World

  Bulldozers remove the rubble of a destroyed building that was hit Sunday night in an Israeli airstrike in Dahiyeh, in the southern suburb of Beirut, Lebanon, Nov. 25, 2024. Washington — The United States is close to securing a ceasefire agreement between Israel and Lebanon-based Hezbollah militants, according to officials from the White House and the State Department. Speaking to reporters during a press call on Monday, national security spokesperson John Kirby described recent talks in Beirut led by U.S. envoy Amos Hochstein as "constructive," adding, "We believe that the trajectory of this is going in a very positive direction." In New York on Monday, Israel\'s ambassador to the United Nations, Danny Danon, said ...

  FILE - Italian Foreign Minister Antonio Tajani addresses the "Italy Ukraine business forum" in Rome, Nov. 20, 2024. ROME — Foreign ministers from the world’s leading industrialized nations are meeting Monday, with the wars in Ukraine and the Middle East entering decisive phases and a certain pressure to advance diplomatic efforts ahead of the new U.S. administration taking over. Hopes for brokering a cease-fire in Gaza and Lebanon are foremost on the agenda of the Group of Seven meeting outside Rome that is gathering ministers from Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, the United Kingdom and the United States. On the first day of the two-day gathering Monday, the G7 will be joined by ministers from Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Jorda...

  Rescuers search for missing people after a deadly landslide in Karo, North Sumatra, Indonesia, Nov. 25, 2024. KARO, Indonesia — Rescuers in Indonesia recovered 16 bodies under tons of mud and rocks or that were swept away in flash floods that hit mountainside villages on Sumatra Island, officials said Monday. Six people are still missing, officials said. Mud, rocks and trees tumbled down a mountain after torrential rains over the weekend and rivers burst their banks, tearing through four hilly districts in North Sumatra province, washing away houses and destroying farms. Police, soldiers and rescue workers used excavators, farm equipment and their bare hands to sift through the rubble looking for the dead and missing in Semangat Gunung,...

  FILE - South African writer and anti-apartheid activist Breyten Breytenbach receives the 2017 Zbigniew Herbert International Literary Award at a ceremony in Warsaw, Poland, May 25, 2017. He died in Paris, his family announced on Nov. 24, 2024. JOHANNESBURG — South African writer and poet Breyten Breytenbach, a staunch opponent of the former white-minority government\'s apartheid policy of racial oppression, has died in Paris, his family announced on Sunday. He was 85. Breytenbach was a celebrated wordsmith, a leading voice in literature in Afrikaans — an offshoot of Dutch that was developed by white settlers — and a fierce critic of apartheid that was imposed against the country\'s Black majority between 1948 and 1990. He moved to Par...

  A municipal worker inspects a house damaged by a Russian drone strike, amid Russia's attack on Ukraine, in Zaporizhzhia, Ukraine, Nov. 25, 2024. Ukrainian officials said Monday a Russian attack on the northeastern city of Kharkiv injured at least 19 people. Oleh Syniehubov, governor of the Kharkiv region, said on Telegram that Russian forces hit a courtyard in central Kharkiv, damaging more than 40 houses. In Ukraine’s Odesa region, Governor Oleh Kiper said a rocket attack hit the city of Odesa and that there were casualties.   This photograph taken on Nov. 25, 2024 shows damaged cars in the courtyard of a destroyed building following a missile attack in Odesa. Another Russian attack, in the Zaporizhzhia region, injured a child and damaged several houses, accordin...

  A Cambodian Mine Action Center, CMAC, staff member checks a mine detector at a minefield in Preytotoeung village, Battambang province, Cambodia, Jan. 19, 2023. PHNOM PENH, Cambodia — The U.N. head, Pope Francis and others called Monday for nations to end the production and use of land mines, even as their deployment globally grows. U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said in a message to delegates at the fifth review of the International Mine Ban Treaty, also known as the Ottawa Convention, that 25 years after it went into force some parties had renewed the use of antipersonnel mines and some are falling behind in their commitments to destroy the weapons. "I call on states parties to meet their obligations and ensure complianc...

  Pamela Tremont, the U.S. ambassador to Zimbabwe, speaks to reporters in Harare, Nov. 25, 2024. She urged the nation to pursue reforms that she said would deliver Zimbabwe’s people the prosperity and dignity they deserve. (Columbus Mavhunga/VOA) Harare, ZIMBABWE — The United States is urging the Zimbabwe government to double down on reforms aimed at returning the country to the prosperity it once enjoyed. Speaking to reporters in Harare on Monday, Pamela Tremont, the U.S. ambassador to Zimbabwe, said her country wants to have cordial relations with the southern African nation. She urged the government to pursue political and financial reforms that she said would deliver Zimbabwe’s people the prosperity and dignity they deserve. "We...

  Philippine Vice President Sara Duterte talks to reporters at the House of Representatives in Quezon City, Philippines November 25, 2024. MANILA, PHILIPPINES — Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. on Monday described a public threat by the vice president to have him killed by an assassin as a criminal plot and vowed to fight it, in a looming showdown between the country\'s two top leaders. Vice President Sara Duterte said Saturday in an online news conference that she has contracted an assassin to kill the president, his wife and the speaker of the House of Representatives if she herself is killed, in a threat she warned was not a joke. The national police and military immediately boosted the security of the president, and the just...

  Firefighters and security officers gather at a destroyed building hit in an Israeli airstrike in Damascus, Syria, Nov. 14, 2024. Strikes carried out by Israel in recent weeks in Syria have significantly weakened Iranian-backed militant groups, though they continue to pose a threat, experts say. Since the start of the war in Gaza in October 2023, and the ongoing hostilities between Israel and the militant group Hezbollah in Lebanon, Israeli strikes in Syria have become more frequent, according to monitoring groups. The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (SOHR), which has researchers across Syria, reported last week it has documented over 150 Israeli strikes in Syria so far in 2024. The strikes have hit targets belonging t...

  Namibia's vice president Netumbo Nandi-Ndaitwah, center, of the ruling South West Africa People's Organization, (SWAPO) attends an election rally in Windhoek, Namibia, Nov. 24, 2024, ahead of elections Nov. 27, 2024. OSHAKATI, Namibia — Namibia\'s Vice President Netumbo Nandi-Ndaitwah could become the country\'s first female president if she wins the presidential election Wednesday. At least 1.4 million people, or about half of the population, have registered to vote in the elections, with 15 political parties running for president and seats in the National Assembly. Results from special early polls held for Namibia \'s foreign missions, seamen and security services announced by the Electoral Commission of Namibia this month ...