World

  An election official burns ballots after the counting has finished at a voting station in Libreville on November 16, 2024. Gabon on Saturday held a referendum on a new constitution after a coup ended 55 years of rule by the Bongo dynasty in the oil-rich nation. LIBREVILLE, Gabon — Voters in Gabon overwhelmingly approved a new constitution, authorities said Sunday, more than one year after mutinous soldiers overthrew the country\'s longtime president and seized power in the oil-rich Central African nation. Over 91% of voters approved the new constitution in a referendum held on Saturday, Gabon\'s Interior Minister Hermann Immongault said in a statement read on state television. Turnout was an estimated 53.5%, he added. The final results...

  Activists participate in a protest at the COP29 U.N. Climate Summit in Baku, Azerbaijan, Nov. 16, 2024. Baku, Azerbaiijan — A new set of global carbon credit trade market standards has been agreed to during the United Nations Climate Change Conference in Baku, Azerbaijan, or COP29, following years of deadlock. Some analysts say that under the guidelines, a bigger number of entities could join a more regulated voluntary carbon credit trading system to reduce emissions. Known as Article 6.4, delegates agreed on the rules for establishing a system that allows trade in carbon credit between individual countries and companies, under the supervision of a centralized U.N. body. These include how to validate, verify and issue credits. Another ...

  Protesters rally outside the parliament building in Sukhumi, the capital of Georgia's breakaway region of Abkhazia, Nov. 15, 2024. (DNA News Abkhazia/Handout via Reuters) Tbilisi, Georgia — Opposition protesters in Georgia\'s breakaway province of Abkhazia on Sunday refused to cede control of key government buildings seized during rallies earlier in the week during which at least 14 people were injured in clashes with police. Demonstrators stormed the buildings Friday to protest new measures allowing Russians to buy property in the seaside region. Protesters on Sunday continued to demand the ouster of self-styled Abkhazian President Aslan Bzhania, and one prominent politician vowed that the opposition would form a rival government ...

  FILE - U.S. Army soldiers conduct live fire testing of an ATACMS (Army Tactical Missile System) at White Sands Missile Range, New Mexico, Dec. 14, 2021. (John Hamilton/U.S. Army via AP) In a major policy shift, U.S. President Joe Biden has for the first time authorized Ukraine to use U.S.-supplied long-range missiles to strike inside Russia, according to U.S. news accounts. The reported decision comes two months before Biden leaves office and ahead of the inauguration of President-elect Donald Trump. The incoming president has voiced skepticism of continued U.S. support for the government in Kyiv and claimed, without offering any details, that he will end Russia’s 33-month war on Ukraine before he takes office. Ukrainian President Volod...

  FILE - Sri Lanka's President and National People's Power (NPP) party leader Anura Kumara Dissanayake addresses supporters during a rally in Colombo, Nov. 11, 2024. New Delhi — Sri Lanka’s Marxist leaning president has won a sweeping mandate to fulfill his pledges to combat corruption and implement pro-poor reforms, but he faces huge challenges in a country whose economy is still fragile, analysts say. Anura Kumara Dissanayake’s coalition, the National People’s Power, or NPP, party, secured an unprecedented two-thirds majority in the 225-member Parliament in snap elections held a year ahead of schedule. SEE ALSO: The parliamentary polls — held seven weeks after he emerged victorious in presidential voting — rein...

  Yulia Navalnaya, center, with Russian opposition politician Vladimir Kara-Murza, center left, and Ilya Yashin, center right, lead a demonstration under the slogan "Stop Putin! Stop the War! Freedom for Political Prisoners!" in Berlin, Germany, Nov. 17, 2024. Berlin — Prominent Russian opposition figures led a march of at least 1,000 people in central Berlin Sunday, criticizing Russian President Vladimir Putin and his war in Ukraine and calling for democracy in Russia. Behind a banner that read "No Putin. No War," the protesters were led by Yulia Navalnaya, the widow of top Putin critic Alexei Navalny, as well as Ilya Yashin and Vladimir Kara-Murza, who were freed from Russian detention in a high-profile prisoner exc...

  Balochistan province, Pakistan ISLAMABAD — Pakistani authorities reported Saturday that seven soldiers and six insurgents were killed in fierce clashes in the troubled southwestern Balochistan. The predawn violence erupted when the insurgents assaulted a security post in Kalat, a mountainous district in the sparsely populated province, according to a late-night Pakistan military statement. It stated that the clashes also injured four assailants but shared no further details. Multiple area security officials reported that at least 18 soldiers were also injured and admitted to hospitals, where some were said to be in critical condition. An outlawed militant group known as the Baloch Liberation Army claimed responsibility for the d...

  FILE - Part of the temples of Baalbek, a UNESCO world heritage site in Lebanon's eastern Bekaa Valley, illuminated in blue light, Oct. 24, 2015. Beirut — Hundreds of cultural professionals, including archeologists and academics, called on the United Nations to safeguard war-torn Lebanon\'s heritage in a petition published Sunday ahead of a crucial UNESCO meeting. Several Israeli strikes in recent weeks on Baalbek in the east and Tyre in the south — both strongholds of Iran-backed militant group Hezbollah — hit close to ancient Roman ruins designated as UNESCO World Heritage sites. FILE - This picture shows closed shops on an empty street in the eastern Lebanese city of Baalbek on Oct. 19, 2024. The petition, signed by ...

  Election officials count ballots cast in parliamentary elections, at a polling station in Diamalaye, a neighborhood in Dakar, Senegal, Nov. 17, 2024. Dakar — Senegal began counting votes Sunday after parliamentary elections in which the new government is aiming for a resounding majority to deliver the ambitious reform agenda that swept it to power eight months ago. Voting took place peacefully across the West African country, and reliable projections of the new parliament\'s makeup could be available from Monday morning. Tallying started shortly after a polling station in the capital Dakar closed at 6:00 pm (1800 GMT), an AFP journalist saw. The governing Pastef party of President Bassirou Diomaye Faye is the favorite to win. Faye secur...

  FILE - Military personnel stand guard in front of a large cutout portrait of Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina in Dhaka, Bangladesh, July 30, 2024. Interim leader Muhammad Yunus said, Nov. 17, 2024, that his administration will seek the extradition of ousted prime minister from India. DHAKA, Bangladesh — Bangladesh\'s interim leader and Nobel Peace laureate Muhammad Yunus said Sunday that his administration will seek the extradition of ousted Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina from India, where has been in exile since fleeing a mass uprising in August. In a televised address to the nation on his first 100 days in office, Yunus said that the interim government will try those responsible including Hasina for hundreds of deaths during the student-led...