BEIJING (AP) - China's leader Xi Jinping welcomed Russia's President Vladimir Putin at an official ceremony Thursday as he opened a state visit to China. Putin's visit comes as Russia has become more economically dependent on China following Moscow's full-scale invasion of Ukraine more than two years ago. Putin is expe...

WASHINGTON (AP) - The Supreme Court on Wednesday ordered Louisiana to hold congressional elections in 2024 using a House map with a second mostly Black district, despite a lower-court ruling that called the map an illegal racial gerrymander. The order allows the use of a map that has majority Black populations in two o...

WASHINGTON (AP) - The number of reported sexual assaults across the military decreased last year, and a confidential survey found a 19% drop in the number of service members who said they had experienced some type of unwanted sexual contact, according to new figures obtained by The Associated Press. Both are dramatic r...

GUATEMALA CITY (AP) - A Guatemalan court ordered the release Wednesday of journalist José Rubén Zamora, jailed for nearly 2 years on money laundering charges. Zamora, the 67-year-old founder of El Periodico newspaper, was sentenced to six years in prison last June for alleged money laundering. But that co...

It was untreated anxiety and depression that Colorado Avalanche defenseman Samuel Girard blamed for his alcohol abuse, a problem that reached the point where he needed to step away from hockey. He made a decision to leave the Avalanche and enter the NHL/NHLPA player assistance program earlier this season. Girard return...

KYIV, Ukraine (AP) - Ukrainian forces withdrew from some parts of the country's northeast and battled Russian troops in other areas Wednesday, as President Volodymyr Zelenskyy's decision to postpone all his upcoming foreign trips underscored the seriousness of the threat his soldiers face. Against that grim backdrop, v...

BUDAPEST, Hungary (AP) - Slovakian Prime Minister Robert Fico is in life-threatening condition after being wounded in a shooting after a political event Wednesday afternoon, an episode of violence that punctuated his long career spanning decades in politics. Fico, 59, returned to power in Slovakia last year. Having pre...

BRATISLAVA, Slovakia (AP) - Slovakia's populist Prime Minister Robert Fico was wounded in a shooting Wednesday afternoon and taken to hospital. Reports on TA3, a Slovakian TV station, said that Fico, 59, was hit in the stomach after four shots were fired outside the House of Culture in the town of Handlova, some 150 ki...

KUALA LUMPUR, Malaysia (AP) - Singapore's deputy leader Lawrence Wong was sworn in Wednesday as the nation's fourth prime minister in a carefully planned political succession designed to ensure continuity and stability in the Asian financial hub. A U.S.-trained economist, Wong, 51, succeeds Lee Hsien Loong, 72, who ste...

WASHINGTON (AP) - President Joe Biden said Wednesday on social media that he won't participate in the campaign debates sponsored by a nonpartisan commission, instead challenging Republican Donald Trump to a pair of debates. "Donald Trump lost two debates to me in 2020," Biden posted on X, the site formerly kn...

MADRID (AP) - Canadian historian and writer Michael Ignatieff has won Spain's Princess of Asturias Award for Social Sciences for his "critical reflections on the major conflicts of our time," prize organizers said Wednesday. With more than 20 books that range from human rights, foreign policy, economics, and ...

GENEVA (AP) - Switzerland's top criminal court on Wednesday convicted a former interior minister of Gambia for crimes against humanity over his role in repression committed by the west African country's security forces under its longtime dictator, a legal advocacy group said. Ousman Sonko, Gambia's interior minister fr...

PARIS (AP) - At least two people were killed and three were seriously injured overnight in the French Pacific territory of New Caledonia, French media reported Wednesday, as President Emmanuel Macron convened a meeting of top ministers to discuss the spiraling violence. It was the third day of violent unrest over a con...

BALTIMORE (AP) - Incumbent Brandon Scott beat out one of his predecessors in Baltimore's Democratic primary for mayor on Tuesday, all but ensuring a second term in office. Scott was originally elected in 2020, when he also campaigned against former Mayor Sheila Dixon and won by a narrow margin. This was Dixon's third a...

