AP-National

By PAN PYLAS Associated Press LONDON (AP) — British lawmakers who may have been targeted in a sexting scam were urged Friday to go to police, after a senior Conservative admitted disclosing the personal phone numbers of some colleagues to an unknown individual who held “compromising” material on him. William Wragg, who chairs the Public

By JOHNSON LAI and HUIZHONG WU Associated Press HUALIEN, Taiwan (AP) — Taiwan residents endured harrowing experiences when the ground shook with the strongest earthquake to hit the island in 25 years. People saw rocks tumble onto roadways, watched parts of their homes fall around them and waited for rescuers to free them from the

By ASHOK SHARMA Associated Press NEW DELHI (AP) — India’s main opposition party vowed to boost social spending and reverse what it views as a slide into autocracy as it laid out its campaign promises on Friday, two weeks before the start of a weeks-long, multi-phase general election. Most polls have predicted a victory for

BRATISLAVA, Slovakia (AP) — A  pro-Western career diplomat and a close ally of Slovakia’s populist Prime Minister Robert Fico are facing each other in a presidential runoff to determine who will be the country’s next head of state. Former Foreign Minister Ivan Korčok is up against Peter Pellegrini, who heads a coalition party in Fico’s

By JULIA FRANKEL Associated Press JERUSALEM (AP) — The Israeli military said Friday that it dismissed two officers and reprimanded three others for their roles in drone strikes in Gaza that killed seven aid workers on a food-delivery mission, saying the officers had mishandled critical information and violated the army’s rules of engagement. The findings

SYDNEY (AP) — A passenger has been fined for urinating in a cup during a delay in deplaning after landing at Sydney Airport. Officials say the incident, after a 3-hour Air New Zealand flight from Auckland, occurred last December and a Sydney court fined the 53-year-old man $395 for offensive behavior in February. The incident

By KEN MAGUIRE AP Sports Writer LONDON (AP) — Most people are getting ready for bed when the MMA sessions start at Diesel Gym in East London’s docklands area. The training is running throughout the holy month of Ramadan when Muslim athletes around the world adjust their schedules to squeeze in workouts when they can.

By MATTHEW LEE Associated Press LEUVEN, Belgium (AP) — U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said Friday that the measures the Israeli government has announced to expand the flow of aid into Gaza are welcome but may not be enough to meet the Biden administration’s demands for dramatic improvements in humanitarian conditions in the territory.

By AMIR VAHDAT Associated Press TEHRAN, Iran (AP) — The commander of Iran’s powerful Revolutionary Guard warned Friday that “our brave men will punish the Zionist regime,” escalating threats against Israel for an airstrike that killed seven of the group’s members, including two Iranian generals, earlier this week. The strike, widely attributed to Israel, destroyed

Criminal networks in the European Union are penetrating legal businesses across the 27-nation bloc and rely heavily on corruption to develop their activities. That’s the bleak picture emerging from a report published Friday by the EU crime agency. Europol has identified 821 particularly threatening criminal networks with more than 25,000 members in the bloc. It

By JAMEY KEATEN Associated Press GENEVA (AP) — The U.N.’s top human rights body called on countries to stop selling or shipping weapons to Israel in a resolution passed Friday that aims to help prevent rights violations against Palestinians amid Israel’s blistering military campaign in Gaza. The sweeping but non-binding measure at the Human Rights

By WILL WEISSERT Associated Press DUNDALK, Md. (AP) — President Joe Biden got a firsthand look Friday at efforts to clear away the “mangled mess” of remains of the collapsed Francis Scott Key Bridge in Baltimore, as cranes, ships and diving crews work to reopen one of the nation’s main shipping lanes. Aboard Marine One,

By NINIEK KARMINI and ANDI JATMIKO Associated Press JAKARTA, Indonesia (AP) — Four Indonesian Cabinet members have testified that no rules were violated in the distribution of government aid during the recent election campaign, despite claims by the two losing presidential candidates that it was used for the benefit of the election winner. Defense Minister

By ILLIA NOVIKOV Associated Press KYIV, Ukraine (AP) — Ukrainian officials are claiming they used a barrage of drones to destroy at least six Russian military aircraft and badly damage eight others at an airfield in Russia’s bordering Rostov region. Moscow defense officials claimed they intercepted 44 Ukrainian drones and that only a power substation

By DAMIAN J. TROISE and ALEX VEIGA AP Business Writers Stocks ended solidly higher and bond yields rose Friday as Wall Street welcomed a surprisingly strong U.S. jobs report. The S&P 500 rose 1.1%, making up most of the loss from the previous day and moving closer to its record high set last week. The

By FLORENT BAJRAMI and LLAZAR SEMINI Associated Press PRISTINA, Kosovo (AP) — Kosovo’s government has begun its first nationwide census since 2011 which will include surveying the ethnic Serb minority in the north. This comes as tensions with neighboring Serbia remain high. The Agency of Statistics is conducting the 12-million Euro ($13 million) census, originally

By CHINEDU ASADU Associated Press ABUJA, Nigeria (AP) — A new film in Nigeria is being screened to remember the nearly 100 schoolgirls who are still in captivity 10 years after they were seized from their school in the country’s northeast. At least 276 girls were kidnapped during the April 2014 attack that stunned the

By SAMYA KULLAB Associated Press When the Russian barrage hit the Ukrainian power plant, a worker named Taras was manning the control panel — a crucial task that required him to stay as the air-raid siren blared and his colleagues ran for safety. After the deafening explosions came a cloud of smoke, then darkness. Fires

By AYAKA MCGILL Associated Press TOKYO (AP) — Crowds gathered Friday to enjoy Japan’s famed cherry blossoms in Tokyo, where cold weather has delayed their bloom. Cherry blossoms, known as “sakura” in Japanese, are the nation’s favorite flower. People often have sakura viewing parties beneath the falling petals, where there are also picnics and sake

By RODNEY MUHUMUZA and IGNATIUS SSUUNA Associated Press HUYE, Rwanda (AP) — The diggers’ hoes scrape the brown soil, looking for — and often finding — human bone fragments. The women then wipe the bone pieces with their hands as others watch in solemn silence. The digging goes on, a scene that’s become all too