AP World News

By GREGORY GONDWE Associated Press BLANTYRE, Malawi (AP) — The southern African nation of Malawi began a cholera vaccination rollout this week in a bid to stem the threat of the disease that kills tens of thousands of people globally each year. Cholera is avoidable when there is access to clean water and largely treatable

By GHAITH ALSAYED Associated Press RAQQA, Syria (AP) — Syrian government forces took control Friday of a prison housing members of the Islamic State group in the north of the country, after hundreds of Kurdish fighters who were guarding the facility evacuated the area as part of a recent deal. Syria’s Interior Ministry said in

By ANIRUDDHA GHOSAL Associated Press HANOI, Vietnam (AP) — To Lam was reelected Friday as general secretary of Vietnam’s ruling Communist Party and appears poised to become the country’s most powerful figure in decades, with analysts expecting him to assume the presidency in a break from Vietnam’s tradition of collective leadership. Lam, 68, pledged to

By SUZAN FRASER Associated Press ANKARA, Turkey (AP) — Turkey is celebrating the latest developments in Syria, where the new government has effectively defeated a major Kurdish-led force with an abrupt offensive. Ankara has long viewed armed groups led by Kurds — an ethnic minority with large populations in eastern Turkey, Iraq and northern Syria

By KANIS LEUNG Associated Press HONG KONG (AP) — A prominent activist who organized Hong Kong’s decades-old vigil commemorating the 1989 Tiananmen Square military crackdown on democracy protesters said Friday that her group’s demand for “ending one-party rule” was a call for democratization, not for an end to the Communist Party’s leadership in China. Chow

By MARI YAMAGUCHI Associated Press TOKYO (AP) — Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi dissolved the lower house of parliament on Friday, paving the way for an early election on Feb. 8. The move is an attempt to capitalize on her popularity to help the governing party regain ground after major losses in recent years, but

By JULIA FRANKEL Associated Press JERUSALEM (AP) — Modern cities with sleek high-rises, a pristine coastline that attracts tourists, and a state-of-the-art port that juts into the Mediterranean. This is what Jared Kushner, U.S. President Donald Trump’s son-in-law and Middle East adviser, says Gaza could become, according to a presentation he gave at an economic

QUITO, Ecuador (AP) — Deep in the Ecuadorian Andes, an ancient forest stands as a final sanctuary against the encroachment of human activity. This is the Yanacocha Reserve, the last refuge for the Black-breasted puffleg (Eriocnemis nigrivestis), a tiny hummingbird teetering on the edge of extinction. Measuring just 9 centimeters (3.5 inches), this emblematic bird

By KAMILA HRABCHUK and KOSTYA MANENKOV Associated Press Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said the future of Ukraine’s eastern Donbas region would be a key focus as negotiators from Ukraine, Russia and the United States meet in Abu Dhabi for talks to end Russia’s nearly four-year full-scale invasion. The UAE’s foreign ministry said the talks, which

By JON GAMBRELL Associated Press DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) — Iran’s top prosecutor on Friday called U.S. President Donald Trump’s repeated claims that he halted the hangings of 800 detained protesters there “completely false.” Meanwhile, the overall death toll from a bloody crackdown on nationwide demonstrations rose to at least 5,032, activists said. Activists

By ROB GILLIES Associated Press TORONTO (AP) — Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney responded to U.S. President Donald Trump comment that “Canada lives because of the United States” on Thursday by saying Canada thrives because of Canadian values. Carney said Canada can show the world that the future doesn’t have to be autocratic after returning

By TOQA EZZIDIN and JULIA FRANKEL Associated Press CAIRO (AP) — Desperate Palestinians at a garbage dump in a Gaza neighborhood dug with their bare hands for plastic items to burn to fend off the cold and damp winter in the enclave, battered by two years of the Israel-Hamas war. The scene in the Muwasi

By STEPHEN GROVES Associated Press WASHINGTON (AP) — The House rejected a Democratic-backed resolution Thursday that would have prevented President Donald Trump from sending U.S. military forces to Venezuela after a tied vote on the legislation fell just short of the majority needed for passage. The tied vote was the latest sign of Republican House

By MIKE STOBBE and DEVI SHASTRI Associated Press NEW YORK (AP) — The U.S. has finalized its withdrawal from the World Health Organization, one year after President Donald Trump announced America was ending its 78-year-old commitment, federal officials said Thursday. But it’s hardly a clean break. The U.S. owes about $280 million to the global

By REGINA GARCIA CANO Associated Press CARACAS, Venezuela (AP) — Venezuela’s legislature advanced a bill on Thursday to loosen state control over the country’s vast oil sector in the first major overhaul since the late socialist leader Hugo Chávez nationalized parts of the industry in 2007. The legislation would formally break decades of state command

By FATIMA HUSSEIN Associated Press WASHINGTON (AP) — The U.S. imposed sanctions on five Costa Ricans and five Costa Rican entities for allegedly helping to transport tons of cocaine from Colombia, storing the drugs in Costa Rica, then shipping them to the U.S. and Europe. The Treasury Department’s Office of Foreign Assets Control alleges that

By WILSON MCMAKIN Associated Press DAKAR, Senegal (AP) — Guinea-Bissau is suspending a Trump administration-backed hepatitis B vaccine study on newborns in the West African country, pending an ethical review, the health minister said Thursday. A six-person ethics committee didn’t meet to review the study during the initial confirmation process, Health Minister Quinhi Nantot said

By MIKE CORDER Associated Press THE HAGUE, Netherlands (AP) — For days it seemed there was no way out of the latest standoff between Europe and the United States: U.S. President Donald Trump insisted he must have Greenland — and would settle for nothing short of total ownership. Even after he dropped the threat of

By QASSIM ABDUL-ZAHRA and ABBY SEWELL Associated Press BAGHDAD (AP) — The decision to move prisoners of the Islamic State group from northeast Syria to detention centers in Iraq came after a request by officials in Baghdad that was welcomed by the U.S.-led coalition and the Syrian government, officials said Thursday. American and Iraqi officials

CARACAS, Venezuela (AP) — Rafael Tudares Bracho, the son-in-law of Venezuelan opposition figure Edmundo González, was released on Thursday after being held incommunicado for more than a year, said his wife, Mariana González, daughter of the former presidential candidate. The release comes just two months after Tudares was sentenced to 30 years in prison and

By STEVEN GRATTAN Associated Press BOGOTA, Colombia (AP) — Police and prosecutors from Brazil, French Guiana, Guyana and Suriname have arrested nearly 200 people in their first-ever joint cross-border operation targeting illegal gold mining in the Amazon region, authorities said Thursday. The operation was backed by Interpol — the international police cooperation agency that helps

By LORNE COOK and SAM McNEIL Associated Press BRUSSELS (AP) — European Union leaders are gathering for emergency talks on Thursday to chart a new course in transatlantic relations after a tumultuous two weeks dominated by U.S. President Donald Trump’s renewed threats to take control of Greenland. On the eve of their summit, Trump dramatically

DAVOS, Switzerland (AP) — U.S. President Donald Trump used the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, to unveil a proposed “ Board of Peace ” for Gaza, bringing leaders from more than a dozen countries onstage Thursday, although many top American allies aren’t participating in the board. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, meanwhile, scolded European allies