BRATISLAVA, Slovakia (AP) - Slovak prime minister has undergone another operation after he was shot on Wednesday and remains in serious condition, the country's defense minister said Friday. Fico, 59, was shot multiple times as he was greeting supporters after a government meeting in the former coal mining town of Hand...

TAIPEI, Taiwan (AP) - Russia and China are helping each other expand their territorial reach, and democracies must push back against authoritarian states that threaten their rights and sovereignty, Taiwan's outgoing foreign minister, Joseph Wu, said in an interview with The Associated Press. His comments came as Russia...

KYIV, Ukraine (AP) - Russian President Vladimir Putin said Friday that Moscow's offensive in Ukraine's Kharkiv region aims to create a buffer zone but has no plans to capture the city. Speaking to reporters Friday on a visit to Harbin, China, Putin said that Moscow launched attacks in the Kharkiv region in response to ...

VATICAN CITY (AP) - The Vatican on Friday radically reformed its process for evaluating alleged visions of the Virgin Mary, weeping statues and other seemingly supernatural phenomena, insisting on having the final say in whether the events are worthy of popular devotion. The Vatican's doctrine office overhauled norms f...

SEOUL, South Korea (AP) - North Korea fired a ballistic missile off its east coast on Friday, South Korea's military said, a day after South Korea and the U.S. flew powerful fighter jets for a joint drill that the North views as a major security threat. A statement from South Korea's Joint Chiefs of Staff gave no furth...

WASHINGTON (AP) - Trucks carrying badly needed aid for the Gaza Strip rolled across a newly built U.S. floating pier into the besieged enclave for the first time Friday as Israeli restrictions on border crossings and heavy fighting hinder food and other supplies reaching people there. The shipment is the first in an op...

HOUSTON (AP) - Severe thunderstorms pummeled southeastern Texas on Thursday for the second time this month, killing at least four people, blowing out windows in high-rise buildings, downing trees and knocking out power to nearly 900,000 homes and businesses in the Houston area. Mary Benton, chief of communications and ...

GALVESTON, Texas (AP) - Early estimates indicate up to 2,000 gallons of oil may have spilled into surrounding waters when a barge carrying fuel broke free from a tugboat and slammed into a bridge near Galveston, Texas, the U.S. Coast Guard said Thursday. The barge crashed into a pillar supporting the Pelican Island Cau...

WASHINGTON (AP) - The House delivered a rebuke to President Joe Biden Thursday for pausing a shipment of bombs to Israel, passing legislation that seeks to force the weapons transfer as Republicans worked to highlight Democratic divisions over the Israel-Hamas war. Seeking to discourage Israel from its offensive on the...

AUSTIN, Texas (AP) - Texas Gov. Greg Abbot issued a full pardon Thursday to a former U.S. Army sergeant convicted of murder for fatally shooting an armed demonstrator in 2020 during nationwide protests against police violence and racial injustice. Abbott announced the pardon just minutes after the Texas Board of Pardon...

LOUISVILLE, Ky. (AP) - Xander Schauffele broke the PGA Championship scoring record, seizing on the rain-softened conditions at Valhalla on Thursday with a 9-under 62 to set the early target. Schauffele also tied the major championship record - he already was on that list with a 62 last year in the U.S. Open - on a day ...

THE HAGUE (AP) - The United Nations' top court on Thursday opened two days of hearings into a request from South Africa to press Israel to halt its military operation in the southern Gaza city of Rafah, where more than half of Gaza's population has sought shelter. It is the fourth time South Africa has asked the Intern...

WASHINGTON (AP) - President Joe Biden has asserted executive privilege over audio of his interview with special counsel Robert Hur that's at the center a Republican effort to hold Attorney General Merrick Garland in contempt of Congress, the Justice Department told lawmakers on Thursday. It comes as the the House Overs...

TBILISI, Georgia (AP) - Georgian President Salome Zourabichvili said Thursday a "foreign influence" bill passed by parliament that critics call a threat to free speech is "unacceptable" and can't be modified. In an interview with The Associated Press, Zourabichvili harshly criticized the ruling Geor...

SEOUL, South Korea (AP) - A South Korean court ruled in favor of the government's contentious plan to drastically boost medical school admissions on Thursday. A standoff between the government and doctors opposed to the plan has shaken the country's medical system for months. More than 10,000 junior doctors have been o...

BANSKA BYSTRICA, Slovakia (AP) - Slovakian Prime Minister Robert Fico is in stable but serious condition on Thursday after being shot multiple times in an assassination attempt a day earlier, a hospital official said. Doctors are continuing to treat Fico in an attempt to improve his condition, Defense Minister Robert K...

WASHINGTON (AP) - The U.S. military finished installing a floating pier for the Gaza Strip on Thursday, with officials poised to begin ferrying badly needed humanitarian aid into the enclave besieged over seven months of intense fighting in the Israel-Hamas war. The final, overnight construction sets up a complicated d...

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 ...