AP-National

By LORNE COOK Associated Press BRUSSELS (AP) — European Union leaders believe it’s time to lay the foundations for a future relationship between Israel and the Palestinians where the militant group Hamas does not control Gaza. The 27-nation bloc is exploring ways to realize a long-held EU ideal — two states living peacefully side by

KUALA LUMPUR, Malaysia (AP) — Malaysian activists have slammed the government’s plan for a weeklong program in schools to support the Palestinian cause after pictures of students and teachers toting toy guns went viral on social media. The Education Ministry says the Palestine Solidarity Week program starting Monday is to teach students empathy and concern

By PAN PYLAS Associated Press LONDON (AP) — An independent probe has found “serious failings” in how NatWest Group’s private and exclusive Coutts Bank shut down the account of the right-wing British politician Nigel Farage.  Law firm Travers Smith was appointed to conduct a review in the wake of Farage’s so-called “debanking” at NatWest-owned Coutts

By JINTAMAS SAKSORNCHAI Associated Press BANGKOK (AP) — Thailand’s ruling party has selected as its leader the daughter of Thaksin Shinawatra, the country’s divisive former prime minister, highlighting the family’s continuing influence more than two decades after Thaksin entered politics. Paetongtarn Shinawatra, Thaksin’s youngest daughter, was voted into the post at a meeting at the

By The Associated Press A senior Iranian envoy has met with Hamas representatives in Moscow following talks with Russian diplomats that underscored Moscow’s efforts to expand its clout as a power broker in the latest Israel-Hamas war. During the meeting with Hamas’ representative Moussa Abu Marzouk on Thursday, Ali Bagheri Kani, Iran’s deputy foreign minister,

By DANICA KIRKA Associated Press LONDON (AP) — The United States on Friday expanded its effort to cut off funding for Hamas, announcing a second round of sanctions against people and organizations linked to the group since it launched an attack on Israel that killed more than 1,400 people. The U.S. Treasury Department’s Office of

KUALA LUMPUR, Malaysia (AP) — Malaysia’s royal families have elected the powerful and wealthy ruler of southern Johor state as the country’s new king under a unique rotating monarchy system. The palace said Friday that the 64-year-old Sultan Ibrahim Iskandar will ascend to the throne on Jan. 31 for a five-year term. His election had

BELGRADE, Serbia (AP) — Serbia’s state RTS television says that a shooting between migrants near Serbia’s border with Hungary has left three people dead and one other person seriously wounded. The report says the shooting happened early Friday at abandoned farming warehouses near the village of Horgos. RTS added that a large number of police

By CORA LEWIS Associated Press NEW YORK (AP) — About 2 in 3 Americans say their household expenses have risen over the last year, but only about 1 in 4 say their income has increased in the same period, according to a new poll from The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research. As household

By ZEN SOO AP Technology Writer HONG KONG (AP) — Chinese telecoms equipment maker Huawei Technologies has reported its profit inched higher in the first three quarters of this year despite persisting U.S. sanctions that have hindered both its sales and its purchases of advanced technology. Huawei said Friday that it earned 456.6 billion yuan

By JOSEF FEDERMAN Associated Press JERUSALEM (AP) — Just three weeks into the deadliest war between Israel and Hamas, it already is clear that the bloodshed has flipped long-standing assumptions in Israel and the region upside down. Israel’s military and intelligence services were exposed as incompetent and ill-prepared. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s decades of

By WAFAA SHURAFA, JOSEF FEDERMAN and BASSEM MROUE Associated Press DEIR AL-BALAH, Gaza Strip (AP) — Israel knocked out internet and communications in the Gaza Strip in stepped-up bombardment Friday night, largely cutting off its 2.3 million people from contact with each other and the outside world and creating a near-blackout of information, as the

By DAVID SHARP, PATRICK WHITTLE, HOLLY RAMER and MICHELLE R. SMITH Associated Press LEWISTON, Maine (AP) — The Army reservist who opened fire in a bowling alley and then at a bar in Lewiston, Maine, killing 18 people, was found dead Friday from a self-inflicted gunshot, ending an intensive two-day search that had the state

By KEVIN McGILL and STEPHEN SMITH Associated Press NEW ORLEANS (AP) — The heating element removed from Monique Plaisance’s water heater in September was disintegrating, streaked with rust and covered in a dry crust. She blamed the corrosion on the water piped in from the area’s longtime drinking water source: the Mississippi River. It was

By DASHA LITVINOVA Associated Press TALLINN, Estonia (AP) — Abortion has had a complicated history in the Soviet Union and Russia. It was outlawed under Soviet dictator Josef Stalin but legalized and commonplace under later Kremlin leaders. Now, after less than a century, official attitudes about abortion Russia are changing once again. Although it is

By DASHA LITVINOVA Associated Press TALLINN, Estonia (AP) — Despite its last-minute scheduling, the meeting at a bookstore in Russia’s westernmost city of Kaliningrad still drew about 60 people, with many outraged by a lawmaker’s efforts to ban abortions in local private clinics. The weeknight turnout surprised and heartened Dasha Yakovleva, one of the organizers,

SEOUL, South Korea (AP) — South Korean and U.S. troops have been conducting live-fire exercises to hone their ability to respond to potential “Hamas-style surprise artillery attacks” by North Korea. South Korea’s military said Friday the three-day firing exercises, which began Wednesday, involved 5,400 South Korean and U.S. soldiers and 300 artillery systems. South Korean

By MEGAN JANETSKY Associated Press ACAPULCO, Mexico (AP) — Desperate families made missing posters Friday and joined online groups to look for loved ones out of touch since Hurricane Otis devastated the Mexican Pacific coast city of Acapulco. Officials said they were moving in supplies and evacuating people from the devastated metropolis of 1 million