AP World News

By NICOLE WINFIELD Associated Press VATICAN CITY (AP) — One of Pope Francis’ enduring legacies was that he greatly expanded the diversity of cardinals who will elect his successor, naming “princes of the church” from faraway countries that had never had one before. That legacy is now throwing a wrench in the traditional sport of

QAMISHLI, Syria (AP) — Representatives of Kurdish groups in Syria called Saturday for a democratic state that gives the country’s Kurds their ethnic rights after the fall of Bashar Assad. Some 400 people representing Syria’s main Kurdish groups met in the northeastern Syrian city of Qamishli to unify their positions a month after Syria’s new

By JALAL BWAITEL Associated Press RAMALLAH, West Bank (AP) — Hussein al-Sheikh has been named vice president of the Palestine Liberation Organization, the internationally recognized representative of the Palestinian people. The appointment makes the 64-year-old al-Sheikh the front-runner to one day succeed 89-year-old Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, though that isn’t guaranteed. The position is among

By JALAL BWAITEL Associated Press RAMALLAH, West Bank (AP) — Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas on Saturday named a veteran aide and confidant as his new vice president. It’s a major step by the aging leader to designate a successor. The appointment of Hussein al-Sheikh as vice president of the Palestine Liberation Organization does not guarantee

By The Associated Press Nearly nine months after losing chunks of the Kursk region to a surprise Ukrainian incursion, Russia announced that its troops have fully reclaimed the border territory. Ukraine denied it, saying the fighting was still ongoing. If confirmed, Moscow’s victory in Kursk would deprive Kyiv of key leverage in U.S.-brokered efforts to

By VANESSA GERA Associated Press VATICAN CITY (AP) — Thousands of young people from around the world had come to Rome expecting to rejoice this weekend in the canonization of the first millennial saint during the Vatican’s Holy Year. They ended up bidding farewell to Pope Francis instead, with their exuberance giving an uplifting tone

By SAMYA KULLAB and KATIE MARIE DAVIES Associated Press KYIV, Ukraine (AP) — All Ukrainian troops have been forced from parts of Russia’s Kursk region, which Moscow lost control of last year to a surprise Ukrainian incursion, Russia’s top general said in a Kremlin meeting Saturday. Ukrainian officials denied the claim. Valery Gerasimov, Chief of

By WAFAA SHURAFA and SAMY MAGDY Associated Press DEIR AL-BALAH, Gaza Strip (AP) — An Israeli airstrike flattened a three-story home in Gaza City on Saturday, killing 10 people — half of them children — as Arab mediators scrambled to restart a ceasefire. Israeli strikes killed at least 49 people in the past 24 hours,

By JON GAMBRELL Associated Press MUSCAT, Oman (AP) — Iran and the United States held in-depth negotiations in Oman over Tehran’s rapidly advancing nuclear program on Saturday, ending the discussions with a promise for more talks and perhaps another high-level meeting next weekend. The talks ran for several hours in Muscat, the mountain-wrapped capital of

By The Associated Press VATICAN CITY (AP) — World dignitaries and Catholic faithful attended Pope Francis’ funeral in St. Peter’s Square on Saturday. Despite the presence of presidents and princes, prisoners and migrants met Francis’ coffin outside St. Mary Major Basilica, where he was buried, reflecting his priorities as pope. U.S. President Donald Trump, French

By JON GAMBRELL Associated Press MUSCAT, Oman (AP) — A massive explosion and fire rocked a port Saturday in southern Iran purportedly linked to a shipment of a chemical ingredient used to make missile propellant, killing 25 people and injuring around 800 others. Helicopters and aircraft dumped water from the air on the raging fire

By LUIS ANDRES HENAO Associated Press NEW YORK (AP) — Pope Francis died on Easter Monday at the age of 88. His death set off mourning across the Catholic world and days of ritual at the Vatican. Here are the key things to know about the funeral of the first Latin American pontiff in the

By ANDREW WILKS Associated Press ISTANBUL (AP) — Police in Istanbul detained 47 people Saturday in dawn raids linked to a corruption investigation that saw the city’s mayor imprisoned last month, leading to Turkey’s largest protests in more than a decade. Among those arrested in Istanbul, the neighboring province of Tekirdag and the capital, Ankara,

By ROB GILLIES Associated Press TORONTO (AP) — Canadians will vote for a new government on Monday in an election that has been upended by U.S. President Donald Trump ‘s trade war and his threats to make Canada the 51st state. Prime Minister Mark Carney and the governing Liberal Party appeared poised for a historic

By AIJAZ HUSSAIN, RAJESH ROY and MUNIR AHMED Associated Press SRINAGAR, India (AP) — Pakistani soldiers fired at Indian posts along the highly militarized frontier in disputed Kashmir for a second consecutive night, the Indian military said Saturday, as tensions flared between the nuclear-armed rivals following a deadly attack on tourists last week. India described

