By LORNE COOK Associated Press BRUSSELS (AP) — NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg says U.S. President Joe Biden and his counterparts will agree next week to help modernize Ukraine’s armed forces, create a new high-level forum for consultations, and reaffirm that it will join their alliance one day. But membership talks are off the table while
Continue Reading By The Associated Press DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) — U.N. human rights experts are calling for the release of two Saudi Arabian women they say were arbitrarily detained and denied basic rights after tweeting criticism of the kingdom’s policies. One of the women was sentenced to 34 years in prison and the other to
Continue Reading PARIS (AP) — The children of French actor Alain Delon have accused a woman who lived with the 87-year-old movie star of bullying him and of mistreating his dog, A French prosecutor has directed police to investigate the legal complaints. The prosecutor said in a statement late Thursday that Delon’s family filed two legal complaints
Continue Reading By ELÉONORE HUGHES Associated Press RIO DE JANEIRO (AP) — Brazil’s lower house of Congress has approved a major reform of the nation’s notoriously complicated tax system, showing compromise is possible between the conservative Congress and leftist President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva. The long-awaited tax reform aims to simplify the system, widely considered overly
Continue Reading By ANNA FRANTS Associated Press NEAR TSEL, Belarus (AP) — The Belarusian military has shown off a field camp it has offered to Russia’s Wagner military contractor if it relocates to Belarus under a deal that ended its mutiny. An assistant to Belarus’ defense minister told international reporters Friday that Wagner troops could use the
Continue Reading By BASSEM MROUE Associated Press BEIRUT (AP) — A Lebanese security official says at least one person is dead and several more are wounded after a shooting inside a mosque in Lebanon. The motive behind Friday’s shooting was not immediately clear. The state-run National News Agency said more shooting occurred between Lebanese troops and the
Continue Reading WARSAW, Poland (AP) — Poland’s prime minister and Catholic church leaders have begun observances to honor victims of World War II massacres. The lack of official reconciliation over Poles killed by Ukrainian nationalists during the war has marred the tightening strategic relations between the neighboring nations. Warsaw is among the staunchest supporters of Kyiv in
Continue Reading By ZEKE MILLER, TARA COPP and LOLITA C. BALDOR Associated Press WASHINGTON (AP) — President Joe Biden on Friday defended what he said was a “difficult decision” to provide cluster munitions to Ukraine, a move the administration said was key to the fight and buttressed by Ukraine’s promise to use the controversial bombs carefully. The
Continue Reading By MARI YAMAGUCHI Associated Press TOKYO (AP) — The head of the U.N. nuclear agency, the IAEA, says he’s pushing for access to the rooftops of reactors at the Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant in Ukraine. That’s after reports from Ukrainian officials that the Russians planted explosives there. In turn, Russia has accused Ukraine of planning
Continue Reading By MIKE CORDER Associated Press THE HAGUE, Netherlands (AP) — Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte announced his resignation and that of his Cabinet on Friday, citing irreconcilable differences within his four-party coalition about how to rein in migration. The decision by the Netherlands’ longest-serving premier means the country will face a general election later this
Continue Reading WELLINGTON, New Zealand (AP) — Three helicopter tour operators have pleaded guilty to safety breaches when New Zealand’s White Island volcano erupted in 2019, claiming 22 lives. The companies were to go on trial next week along with six other entities and people following the tragedy at the island, which had been a popular tourist
Continue Reading By ANDREW DeMILLO, THOMAS PEIPERT and DYLAN LOVAN Associated Press RICHMOND, Ky. (AP) — The United States has destroyed the last of its declared chemical weapons stockpile, a milestone in the history of warfare dating back to World War I. The White House on Friday said workers at the Blue Grass Army Depot in Kentucky
Continue Reading THE HAGUE, Netherlands (AP) — Appeals court judges in Amsterdam say the Dutch government can order Schiphol Airport, one of Europe’s busiest aviation hubs, to reduce the number of flights from 500,000 per year to 460,000. The Amsterdam Court of Appeal on Friday overturned a lower court that concluded in April the government of the
Continue Reading By EVELYNE MUSAMBI Associated Press NAIROBI, Kenya (AP) — More than 20 anti-government protesters have been arrested in Kenya’s capital and other parts of the country have also witnessed demonstrations called by the opposition against newly imposed taxes. Hundreds of protesters turned up in Nairobi, the coastal city of Mombasa and the lakeside city of
Continue Reading By SIBI ARASU Associated Press Maritime nations agreed Friday to slash emissions from the shipping industry to net zero by about 2050 in a deal that many experts and some nations say falls well short of what’s needed to curb warming to agreed temperature limits. Negotiators at the meeting of the United Nations’ International Maritime
Continue Reading BERLIN (AP) — A man who spent 13 years in prison in Germany for the death of an elderly woman has been acquitted in a retrial by a court that determined the supposed murder victim had died in an accident. Manfred Genditzki was convicted of murder and sentenced to life in prison in 2010 by
Continue Reading By MUNIR AHMED Associated Press ISLAMABAD (AP) — Muslims in Pakistan are holding rallies to observe a “Day of the Sanctity of Quran” after the prime minister of the South Asian Islamic nation issued a call for anti-Sweden protests over last week’s burning of Islam’s holy book in Stockholm. The biggest anti-Sweden rallies were expected
Continue Reading By ALEX VEIGA AP Business Writer LOS ANGELES (AP) — Would-be homebuyers are willing to take on sharply higher mortgage payments, even as home prices have begun to pull back this year. The median monthly payment listed on applications for home purchase loans jumped 14.1% in May from a year earlier to an all-time high
Continue Reading TAIPEI, Taiwan (AP) — Cities across China have opened their air raid shelters to offer residents relief from the heat as unusually high temperatures across parts of the country started claiming lives. Cities including Hangzhou on China’s east coast, Wuhan in the center of the country, and Shijiazhuang in Hebei province neighboring Beijing announced Friday
Continue Reading NEW YORK (AP) — Twitter has threatened legal action against Meta over its new text-based app called Threads, which has drawn tens of millions of users since launching this week as a rival to Elon Musk’s social media platform. In a letter Wednesday to Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg, Alex Spiro, an attorney representing Twitter, accused
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