News

By DANIEL COLE and SYLVIE CORBET Associated Press BORMES-LES-MIMOSAS, France (AP) — A wildfire near the French Riviera has killed two people and is still burning out of control. Over 1,100 firefighters were battling flames fueled by wind and drought in the forests of the popular tourist region and over 7,000 people have been forced

By VANESSA GERA Associated Press WARSAW, Poland (AP) — Poland has deployed hundreds of troops and is laying barbed wire along its border with Belarus amid a surge of migrants seeking to enter the country. The defense minister said Wednesday that more than 900 Polish troops are involved in the operation. It’s believed that most

By ROD McGUIRK Associated Press CANBERRA, Australia (AP) — Helaina Alati was browsing the spice aisle of an Australian supermarket when she came face-to-face with a huge snake. The head of the 3-meter-long (10-foot-long) non-venomous diamond python emerged through a space in a shelf above the spice jars in the Sydney store. The trained snake

By CARA ANNA Associated Press NAIROBI, Kenya (AP) — Small children are among those held amid a new wave of detentions of ethnic Tigrayans suspected of supporting Tigray forces in Ethiopia’s growing war, one detainee says, while witnesses and a human rights watchdog describe fresh disappearances in recent weeks. In an interview with The Associated

ATHENS, Greece (AP) — A major wildfire burning northwest of the Greek capital is devouring large tracts of pine forest for a third day and threatening a large village. The blaze in the Vilia area broke out Monday shortly after another wildfire started to the southwest of Athens. Several other villages and a nearby nursing

By MARK CARLSON Associated Press KORTRIJK, Belgium (AP) — A Belgian-British teenager has started the first leg of her quest to become the youngest woman to fly around the world solo. Zara Rutherford set out Wednesday from an airstrip in western Belgium in gusty, overcast conditions. The 19-year-old aviator is looking to break the record

By FIRDIA LISNAWATI Associated Press DENPASAR, Indonesia (AP) — More than a hundred Australian citizens have left the Indonesian tourist island of Bali aboard a special repatriation flight organized by the Australian government. Many Australians have been stranded on Bali because flights connecting Indonesia to Australia have been limited since the spread of COVID-19 in

By PAN PYLAS and SYLVIA HUI Associated Press LONDON (AP) — British Prime Minister Boris Johnson has faced accusations of needlessly abandoning Afghanistan to the whims of the Taliban and of undermining Britain’s position in the world. During a heated emergency debate Wednesday in Parliament, lawmakers, including many from Johnson’s Conservative Party, voiced their regrets

By AHMAD SEIR, TAMEEM AKHGAR, KATHY GANNON and JON GAMBRELL Associated Press KABUL, Afghanistan (AP) — Taliban militants have attacked protesters in eastern Afghanistan who dared to take down their banner and replace it with the country’s flag. At least one person was killed in the attack that fueled fears about how the insurgents would

By ANNABELLE LIANG Associated Press SINGAPORE (AP) — Asian stock markets are retreating after U.S. central bank policymakers made no firm decision on when to unwind their support measures for the economy. This follows broad losses on Wall Street. Tokyo slipped 0.7% and Hong Kong was down 1.6% on Thursday. Benchmarks in Shanghai, South Korea

BERLIN (AP) — Germany’s health minister has criticized the Roman Catholic Church for its refusal to bless same-sex unions but says his religious faith remains strong. Health Minister Jens Spahn married his husband in 2017. German news agency dpa reported Wednesday that Spahn described his relationship with the church as difficult at times but said

By SOPHENG CHEANG and DAVID RISING Associated Press PHNOM PENH, Cambodia (AP) — Prosecutors are arguing the former head of the Khmer Rouge shared joint culpability for the regime’s atrocities in Cambodia in the 1970s, rejecting defense arguments that he should not be held responsible. Khieu Samphan is appealing his 2018 conviction on charges of

By VLADIMIR ISACHENKOV Associated Press MOSCOW (AP) — The world held its breath 30 years ago when a group of top Communist officials ousted Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev and flooded Moscow with tanks. But instead of bringing a rollback of liberal reforms and a return to Cold War confrontations, the August 1991 coup collapsed in

By AGNIESZKA PIKULICKA-WILCZEWSKA Associated Press TERMEZ, Uzbekistan (AP) — As the Taliban took control of Afghanistan, thousands of Afghans looked for ways to escape what they see as a return of a ruthless fundamentalist rule. A 30-year-old man who operated a cross-border oil company still had a business visa that allowed him to enter neighboring

By The Associated Press KABUL, Afghanistan (AP) — The head of the U.N. food agency in Afghanistan says a humanitarian crisis is unfolding with 14 million people facing severe hunger following the Taliban takeover of the country. Mary Ellen McGroarty, the World Food Program’s country director, said the conflict, severe drought and the COVID-19 pandemic