ANNAPOLIS, Md. (AP) - Maryland State Sen. Sarah Elfreth has defeated former U.S. Capitol police officer Harry Dunn in a crowded congressional Democratic primary. Elfreth prevailed in a primary with 22 candidates to replace outgoing Rep. John Sarbanes, who announced in October he would not seek a 10th term. The heavily ...

CHARLESTON, W.Va. (AP) - Congresswoman Carol Miller has held off a challenge from convicted Jan. 6 riot participant Derrick Evans to win the Republican primary for her U.S. House seat in West Virginia. Miller defeated Evans in the 1st Congressional District and will try to capture her fourth term in November. Miller fo...

WASHINGTON (AP) - The Biden administration has told key lawmakers it is sending a new package of more than $1 billion in arms and ammunition to Israel, two congressional aides said Tuesday. It's the first arms shipment to Israel to be announced by the administration since it put another arms transfer - consisting of 3,...

RALEIGH, N.C. (AP) - Brad Knott has won the Republican primary runoff for the 13th Congressional District in North Carolina. Knott won the nomination over Kelly Daughtry on Tuesday. Daughtry had received the most votes among 14 candidates in the initial March 5 primary, but she didn't reach the threshold needed to avoi...

DENVER (AP) - The nameplate above the locker for Valeri Nichushkin has already been removed at the Colorado Avalanche's practice facility. It could be just for now - or possibly for good. For a second consecutive year, the Avalanche are on the brink of elimination from the playoffs with Nichushkin, one of their top pla...

LOS ANGELES (AP) - The former interpreter for Los Angeles Dodgers star Shohei Ohtani pleaded not guilty Tuesday to bank and tax fraud, a formality ahead of a plea deal he's negotiated with federal prosecutors in a wide-ranging sports betting case. Prosecutors say Ippei Mizuhara stole nearly $17 million from Ohtani to p...

LYON, France (AP) - An American accused of sexually assaulting a Pennsylvania college student in 2013 and later sending her a Facebook message that said, "So I raped you," has been detained in France after a three-year search. A prosecutor in Metz, France, confirmed Tuesday that Ian Thomas Cleary, 31, of Sara...

HALLE, Germany (AP) - A court on Tuesday convicted one of the best-known figures in the far-right Alternative for Germany party of using a Nazi slogan in a speech and ordered him to pay a fine. The verdict in Björn Höcke's trial comes months before a regional election in the eastern state of Thuringia in whic...

WILMINGTON, Del. (AP) - Hunter Biden's federal gun case will go to trial next month, a judge said Tuesday, denying a bid by lawyers for the president's son to delay the prosecution. U.S. District Judge Maryellen Noreika rejected Hunter Biden's request to push the trial until September, which the defense said was necess...

NEW YORK (AP) - Donald Trump's fixer-turned-foe returned to the witness stand and could face a bruising round of questioning from the former president's lawyers as soon as Tuesday. Michael Cohen 's testimony this week has linked Trump to all aspects of a hush money scheme that prosecutors say was aimed at stifling stor...

NEW YORK (AP) - Donald Trump's fixer-turned-foe Michael Cohen awaits a bruising round of questioning from the former president's lawyers on Tuesday after testimony linked their celebrity client to all aspects of a hush money scheme that prosecutors say was aimed at stifling stories that threatened his 2016 campaign. Tr...

TBILISI, Georgia (AP) - The Georgian parliament on Tuesday approved in the third and final reading a divisive bill that sparked weeks of mass protests. The bill requires media and nongovernmental organizations and other nonprofits to register as "pursuing the interests of a foreign power" if they receive more...

BRUSSELS (AP) - European Union nations endorsed sweeping reforms to the bloc's failed asylum system on Tuesday as campaigning for Europe-wide elections next month gathers pace, with migration expected to be an important issue. EU government ministers approved 10 legislative parts of The New Pact on Migration and Asylum...

BEIJING (AP) - Russian President Vladimir Putin will make a two-day state visit to China this week, the Chinese Foreign Ministry said Tuesday. Putin will meet Chinese leader Xi Jinping during his visit starting on Thurday, it said. The Kremlin in a statement confirmed the trip and said Putin was going on Xi's invitatio...