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PARIS (AP) — France is paying respects to screen legend Jean-Paul Belmondo with a solemn ceremony led by the president and a public viewing at Napoleon’s final resting place. The tributes reflect his prominent role in France’s cultural world and in living rooms, where families gathered around his films. He notably starred in Jean-Luc Godard’s

ATHENS Political leaders, family members and thousands of fans have paid their final respects to Greek music great Mikis Theodorakis who has been buried on the island of Crete. Holding flowers and olive branches, onlookers dressed in black sang songs composed by Theodorakis as his casket was carried from a chapel to the cemetery near

By JOSEPH KRAUSS Associated Press JERUSALEM (AP) — For nearly two decades, Israelis and Palestinians have watched Zakaria Zubeidi’s progression from a child actor to a swaggering militant, to the scarred face of a West Bank theater promoting “cultural resistance” to Israeli occupation. In his latest act, Zubeidi has emerged as one of Israel’s most

By GEIR MOULSON Associated Press BERLIN (AP) — Chancellor Angela Merkel says her party is fighting and was always aware that it wouldn’t “automatically” hold on to Germany’s top job after her 16 years in power. Merkel was downplaying alarming poll ratings as the country’s election nears. Recent polls have shown Merkel’s Union bloc under

By MARI YAMAGUCHI Associated Press TOKYO (AP) — An International Atomic Energy Agency official says objective, science-based monitoring is the key to safely carrying out the planned release of treated but still radioactive water at Japan’s wrecked Fukushima nuclear plant. A three-member IAEA team is in Japan for preliminary talks and a visit to the

By NINIEK KARMINI Associated Press JAKARTA, Indonesia (AP) — The foreign minister of Indonesia, the world’s most populous Muslim country, is urging the Taliban to respect the rights of women and not allow Afghanistan to become a breeding ground for extremist activities. Retno Marsudi made the comments after meeting with Australia’s foreign and defense ministers,

By JILL LAWLESS Associated Press LONDON (AP) — The leader of Northern Ireland’s largest British unionist party says the U.K.’s divorce deal with the European Union could collapse the Belfast government and trigger a new era of violence and instability. Democratic Unionist Party leader Jeffrey Donaldson said Thursday that the agreement known as the Northern