hotel in the eastern German city of Leipzig because he was wearing a Star of David pendant has admitted during a defamation trial against him that he made up the story. The proceedings against Gil

By LORNE COOK Associated Press BRUSSELS (AP) — Latvia’s foreign minister is staking a claim to the top job at NATO. Krisjanis Karins says NATO needs a consensus builder who is committed to defense spending and has a clear vision of how to handle Russia. NATO is likely to name a new secretary general at

By KIRSTEN GRIESHABER Associated Press BERLIN (AP) — A group tracking antisemitism in Germany says that it has documented a drastic increase of antisemitic incidents in the country in the month after Hamas attacked Israel on Oct. 7. The RIAS group says it recorded 994 incidents, which is an average of 29 incidents per day

By MIKE CORDER Associated Press THE HAGUE, Netherlands (AP) — Far-right Dutch election winner Geert Wilders has tapped a former minister from the center-left Labor Party to investigate possible coalitions. The move comes a day after Wilders’ first choice quit amid fraud allegations. Ahead of a meeting Tuesday that confirmed the appointment of Ronald Plasterk

PARIS (AP) — France’s government plans to ban smoking on all beaches, in public parks, forests and some other public areas. The measures are part of a national anti-tobacco plan presented by the health minister, who says tobacco products cause 75,000 avoidable deaths a year in France. He says the government will introduce legislation next

By JILL LAWLESS and DEREK GATOPOULOS Associated Press LONDON (AP) — Greek officials said Tuesday that they will continue talks with the British Museum about bringing the Parthenon Marbles back to Athens, despite U.K. Prime Minister Rishi Sunak abruptly canceling a meeting with his Greek counterpart where the contested antiquities were due to be discussed.

POCATELLO, Idaho (AP) — Police say a thick layer of fog is believed to have caused a roughly 30-vehicle collision on an Idaho interstate. The collision occurred Monday morning on eastbound Interstate 86 near Pocatello. Police say the fog caused visibility to significantly decrease in a short amount of time, slowing vehicles and causing a

By The Associated Press Tornadoes have been forecast for the Black Sea region after a storm left more than 2 million people without electricity in Crimea, Russia and Ukraine. The Institute for the Study of War think tank said that the storm also impacted Russian military operations in occupied Crimea and southern Ukraine. Officials said

By JAN M. OLSEN Associated Press COPENHAGEN, Denmark (AP) — Norway says the Philippine government and the country’s communist rebels have agreed to resume talks aimed at ending decades of armed conflict. Norway’s foreign ministry says high-ranking delegations from both sides met in Oslo last week and agreed to a “common vision for peace” that

By JON GAMBRELL Associated Press DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) — Dubai is preparing to host the COP28 climate talks as world leaders including U.S. President Joe Biden and Pope Francis have signaled they will not be attending the negotiations. The talks come during the ongoing Israel-Hamas war roiling the wider Middle East. Israel’s Foreign

BERLIN (AP) — Winter’s early onset has brought heavy snowfall and icy roads to Northern Europe. The winter conditions have created disruptions and dangerous driving conditions, and German media reported that they have resulted in at least two deaths and children stuck overnight in a school. Germany’s western state of Hesse was particularly affected by