WASHINGTON (AP) — Secretary of State Antony Blinken will return to the Middle East later this week on his fifth urgent diplomatic mission since I srael’s war with Hamas began in October, the White House and a State Department official said Wednesday.National Security Council spokesman John Kirby and the State Department official said Blinken would
PRISTINA, Kosovo (AP) — Kosovo authorities on Wednesday said they would impose the use of the country’s currency, the euro, and abolish the use of neighboring Serbia’s dinar in the north where most of the ethnic Serb minority lives.Kosovo’s Central Bank Governor Ahmet Ismaili said starting Thursday, new rules on local transactions in euros would
BANGKOK (AP) — Myanmar’s leading resistance group and allied ethnic armed groups battling the military government on Wednesday released a political road map to ending military rule and enabling a peaceful transition of power, saying they were open to peace talks with the army if it accepted their terms.The joint statement was released a day
PRISTINA, Kosovo (AP) — A Kosovar court on Wednesday sentenced a former infrastructure minister to more than 3 1/2 years in prison for abusing his position by overspending public funds on a road project. Three of his top aides were also ordered to serve time.The Pristina district court sentenced former minister Pal Lekaj, 61, to
HALLE, Belgium (AP) — The writing of angry farmers was on the Paris-to-Brussels highway in giant yellow letters visible from up high: “Ursula, We are here!” It was chalked onto the road with an equal measure of defiance and desperation, warning European Commission Ursula von der Leyen not to ignore farmers’ concerns for better prices
PARIS (AP) — French Interior minister Gerald Darmanin said Wednesday that some 300,000 spectators will be able to attend the opening ceremony for the Paris Olympics, about half the size of what was originally planned.The giant show on the River Seine on July 26 will mark the first time that an opening ceremony is held
TOKYO (AP) — Haruyuki Takahashi, a former Tokyo Olympics organizing committee member, appeared in a court on Wednesday and said he was not guilty of taking bribes connected to the Tokyo Games.A former executive with the powerful Japanese advertising company Dents u, Takahashi is charged with accepting around 198 million yen ($1.4 million) in exchange
NEW YORK (AP) — Technology stocks are slumping Wednesday as several of Wall Street’s most influential stocks feel the downside of ultrahigh expectations.The S&P 500 was 0.9% lower in midday trading. The drops for Big Tech sent the Nasdaq composite down a market-leading 1.5%, as of 11:52 a.m. Eastern time. The Dow Jones Industrial Average
KYIV, Ukraine (AP) — Russia and Ukraine have exchanged about 200 prisoners of war each, the countries said Wednesday, despite tensions stemming from last week’s crash of a military transport plane that Moscow claimed was carrying Ukrainian POWs and was shot down by Kyiv’s forces.After the Jan. 24 crash of the Il-76 plane in Russia’s
The billionaire sultan who rules Malaysia’s Johor state has been sworn in as the nation’s new king under a unique rotating monarchy system. Sultan Ibrahim Iskandar took his oath of office Wednesday in a palace ceremony. (AP video/Mohd Dzuha Zamedin) The billionaire sultan who rules Malaysia’s Johor state has been sworn in as the nation’s
