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PARIS (AP) — Members of France’s main conservative party are picking their presidential candidate, a decision that could significantly shape April’s election. The head the Paris region, Valérie Pécresse, and a hardline lawmaker from Nice, Eric Ciotti, are competing in the final round of The Republicans’ primary. About 140,000 registered members of The Republicans are

MILAN (AP) — A dentist in Italy faces possible criminal charges after trying to receive a coronavirus vaccine in a fake arm made of silicone. A nurse in the northern city of Biella, Filippa Bua, said she could tell right away that something was off when a 57-year-old man presented the phony limb for a

HONG KONG (AP) — The new head of Hong Kong’s Catholic diocese has expressed hope that he could foster healing in a congregation and a city divided by the continuing fallout from massive anti-government protests in 2019. Bishop Stephen Chow spoke to the gathered after his ordination in the 19th-century Cathedral of the Immaculate Conception.

BERLIN (AP) — Outgoing Chancellor Angela Merkel has made what is likely her final appeal before leaving office next week for Germans to get vaccinated against COVID-19. Merkel gave what is expected to be her last weekly video message two days after federal and state leaders decided on a series of measures meant to break

By ABDOULIE JOHN and CARLEY PETESCH Associated Press BANJUL, Gambia (AP) — Gambians have shown up to vote in high numbers for the first presidential election in decades that does not include former dictator Yahya Jammeh as a candidate. Nearly 1 million voters were expected to drop marbles into one of six ballot bins on

By ELENA BECATOROS Associated Press KABUL, Afghanistan (AP) — Through clouds of billowing dust, two men circle each other warily before one plunges forward, grabbing his rival’s clothing. After a brief struggle, he deftly tackles his opponent to the ground. The scene is one played out each week after Friday prayers in the sprawling Chaman-e-Huzori

By BABAR DOGAR Associated Press LAHORE, Pakistan (AP) — Officials say police have arrested 13 suspects and detained dozens of others in the lynching of a Sri Lankan employee at a sports equipment factory in eastern Pakistan. A mob of hundreds of enraged Muslims descended on the factory in Punjab province Friday after the Sri

The center-left party of German Chancellor-designate Olaf Scholz is meeting to decide whether to approve a deal to form a new government with environmentalist and pro-business parties. A membership vote at a Social Democratic Party convention on Saturday is the first of three such decisions needed for Scholz to take office next week. Scholz’s Social

By VANESSA GERA Associated Press WARSAW, Poland (AP) — The leaders of right-wing populist parties are meeting in Warsaw to discuss working together to bring change to the European Union. The head of Poland’s Law and Justice party, Jaroslaw Kaczynski, is hosting Saturday’s gathering. Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban, French far-right leader Marine Le Pen

By COREY WILLIAMS and ED WHITE Associated Press PONTIAC, Mich. (AP) — A sheriff’s office in Michigan says the parents of a teen accused of killing four students in a shooting at a high school have been caught early Saturday. Detroit police say James and Jennifer Crumbley were taken into custody at a commercial building

By OMER FAROOQ Associated Press HYDERABAD, India (AP) — A tropical storm has weakened after dumping heavy rains overnight in parts of southern India off the Bay of Bengal as more than 50,000 people evacuated to government-run camps. Kanna Babu, a state commissioner for disaster management, says no loss of life or major damage has

By KEN MORITSUGU Associated Press BEIJING (AP) — China’s Communist Party has taken American democracy to task, sharply criticizing a global democracy summit being hosted by President Joe Biden next week and extolling the virtues of its governing system. Party officials questioned how a divided country that botched its response to COVID-19 could lecture others