World

  Kemi Badenoch smiles after being elected as the new leader of the U.K.'s opposition Conservative Party in London on Nov. 2, 2024. LONDON — Kemi Badenoch became the Conservatives\' new leader and the first Black woman to a head a major British political party, after winning a leadership contest Saturday on a promise to return the party to its founding principles. Badenoch, 44, replaces former Prime Minister Rishi Sunak and has pledged to lead the party through a period of renewal after its resounding defeat in Britain\'s July election, saying it had veered toward the political center by "governing from the left." On the right of the Conservative Party, Badenoch will likely back policies to shrink the state and challenge wh...

  A destroyed car marked "Press" is seen at the site of an Israeli airstrike that targeted an area where a number of journalists were located in the southern Lebanese village of Hasbaya on Oct. 25, 2024. WASHINGTON/NEW YORK — Achieving justice in the targeted killings of journalists is a difficult task made even more complicated in cases that take place in wartime, experts say. On a global scale, 85% of journalist killings around the world since 2006 remain unsolved, according to a report released by UNESCO on Saturday. In 2013, the United Nations declared November 2 the International Day to End Impunity for Crimes Against Journalists. Impunity in journalist killings has long been the norm, and active conflict exacerbates the pr...

  Vehicles pile up in the streets on Nov. 2, 2024, after flooding on Oct. 29 and 30 left hundreds of people dead or missing in Alfafar, Valencia region, Spain, Nov. 2, 2024. VALENCIA, SPAIN — Spain will deploy 10,000 more troops and police officers to the eastern Valencia region devastated by floods that have killed 211 people, Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez said on Saturday. Sanchez said in a televised address that he accepted the regional leader\'s request for 5,000 more troops and informed him of a further deployment of 5,000 police officers and civil guards. Meanwhile, rescuers resumed a grim search for bodies as the nation scrambled to organize aid to stricken citizens. Hopes of finding survivors more than three days after torrents of...

  Japan Tokyo — Nearly 200,000 people in western Japan were urged to evacuate Saturday as authorities warned of landslides and floods, while the remnants of a tropical storm trickle over the country. The Japan Meteorological Agency said "warm, moist air... was causing heavy rainfall with thunderstorms in western Japan" partly due to Kong-rey, which was downgraded to an extratropical low-pressure system from a typhoon. The city of Matsuyama "issued the top-level warning, urging 189,552 residents in its 10 districts to evacuate and immediately secure safety," a city official told AFP. While the evacuation was not mandatory, Japan\'s highest-level warning is typically issued when it is extremely likely that some kind of d...

  Iran's Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei waves during a meeting in Tehran, Iran, Oct. 27, 2024. (West Asia News Agency/Handout via Reuters) DUBAI, United Arab Emirates — Iran\'s supreme leader on Saturday threatened Israel and the U.S. with "a crushing response" over attacks on Iran and its allies. Ayatollah Ali Khamenei spoke as Iranian officials are increasingly threatening to launch yet another strike against Israel after its October 26 on the Islamic Republic that targeted military bases and other locations and killed at least five people. Any further attacks from either side could engulf the wider Middle East, already teetering over the Israel-Hamas war in the Gaza Strip and Israel\'s ground invasion of Lebanon, ...

  This handout photograph taken and released by the Ukrainian State Emergency Service on Nov. 2, 2024, shows a multistory residential building burning as a result of fragments of a downed Russian drone fall. KYIV, Ukraine — Russia unleashed an overnight drone attack on the Ukrainian capital Kyiv that lasted into late morning and wounded at least one person, city officials said on Saturday. Debris from downed drones struck six city districts, wounding a police officer, damaging residential buildings and starting fires, according to city military administrator Serhiy Popko. Mayor Vitalii Klitschko had earlier reported that two people had been injured. "Another night. Another air-raid alert. Another drone attack. The armed forces of the...

  FILE - In this photo provided by the Belarusian Presidential Press Service, Belarus President Alexander Lukashenko speaks to military personnel in the Oshmyany District, Grodno region of Belarus, March 26, 2024. A 22-year-old Russian man considered a political prisoner by activists has died in a penal colony in Belarus, human rights group Viasna said Friday. The rights group said it confirmed the death of Dmitry Shletgauer, who was recently transferred to a penal colony in Mogilev in eastern Belarus. Viasna said Shletgauer had been at the penal colony for a short time before his death. "Provisionally, this happened on October 11," the rights group said. "He spent less than a month in the penal colony. The exact cause of d...

  The entrance to the former US Embassy, which has been turned into an anti-American museum, is seen with a satirized image of the Statue of Liberty and the US flag in Tehran, Iran, Oct. 22, 2024. Iran was quick to downplay the impact of Israel\'s attack on key military sites on its territory on October 26. But satellite images suggest Israel has degraded Tehran\'s air defense and missile-production capabilities, analysts say. Fabian Hinz of the London-based International Institute for Strategic Studies said Israel had dealt a "significant blow" to Iran\'s ability to produce long-range ballistic missiles. Ability to sustain long-range attacks On October 1, Iran launched its biggest-ever direct attack on Israel, firing nearly 20...

  FILE - George Craig feeds the world's largest captive crocodile, Cassius, at the Marineland Melanesia on Green Island, Great Barrier Reef, Cairns, Australia, March 18, 2023. (AAP Image/Brian Cassey via Reuters) sydney — A 5.48-meter Australian crocodile that held the world record as the largest crocodile in captivity has died, a wildlife sanctuary said on Saturday. He was thought to be more than 110 years old. Cassius, weighing in at more than one ton, had been in declining health since October 15, Marineland Melanesia Crocodile Habitat said on Facebook. "He was very old and believed to be living beyond the years of a wild croc," according to a post by the organization, based on Green Island near the Queensland tourist to...

  Hello Kitty waves as she appears to attend the opening ceremony of the exhibition "As I change, so does she," marking the 50th anniversary of Hello Kitty at the Tokyo National Museum in Tokyo, Oct. 30, 2024. tokyo — Hello Kitty turned 50 on Friday. Befitting a pop icon at midlife, the bubble-headed, bow-wearing character\'s fictional birthday has brought museum exhibits, a theme park spectacle and a national tour. And that\'s just in Japan, her literal birthplace but not the one listed in her official biography. Confused? Welcome to the party. If there\'s one thing about Hello Kitty, it\'s that she\'s proven adaptable and as much a study in contrasts during her long career. She — and Kitty is a she, according to the company t...