AP-National

By HYUNG-JIN KIM Associated Press SEOUL, South Korea (AP) — Another member of K-pop supergroup BTS has begun his mandatory military service in South Korea. Suga started serving on Friday as a social service agent, an alternative form of military service in the country. The 30-year-old is the group’s third member to start carrying out

By TODD WALLACK AND CHRISTINE WILLMSEN, WBUR Deb Libby is running out of time to find a place to live. Libby, 56, moved to Worcester, Massachusetts, four years ago, in part to be closer to the doctors treating her for pancreatic cancer. But the landlord wants her out by the end of the month and

By AARON MORRISON AP Race and Ethnicity News Editor U.S. breaking pros who hope to compete in the Paris Olympics next year have a challenge. As ambassadors to the country where the hip-hop dance form originated, they want to preserve breaking’s focus on originality and its ties to Black and Latino culture. But as Olympians,

By MIKE FITZPATRICK AP Baseball Writer NEW YORK (AP) — Many baseball fans, especially older ones, originally fell in love with America’s pastime by listening to ballgames on AM radio. In fact, next month will mark the 100th anniversary of the first World Series broadcast to a national radio audience. But a century later, some

By BINAJ GURUBACHARYA Associated Press KATHMANDU, Nepal (AP) — Schools for millions of students in Nepal are closed as tens of thousands of teachers protest in the capital against an education reform bill in parliament. Teachers have been demonstrating in Kathmandu since Wednesday against the School Education Bill while teachers’ groups negotiate with government leaders

By DAVID RISING Associated Press HANGZHOU, China (AP) — In the first Asian Games since the Taliban regained control of Afghanistan, two teams of athletes are arriving in the Chinese city of Hangzhou, looking very different. One, sent from Afghanistan where women are now banned by the Taliban from participating in sports, consists of about

By KEN MORITSUGU Associated Press BEIJING (AP) — China and Syria have announced the formation of a strategic partnership as Chinese leader Xi Jinping kicked off a series of diplomatic meetings ahead of the upcoming Asian Games. Xi met Syrian President Bashar Assad on Friday in the southern Chinese city of Hangzhou, which is hosting

By AVET DEMOURIAN Associated Press YEREVAN, Armenia (AP) — Russia’s Defense Ministry says that ethnic Armenian separatists in Azerbaijan’s breakaway region of Nagorno-Karabakh are surrendering their arms to Russian peacekeepers. The moves come after Azerbaijan reclaimed control over the region that has for decades been at the center of a conflict with neighboring Armenia. The

STOCKHOLM (AP) — Swedish police say two people have been killed and two wounded in a shooting at a crowded pub northwest of Stockholm. The shooting late Thursday night is the latest outburst of deadly violence in Sweden. Police said that a man in his 20s and another in his 70s died Friday of injuries

By MENELAOS HADJICOSTIS Associated Press NICOSIA, Cyprus (AP) — Cyprus has formally called on the European Union to re-evaluate which areas of Syria can be declared as safe zones that are free from armed conflict so that Syrian migrants can eventually be repatriated there. The Interior Ministry told The Associated Press on Friday that Interior

By CHINEDU ASADU Associated Press ABUJA, Nigeria (AP) — Sudan’s army chief has warned that the war in the northeast African country could spread beyond its borders if it is not stopped. Gen. Abdel Fattah Burhan, speaking at the United Nations General Assembly, urged world leaders to designate the rival paramilitary force as a terrorist

By CARA ANNA Associated Press NAIROBI, Kenya (AP) — A prominent peace forum in Ethiopia has been postponed as clashes between the federal government and fighters from a major ethnic group continue to destabilize the region. The Tana High-Level Forum on Security in Africa says the annual gathering of African leaders, set for October, has

By KELVIN CHAN AP Business Writer LONDON (AP) — British competition regulators gave preliminary approval Friday to Microsoft’s restructured $69 billion deal to buy video game maker Activision Blizzard, easing a final global hurdle that paves the way for one of the largest tech transactions in history to go through. The Competition and Markets Authority

By ALEX TURNBULL Associated Press BORDEAUX, France (AP) — King Charles III has traveled to the southwestern French city of Bordeaux to focus on climate and the environment. The U.K. monarch and Queen Camilla will meet emergency workers and communities affected by wildfires in the Bordeaux region last year. They will also visit an experimental

SRINAGAR, India (AP) — India has freed a key Muslim cleric after four years of house arrest and allowed him to lead Friday prayers at a mosque in Srinagar, the main city of Indian-controlled Kashmir. The cleric Mirwaiz Umar Farooq has been spearheading protests against Indian rule in the disputed region. He was detained ahead

By ROD McGUIRK Associated Press CANBERRA, Australia (AP) — The Catholic Church says the Vatican has shared with police findings of an internal investigation of a former Australian bishop over child sex abuse allegations and will fully cooperate with criminal investigators. The church announced the handover of its investigation report into former Bishop Christopher Saunders

BAMAKO, Mali (AP) — Mali’s military junta is struggling to fight growing violence in the West African nation’s hard-hit northern region. That’s after a peace deal signed several years ago with rebels appeared to have collapsed and as the U.N. peacekeepers who helped fight jihadi groups begin to leave. Conflict data shows the violent attacks

By NICOLE WINFIELD and SYLVIE CORBET Associated Press MARSEILLE, France (AP) — Pope Francis blasted the “fanaticism of indifference” that greets migrants seeking a better life in Europe, as he arrived Friday in the Mediterranean port of Marseille amid a new influx of would-be refugees from Africa that has sparked a backlash from some of

ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. (AP) — A third arrest was made Friday in connection with a shooting outside an Albuquerque baseball stadium that killed an 11-year-old boy and prompted the New Mexico governor to issue a controversial gun ban. Albuquerque police took Daniel Gomez, 26, into custody a day after two other men were identified as suspects.

By STAN CHOE AP Business Writer NEW YORK (AP) — Wall Street wheezed to more losses Friday as it limped to the finish of its worst week in six months. The S&P 500 slipped 9.94 points, or 0.2%, to 4,320.06 after a late-day swoon erased a modest gain it had held for most of the