World

  FILE - A pregnant woman stands for a portrait in Dallas, Texas, May 18, 2023. A Chinese woman's account of how she was lured into China's illegal surrogacy industry before suffering a miscarriage went viral on Chinese social media this week. BEIJING/HONG KONG — A 22-year-old Chinese woman\'s account of how she was lured into the country\'s illegal surrogacy industry before suffering a miscarriage went viral on Chinese social media this week and raised heated debates over women\'s rights and social inequality. Surrogacy is banned in China, and authorities have vowed to severely crack down on illegal practices, including the buying and selling of sperm, egg and surrogacy services. The incident comes as Chinese authorities grapple with how to increase the country\'s birth ra...

  FILE - A photo taken on July 1, 2022, shows the facilities of the Haidach gas storage station near Strasswalchen, Austria. Russia will stop delivering gas to Austria as of Nov. 16, 2024, said a spokesperson for OMV, the Alpine nation's energy company. VIENNA — Russia’s state-owned natural gas company Gazprom stopped supplies to Austria early Saturday, according to the Vienna-based utility OMV, after OMV said it would stop payments for the gas following an arbitration award. The official cutoff of supplies before dawn Saturday came after Austrian Chancellor Karl Nehammer on Friday held a hastily called news conference to emphasize that his country has a secure supply of alternative fuel for this winter. OMV said it would stop paying...

  FILE - This screen grab taken from a handout video released by the Israeli government press office shows Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu attending a meeting in the command center of the defense ministry in Tel Aviv on Oct. 26, 2024. CAIRO — Two flash bombs were fired toward Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu\'s home in the northern Israeli town of Caesarea on Saturday and fell into the garden, police said. Neither Netanyahu nor his family were present and there was no damage reported, it added in a statement. Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz said the incident crossed "all red lines" in a post on X early on Sunday. "It is not possible for the Prime Minister of Israel, who is threatened by Iran and its proxies who are trying to assassinate him, to be subject...

  FILE - European Union High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy Josep Borrell arrives to attend a Foreign Affairs Council meeting at the EU headquarters in Brussels on May 27, 2024. Brussels — Josep Borrell took a deep breath as the train rumbled across Ukraine at the end of his final visit after five tumultuous years as the EU\'s foreign policy chief. "I feel a certain nostalgia," the 77-year-old Spaniard said, hunching forward to be heard over the noise of the tracks. "We\'ve been working closely with these people, who are great people, who are fighting for their survival,” he said. “And who knows what\'s going to happen with them?" The job of EU top diplomat has often been seen as thankless — try...

  Australian Defense Minister Richard Marles speaks during a news conference at the AUKUS Defense Ministers Meeting at Old Royal Naval College, Greenwich, London, Sept. 26, 2024. Sydney — Australia, Japan and the U.S. on Sunday committed to closer military cooperation in training their forces as the countries deepened their ties in a bid to counter China\'s military strength. Australia\'s minister of defense, Richard Marles, hosted U.S. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin and Japan\'s Defense Minister Gen Nakatani on Sunday for the trilateral ministers\' meeting -- the first to be held in Australia. Under the new agreement, Japan\'s Amphibious Rapid Deployment Brigade -- an elite marine unit -- will be deployed to Darwin to regularly work and ...

  Protesters gather outside the parliament building of the Georgian separatist region of Abkhazia as tensions flared over a proposed measure that would allow Russians to buy property in the region, in Sukhumi, Georgia, on Nov. 15, 2024. (AIASHARA Independent Agency via AP) TBILISI, GEORGIA — Opposition protesters in Georgia\'s breakaway province of Abkhazia have refused to cede control of key government buildings that demonstrators stormed to protest new measures allowing Russians to buy property in the area. Abkhazian President Aslan Bzhania announced Saturday that he would step down and hold early elections if demonstrators vacated the region\'s parliament building. But crowds that gathered in the Abkhazian capital, Sukhumi, rejected th...

  Chilies are harvested in a plot that is part of a climate-smart agriculture program funded by the U.S. Agency for International Development in Chipinge, Zimbabwe, Sept. 19 2024. CHIPINGE, Zimbabwe — Gertrude Siduna appears to have little appetite for corn farming season. Rather than prepare her land in Zimbabwe\'s arid southeastern Chipinge district for the crop that has fed her family for generations — and bitter about repeated droughts that have decimated yields — she turns her thoughts to the prices for chilies and techniques for growing them. "I pick my chilies from the fields and take them to the processing center close to my home. It\'s simple," said Siduna, 49. She\'s received about $400 from the drought-resistant crop...

  Traditional containers to keep Japanese sake are placed for decorations at a room shown during a media tour at the Ozawa Sake Brewery in Ome, on the western outskirts of Tokyo, Nov. 13, 2024. OME, Japan — Deep in a dark warehouse the sake sleeps, stored in rows of giant tanks, each holding more than 10,000 liters of the Japanese rice wine that is the product of brewing techniques dating back more than 1,000 years. Junichiro Ozawa, the 18th-generation head of Ozawa Brewery, founded in 1702, hopes sake-brewing will win recognition as a UNESCO Intangible Cultural Heritage, when the decision is made next month. "We always think about the people who\'re enjoying our sake when we make it. I\'m now so excited, imagining the faces of all t...

  FILE - People clear mud from a street in an area affected by floods in Catarroja, Spain, Nov. 4, 2024. The October 29 disaster marked the country's deadliest floods in decades. A total of 224 people were killed nationwide, with 216 of them in Valencia. Valencia, Spain — The head of Spain\'s eastern Valencia region admitted Friday to "mistakes" in handing the country\'s deadliest flood in decades that killed 216 people there. "I\'m not going to deny mistakes," Carlos Mazon told the regional parliament in an address, adding he was "not going to shirk any responsibility." As the head of the regional government "I would like to apologize" to those who "felt" that "the aid did not...

  Equipment damaged by fire lies inside a neonatal intensive care unit at Jhansi Medical College hospital in Jhansi, India, Nov. 15, 2024. LUCKNOW, India — A fire tore through a neonatal intensive care unit in a hospital in northern India, killing 10 newborn babies and injuring 16 others, authorities said. The fire occurred late Friday at a hospital in Jhansi city in India\'s Uttar Pradesh state. Officials said the blaze spread quickly through the ward, where 55 infants were being treated. Forty-five babies were rescued and are receiving medical care, said Bimal Kumar Dubey, a local official. It was not immediately clear what sparked the blaze. Brajesh Pathak, the deputy chief minister of the state, visited the hospital and met with fami...