AP-National

MOSCOW (AP) — Wall Street Journal reporter Evan Gershkovich lost an appeal Tuesday to be released from jail on espionage charges, meaning he will remain behind bars at least through Nov. 30. Gershkovich, 31, had a mostly blank expression as he appeared in the defendant’s glass cage in Moscow City Court in blue shirt, T-shirt

By HALELUYA HADERO AP Business Writer NEW YORK (AP) — Humanitarian groups are scrambling to assist civilians caught in the war between Israel and Hamas and determine what aid operations are still safe to continue — efforts that are being complicated by an intensified blockade of Gaza and ongoing fighting. Two days after Hamas militants

By DAVID RISING Associated Press BEIJING (AP) — China’s coast guard claims to have chased a Philippine navy ship from a disputed shoal in the South China Sea as tensions between the two countries over rich fishing areas escalate. A coast guard spokesperson said the Philippine ship had sailed into waters next to the Scarborough

By ZEN SOO AP Business Writer HONG KONG (AP) — Chinese property developer Country Garden has warned it cannot meet deadlines to repay its debts. The company’s difficulty in paying a 470 million Hong Kong dollar ($60 million) loan is the latest sign of distress in the industry after Beijing clamped down on mounting debts

By KEN MORITSUGU Associated Press BEIJING (AP) — China is touting its 10-year-old Belt and Road Initiative as an alternative model for economic growth as it seeks to win friends and strengthen its leadership of the developing world. A government report released Tuesday praises the program, which has provided financing to build ports, power plants

By MONIKA SCISLOWSKA Associated Press WARSAW, Poland (AP) — Poland’s President Andrzej Duda has appointed two senior military officers after predecessors resigned over an apparent spat with the defense minister just days before the country holds a general election. Duda stressed Tuesday that undisturbed command of the armed forces was crucial while there is war

By SOPHENG CHEANG Associated Press PHNOM PENH, Cambodia (AP) — A 2-year-old girl has become the second person in Cambodia to die of bird flu this week, and the third this year. The country’s Health Ministry announced that laboratory tests confirmed that the girl, who lived in the southeastern province of Prey Veng, died Monday

By MARK N. MENGONFIA and CHINEDU ASADU Associated Press MONROVIA, Liberia (AP) — Liberian President George Weah is seeking a second term in office, facing a rematch against his main challenger from the 2017 election. Weah, a former soccer star, is hoping that his track record of paving roads and bringing electricity to new parts

By ISSAM ADWAN Associated Press GAZA CITY, Gaza Strip (AP) — Over 180,000 Palestinians in the Gaza Strip are packed into U.N. shelters as Israeli warplanes pound the tiny territory of 2.3 million people after their Hamas militant rulers launched an unprecedented weekend attack on Israel. Among them is 27-year-old Sabreen al-Attar. She sprang into

By PAUL WISEMAN and DAVID McHUGH AP Business Writers The world economy has lost momentum from the impact of higher interest rates, the invasion of Ukraine and widening geopolitical rifts, and it now faces new uncertainty from the war between Israel and Hamas militants, International Monetary Fund warned Tuesday. The IMF said it expects global

By JILL LAWLESS Associated Press LIVERPOOL, England (AP) — The leader of the U.K.’s Labour Party has promised to restore Britain’s battered institutions and to end an “age of insecurity” afflicting its people. Keir Starmer addressed the opposition party’s annual conference during what is likely the last such gathering before a national election next year.

By EBRAHIM NOROOZI and OMID HAQJO Associated Press ZINDA JAN, Afghanistan (AP) — Clinging to hope that finding survivors was still possible, Afghan rescuers and villagers kept digging through rubble in western Herat province on Tuesday, three days after one of the deadliest earthquakes in the region left more than 2,000 dead. Elsewhere in Herat,

By YURI KAGEYAMA Associated Press TOKYO (AP) — An executive at Japanese publishing house Kadokawa has been found guilty of bribing a former Tokyo Olympics organizing committee member. Toshiyuki Yoshihara was given a two-year prison sentence Tuesday, which was suspended for four years. That means he avoids prison time as long as he doesn’t break

By ELAINE KURTENBACH AP Business Writer BANGKOK (AP) — Shares advanced Wednesday in Asia, tracking Wall Street gains following an easing of pressure from the bond market. U.S. futures were little changed and oil prices rose slightly. In China, investor sentiment got a boost from a report by Bloomberg, citing unnamed sources, that the government

By JIM GOMEZ Associated Press MANILA, Philippines (AP) — A senior Filipino diplomat known for his past expletive-laced tirade against China joined a coast guard trip to the disputed South China Sea last week and saw Beijing’s ships block and nearly collide with Philippine vessels, including one he was on. Teodoro Locsin Jr. was on

By GRANT PECK Associated Press BANGKOK (AP) — Myanmar’s military is accused of launching an airstrike on a camp for displaced persons in the northern state of Kachin that killed about 30 people, including about a dozen children. A local Kachin human rights group said the attack on the Mung Lai Hkyet displacement camp in

KUALA LUMPUR, Malaysia (AP) — The 43 Malaysians rescued from a trafficking syndicate operating a telecommunication fraud in Peru were young people who had arrived in Lima a week earlier. They ranged in age from 18 to 36. Police were still investigating how they were recruited and ended up in Peru. Hundreds of Malaysians have

By EDITH M. LEDERER Associated Press UNITED NATIONS (AP) — Russia has been defeated in its bid to regain a seat in the United Nations premiere human rights body by a significant majority in an election in the General Assembly, which voted last year to suspend Moscow after its invasion of Ukraine. Russia competed against

By MIKE CORDER Associated Press THE HAGUE, Netherlands (AP) — Syria has boycotted a hearing at the UN’s highest court, where the Netherlands and Canada are accusing Damascus of “institutionalized” use of torture. The two countries say that since 2011, “Syrians have been tortured, murdered, sexually assaulted, forcibly disappeared and subjected to chemical weapon attacks

By JOANNA KOZLOWSKA and MICHAL DYJUK Associated Press CZESTOCHOWA, Poland (AP) — Dominika Gala grew up going to Mass with her grandmother and attending Catholic school in Warsaw. After her grandmother’s death in 2010, she began to drift away from the church. A decade later, when the Catholic leadership backed a near-total abortion ban in