By NICOLE WINFIELD and COLLEEN BARRY Associated Press VATICAN CITY (AP) — World leaders and rank-and-file Catholic faithful bade farewell to Pope Francis in a funeral Saturday that highlighted his concern for people on the peripheries and reflected his wish to be remembered as a simple pastor. Though presidents and princes attended the Mass in

By JENNIFER PELTZ and HALLIE GOLDEN Associated Press Virginia Giuffre, who accused Britain’s Prince Andrew and other influential men of sexually exploiting her as a teenager trafficked by financier Jeffrey Epstein, has died. She was 41. Giuffre died by suicide Friday at her farm in Western Australia, her publicist confirmed. “Virginia was a fierce warrior

By JANIE HAR and KATE BRUMBACK Associated Press SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — The U.S. government is reversing the termination of legal status for international students around the country after many filed court challenges against the Trump administration crackdown, federal officials said Friday. The records in a federal student database maintained by Immigration and Customs Enforcement

By GIADA ZAMPANO Associated Press ROME (AP) — Pope Francis chose his place of burial in St. Mary Major Basilica, near an icon of the Madonna that he revered, because it reflects his “humble, simple and essential’’ life, the archbishop who administers the basilica said Friday. Francis, who died Monday at age 88, will be

By NICOLE WINFIELD Associated Press VATICAN CITY (AP) — He called me “la prima della classe,” or “the first in class.” It wasn’t necessarily a compliment. I had earned the nickname from Pope Francis in 2018, a year that marked a low point in his papacy, and a turning point in how he handled cases

By ABBY SEWELL and FARNOUSH AMIRI Associated Press UNITED NATIONS (AP) — Syria’s foreign minister attended a U.N. Security Council briefing Friday after raising his country’s new flag at the international body’s headquarters. It was the first public appearance by a high-ranking Syrian government official in the United States since the fall of President Bashar

MOSCOW (AP) — A Russian general was killed by a car bomb on Friday, Russia’s top criminal investigation agency said, in the second such attack on a top Russian military officer in four months that Moscow has blamed on Ukraine. The Investigative Committee said that Lt. Gen. Yaroslav Moskalik, a deputy head of the main

SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico (AP) — The United Nations and human rights activists are warning about an increase in pregnant women being deported from the Dominican Republic to Haiti, where they say their lives are being put at risk. Less than 40% of health centers in Haiti’s capital, Port-au-Prince, remain open as gang violence surges.

By SHEIKH SAALIQ Associated Press NEW DELHI (AP) — India and Pakistan have intensified their hostilities over the hotly contested Kashmir region following a massacre of 26 mostly Indian tourists, which New Delhi linked to Pakistan. Pakistan denies it was behind Tuesday’s attack by gunmen on a group of tourists in Kashmir. Both sides have

By HOLLY MEYER Associated Press Speculation surrounding a conclave to elect a pope is a time-honored tradition. But for the impending conclave following the death of Pope Francis, the ranks of armchair Vatican experts have swelled thanks to Hollywood. “Conclave” the film, a moody 2024 political thriller, introduced many laypeople to the ancient selection process

By AIJAZ HUSSAIN and RAJESH ROY Associated Press SRINAGAR, India (AP) — Indian and Pakistani soldiers briefly exchanged fire along their highly militarized frontier in the disputed Himalayan region of Kashmir, Indian officials said Friday, as tensions soared between the nuclear-armed rivals following a deadly attack on tourists. India has described the massacre in which

By SILVIA STELLACI Associated Press VATICAN CITY (AP) — In the streets around the Vatican, where Pope Francis used to make impromptu outings, some of the shopkeepers are mourning the man they knew, not as the leader of a church or head of state, but as an ordinary person. They prayed for him while he

By ROD McGUIRK Associated Press MELBOURNE, Australia (AP) — Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese condemned anti-Indigenous rights protesters who disrupted two Anzac Day dawn services on Friday as hundreds of thousands gathered across the nation to commemorate their war dead. “The disruption of Anzac Day is beyond contempt and the people responsible must face the

By ILLIA NOVIKOV, CHRIS MEGERIAN and DARLENE SUPERVILLE Associated Press ROME (AP) — President Donald Trump on Friday called for Ukraine and Russia to meet for “very high level talks,” saying they are “very close to a deal” on ending the bloody three-year war. Trump posted on his Truth Social site shortly after arriving in

By KIM TONG-HYUNG Associated Press SEOUL, South Korea (AP) — Former South Korean President Moon Jae-in on Friday called his indictment on bribery charges “unjust,” accusing prosecutors of abusing their power in what he called a politically motivated investigation. Moon’s comments came a day after prosecutors in the southern city of Jeonju announced his indictment