AP-National

By MUNIR AHMED Associated Press ISLAMABAD (AP) — Officials say the International Monetary Fund will hold a crucial round of talks with Pakistan’s new government starting this week. The talks are aimed at determining whether Pakistan has met all the requirements to receive the final $1.1 billion tranche of last year’s $3 billion bailout. Officials

By FARNOUSH AMIRI Associated Press WASHINGTON (AP) — Hunter Biden has rejected an invitation from House Republicans to appear for a public hearing next week alongside former business associates. His attorney, Abbe Lowell, called the outreach a ‘carnival side show.’ Lowell went on to blast Republicans’ efforts to bring his client before a public hearing

By MIKE CORDER Associated Press THE HAGUE, Netherlands (AP) — Geert Wilders, whose anti-Islam, anti-immigration rhetoric swept him to a stunning victory in the November election, said Wednesday he doesn’t have the support of his prospective coalition partners to become the next Dutch prime minister. Wilders took to X, formerly Twitter, to say that “I

By GEIR MOULSON Associated Press BERLIN (AP) — Chancellor Olaf Scholz has defended his refusal to send Taurus long-range cruise missiles to Ukraine. He told German lawmakers Wednesday that prudence is not a weakness while insisting that he trusts Kyiv. Germany has become the second-biggest supplier of military aid to Ukraine after the United States,

RAFAH, Gaza Strip (AP) — The Palestinian soccer federation says former national team member Mohammed Barakat was killed in an Israeli airstrike in the Gaza Strip. The federation says the 39-year-old Barakat was killed in a strike Monday on a residential building in the southern city of Khan Younis. Affectionately known as “the lion” by

By STEVE LeBLANC Associated Press BOSTON (AP) — Massachusetts Gov. Maura Healey says she’ll issue pardons for tens of thousands of people convicted of misdemeanor marijuana charges going back decades in the latest example of a state ambitiously seeking to forgive low-level drug offenders. The Democrat and former state attorney general said that potentially hundreds

By KAREEM CHEHAYEB Associated Press BEIRUT (AP) — An Israeli drone strike targeting a car in southern Lebanon near the coastal city of Tyre has killed a member of the Palestinian militant Hamas group and another person. Hamas identified its slain member as Hadi Mustafa and said he was with the group’s military wing, the

By MARI YAMAGUCHI Associated Press TOMIOKA, Japan (AP) — Japanese officials say the U.S. and Japanese militaries will resume flights of Osprey aircraft in Japan after completing necessary maintenance and training following a fatal crash last November. The Osprey aircraft, which can take off like a helicopter and then fly like an airplane, has had

MEXICO CITY (AP) — A prominent journalist in western Mexico says he was abducted, beaten and questioned by an armed gang because of what he wrote. Radio and television anchor Jaime Barrera, who has written about drug cartel violence, was found alive and well Wednesday. In interviews with the Radio Formula station, Barrera described how

By MEG KINNARD Associated Press COLUMBIA, S.C. (AP) — President Joe Biden and former President Donald Trump have officially secured the requisite numbers of delegates to be considered their parties’ presumptive nominees. It was a foreseeable outcome. Biden faced token opposition in the Democratic primary. Several high-profile Republicans ran against Trump but didn’t come close

NASHVILLE, Tenn. (AP) — Police in Tennessee are searching for a University of Missouri student who was last seen by friends at a Nashville bar Friday night. Metropolitan Nashville Police released video Tuesday that shows Riley Strain, 22, crossing a downtown street Friday night. Police have said Strain was last seen just before 10 p.m.

By HYUNG-JIN KIM Associated Press SEOUL, South Korea (AP) — A South Korean Christian aid group says that a South Korean national held in Russia on an espionage allegation is one of its missionaries dispatched there to support the needy and spread the gospel. The Global Love Rice Sharing Foundation on Wednesday called the spying

By MARIA SHERMAN AP Music Writer LOS ANGELES (AP) — Jelly Roll, Kelsea Ballerini, Lainey Wilson, Megan Moroney, and Cody Johnson are the leading nominees for the 2024 CMT Music Awards, celebrating the best in country music videos. On Wednesday, CMT announced the nominees for their fan-voted awards show, where the five artists are tied

By FLORENT BAJRAMI and LLAZAR SEMINI Associated Press PRISTINA, Kosovo (AP) — A senior U.S. official has urged Kosovo and Serbia to make tough decisions to restart talks on normalizing ties. Deputy Assistant Secretary of State Gabriel Escobar met with officials in Kosovo on Wednesday in the latest American effort to restart talks on normalizing

By ABBY SEWELL Associated Press BEIRUT (AP) — Three and a half years after hundreds of tons of improperly stored ammonium nitrate ignited at the Beirut port, setting off one of the world’s biggest non-nuclear explosions, Lebanese and French officials have put forward a plan for reconstruction and reorganization of the port. The French government

By MEGAN JANETSKY, VICTOR R. CAIVANO and RODRIGO ABD Associated Press TUSAQUILLAS, Argentina (AP) — Irene Leonor Flores de Callata, 68, treks along a bone-dry riverbed, guiding a herd of llamas and sheep through stretching desert. Flores de Callata’s native Kolla people have spent centuries climbing deep into the mountains of northern Argentina in search

By LUIS ANDRES HENAO Associated Press EL COBRE, Cuba (AP) — One religious icon unites Cubans: The Virgin of Charity of Cobre. Cuba’s patron saint is venerated by observant Catholics and followers of Afro-Cuban Santeria traditions as well as Cubans in exile and back on the island. The wooden statue of the Virgin Mary is

By LUIS ANDRES HENAO and GIOVANNA DELL’ORTO Associated Press EL COBRE, Cuba (AP) — Ramon Nieblas fixed his tearful eyes on the small golden statue, a beloved icon of Cuba’s patron saint. Whispering, he asked the Virgin of Charity of Cobre for a miracle: Please save his sick son. “I came to pray for his

NEW YORK (AP) — Longtime newsman Chris Wallace isn’t only thinking about this year’s presidential election. The CNN anchor has written a book on the race between John F. Kennedy and Richard Nixon. The race was narrowly won by Kennedy and featured the first televised presidential debates. Dutton announced Wednesday that “Countdown 1960: The Behind-the-Scenes