World

  Rescue workers search for victims in the aftermath of an outdoor roof collapse at a train station in Novi Sad, Serbia, on Nov. 1, 2024. BELGRADE, SERBIA — Eight people were killed and two hospitalized on Friday when the roof of a railway station in the Serbian town of Novi Sad collapsed, Interior Minister Ivica Dacic said in a televised statement. Local television stations showed emergency services at the scene, including medical staff who were preparing stretchers nearby. Two large diggers for removing rubble were also stationed in front of the station. "It is an extremely difficult rescue operation that will last for several more hours. We have around 80 rescuers from several towns working and heavy machinery," Dacic said, a...

  FILE - A general view of snowcapped mountains and the Arctic Ocean on the coast of Svalbard near Longyearbyen, Norway, April 5, 2023. The United States is watching growing cooperation between Russia and China in the Arctic closely and some of their recent military collaboration in the region sends "concerning signals", the U.S. Arctic ambassador said. Russia and China have stepped up military cooperation in the Arctic while deepening overall ties in recent years that include China supplying Moscow with dual-use goods despite Western sanctions on Russia over the war in Ukraine. Russia and the United States are among eight countries with territory in the resource-rich Arctic. China calls itself a "near-Arctic" state ...

  Kenya's President William Ruto hands over the Kenyan constitution to Deputy President Kithure Kindiki after he took the oath of office during his swearing-in ceremony, Nov. 1, 2024. Nairobi — Kithure Kindiki was sworn in as Kenya’s deputy president Friday, less than 24 hours after a court lifted orders blocking his nomination to replace impeached DP Rigathi Gachagua, who has filed lawsuits to regain his position. In a televised ceremony at Nairobi\'s Kenyatta International Convention Center, Kindiki said he will always serve his country and will not let down President William Ruto, who appointed him. Ruto told attendees he knows his former interior minister as "a dedicated professional," and "a patriot whose dedicati...

  European Union foreign policy chief Josep Borrell, left, and Japanese Foreign Minister Takeshi Iwaya shake hands following a signing ceremony at the Iikura Guest House in Tokyo on Nov. 1, 2024. TOKYO — Japan and the European Union announced a sweeping new security and defense partnership in Tokyo on Friday. EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell hailed it as a historic and "very timely" step. Borrell and his Japanese counterpart, Takeshi Iwaya, unveiled the pact to develop cooperation on joint military drills, the exchange of information related to the defense industry and space security, among other matters. "I am extremely pleased to be here with Minister Iwaya to announce the conclusion of this security and defense part...

  Umbrella for Democratic Change (UDC) presidential candidate Duma Boko holds his ballot paper before inserting it into the box during the elections in Gaborone, Botswana, Oct. 30, 2024. GABORONE, Botswana — Botswana\'s President Mokgweetsi Masisi conceded defeat in the general election Friday, in a seismic moment of change for the county that ended the ruling party\'s 58 years in power since independence from Britain in the 1960s. Masisi\'s concession came before final results were announced, with his Botswana Democratic Party trailing in fourth place in the parliamentary elections in what appeared to be a humbling rejection by voters. The main opposition Umbrella for Democratic Change held a strong lead in the partial results, making i...

  Palestinian women react after identifying a victim killed an Israeli strike on the Nuseirat refugee camp, in front of the al-Aqsa Martyrs hospital in Deir el-Balah in the central Gaza Strip, on Nov. 1, 2024. Gaza, Gaza Strip — Forty-seven Palestinians were killed and dozens injured, most of them children and women, in overnight Israeli bombardment of the the central Gaza Strip, the Palestinian news agency WAFA reported Friday. The attacks occurred in the city of Deir Al-Balah, the Nuseirat camp and the town of Al-Zawayda, it said. The Israeli military said its troops had identified and eliminated "several armed terrorists" in central Gaza and had eliminated "dozens of terrorists" in targeted raids in northern Gaza\'...

  Police officers and State Emergency Service of Ukraine rescuers work at an apartment building damaged after an airstrike in Kharkiv, on Oct. 31, 2024. Russia\'s Defense Ministry said its defenses shot down 83 Ukrainian drones over six regions early on November 1. "36 drones were shot down over the Kursk region, 20 over the Bryansk region, 12 over Crimea, eight over the Voronezh region, four over the Oryol region, and three over the Belgorod region," the ministry said in a statement on its Telegram channel. Separately, Aleksandr Bogomaz, the governor of Bryansk, said one person was wounded when a Ukrainian drone crashed into an apartment building in the city of Bryansk. In the Stavropol region, a drone fell on an oil depot in t...

  Undated social media photo of Reza Valizadeh, a former Radio Farda journalist and Iranian American dual citizen reportedly arrested in Iran in September 2024. The Biden administration says it is looking into Iran\'s apparent recent detention of an Iranian American dual national who is the only U.S. citizen publicly reported to have been jailed by the Islamic republic since a rare U.S.-Iran prisoner swap in September 2023. Responding to a VOA inquiry last week the State Department said in a statement that it was "aware of reports that a dual U.S.-Iranian citizen has been arrested in Iran." The reports refer to Reza Valizadeh, a former journalist for VOA sister network Radio Farda who had left the Persian-language network in 20...

  FILE - The Russian flag flies above the Embassy of the Russian Federation, near the Glover Park neighborhood of Washington, Feb. 22, 2022. moscow — A Russian former employee of the U.S. Consulate in Russia\'s Far Eastern city of Vladivostok has been sentenced to four years and 10 months in prison for "secret collaboration with a foreign state," Russian agencies said Friday. Robert Shonov worked for more than 25 years for the U.S. Consulate until 2021, when Moscow imposed restrictions on local staff working for foreign missions. Afterward, he worked as a private contractor compiling news accounts from publicly accessible Russian media, according to the U.S. State Department. He was arrested this year on suspicion of passing sec...

  In this photo released by Russian Foreign Ministry Press Service on Nov. 1, 2024, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov, right, speaks with North Korean Foreign Minister Choe Son Hui in Moscow. moscow — North Korean Foreign Minister Choe Son Hui has arrived in Moscow and will hold strategic consultations with her Russian counterpart Sergei Lavrov on Friday, the Russian Foreign Ministry said. Maria Zakharova, a spokesperson for the ministry, in a post on her official Telegram channel, published photographs of Lavrov meeting Choe at a Moscow train station. "Today, talks between the heads of Russia and the DPRK (Democratic People\'s Republic of Korea) will be held in Moscow. Sergei Lavrov greeted his counterpart with a bouquet of flo...