World

  Volunteers prepare lunch for refugees at Rwamwanja Refugee Settlement in Kamwenge District, Uganda on Oct. 21, 2024. RWAMWANJA, Uganda — For months, Agnes Bulaba, a Congolese refugee in Uganda, has had to get by without the food rations she once depended on. Her children scavenge among local communities for whatever they can find to eat. "As a woman who\'s not married, life is hard," Bulaba told The Associated Press. Some locals "keep throwing stones at us, but we just want to feed our kids and buy them some clothes," said the mother of six, who often works as a prostitute to fend for her family. Uganda is home to more than 1.7 million refugees, the largest refugee-hosting country in Africa, according to the United ...

  FILE - A page from Temu's website on June 23, 2023. The European Union is investigating Temu because it suspects the Chinese online retailer is not doing enough to prevent the sale of illegal products. LONDON — The European Union is investigating Chinese online retailer Temu over suspicions it\'s failing to prevent the sale of illegal products, the 27-nation bloc\'s executive arm said on Thursday. The European Commission opened its investigation five months after adding Temu to the list of "very large online platforms" needing the strictest level of scrutiny under the bloc\'s Digital Services Act. It\'s a wide-ranging rulebook designed to clean up online platforms and keep internet users safe, with the threat of hefty fin...

  People search the rubble for missing persons at the site of an Israeli strike a day earlier that hit the Al-Loh family home in Beit Lahia, in the northern Gaza Strip on Oct. 30, 2024. Gaza, Lebanon and Sudan will take decades to recover from the conflicts raging on their soil, the International Monetary Fund said on Thursday after downgrading the region\'s growth forecast. Israel\'s military actions against Hamas in the Gaza Strip and Hezbollah in Lebanon, and Sudan\'s civil war would have enduring impacts, the IMF said. "The damage caused by these conflicts will leave lasting scars at their epicenters for decades," the global lender said in a statement. The IMF has lowered its predicted growth for the Middle East and North...

  FILE - Saint Peter's Basilica is silhouetted against the sky at the Vatican, Dec. 16, 2023. The Vatican tribunal said Wednesday it convicted a cardinal of aggravated fraud and other charges because of his “objectively inexplicable behavior” in paying a self-styled intelligence analyst over a half-million euros in Vatican money that she then spent on luxury items and vacations. The city-state’s tribunal issued 816 pages of written motivations from its Dec. 16 verdicts in the Vatican’s “trial of the century.” The two-year trial of 10 people was borne out of the Holy See’s $380 million investment in a London property but grew to include a host of other financial dealings. Cardinal Angelo Becciu, a once-powerful cardinal who was the No...

  FILE - Children play with firecrackers during Diwali celebrations in New Delhi, India, on Nov. 4, 2021. NEW DELHI — As India gears up for Diwali, the Hindu festival of lights, people are divided over whether they should celebrate by setting off firecrackers, which worsen the country\'s chronic air pollution. Diwali, which will be celebrated Thursday, is marked by socializing and exchanging gifts with family and friends. Many Indians light earthen oil lamps or candles. But every year the festivities are tinged with worries over air pollution, as smoke-emitting firecrackers cause toxic smog that can take days to clear. The capital, New Delhi, which is among India\'s worst cities for air quality, is particularly impacted by the problem and...

  FILE - Papua New Guinea's Foreign Minister Justin Tkatchenko speaks during a press conference with China's Foreign Minister Wang Yi in Port Moresby, Papua New Guinea, on April 20, 2024. Papua New Guinea on Thursday declared a boycott of next month\'s UN climate summit, branding the global warming negotiations a "waste of time" full of empty promises from big polluters. While plenty have criticized the annual COP summit in the past, it is rare for any government to so totally dismiss the UN\'s premier climate talks. "There\'s no point going if we are falling asleep because of jet lag because we\'re not getting anything done," Foreign Minister Justin Tkatchenko told AFP ahead of November\'s COP29 summit in A...

  Israeli military vehicles operate during an Israeli raid in Tulkarm, in the Israeli-occupied West Bank, October 31, 2024. Palestinian health officials said an Israeli raid Thursday in the occupied West Bank killed at least three people. The operation included airstrikes in the area of the Nur Shams refugee camp. The Israeli military said it was targeting “terrorist infrastructure” and that it killed a Hamas militant who was involved in planning attacks. Since Hamas attacked southern Israel in October 2023, Israeli forces have killed at least 763 Palestinians in the West Bank, according to the Palestinian Health Ministry. Israel also issued new evacuation warnings Thursday for areas in southern Lebanon, including the Rashidiyeh refug...

  FILE - In a combo photo, Democratic presidential nominee Kamala Harris, left, speaks during a rally in Kalamazoo, Michigan, Oct. 26, 2024, and Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump speaks to supporters in Greensboro, North Carolina, Oct. 22, 2024. Washington — With domestic hot-button issues dominating the final week of the U.S. presidential campaign, any mention of the U.S.-China competition by candidates Vice President Kamala Harris and former President Donald Trump has been through the lens of domestic concerns, analysts say. "American voters are more concerned about domestic issues. Polls show that the so-called China threat ranks behind the economy, immigration, abortion, climate, democracy and other issues for voters,&...

  A TV screen shows an image of North Korean leader Kim Jong Un during a news program at the Seoul Railway Station in Seoul, South Korea, Oct. 31, 2024. SEOUL, SOUTH KOREA/TOKYO — North Korea said it tested an intercontinental ballistic missile on Thursday, upgrading what it called the "world\'s most powerful strategic weapon," as Seoul warned Pyongyang could get missile technology from Russia for helping with the war in Ukraine. North Korean leader Kim Jong Un said the test was a warning to enemies that have been threatening the country\'s security, KCNA state news agency said. "The test-fire is an appropriate military action that fully meets the purpose of informing the rivals, who have intentionally escalated the regiona...

  Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, left, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, right, and European Council President Charles Michel arrive for a group photo during an EU summit in Brussels, Oct. 17, 2024. BERLIN — The United States\' European allies are bracing for an America that\'s less interested in them no matter who wins the presidential election — and for old traumas and new problems if Donald Trump returns to the White House. The election comes more than 2 1/2 years into Russia\'s full-scale invasion of Ukraine, in which Washington has made the single biggest contribution to Kyiv\'s defense. There are question marks over whether that would continue under Trump, and how committed he would be to NATO allie...