DUBAI, United Arab Emirates — Iran and the United States will exchange prisoners on Monday after some $6 billion once frozen in South Korea reached Qatar, a key element of the planned swap, officials said. Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman Nasser Kanaani was the first to acknowledge the swap would take place Monday. He said the cash sought for the exchange was now in Qatar. An individual with direct knowledge of the deal, who spoke to The Associated Press on condition of anonymity given t

World News Sept. 18, 2023

A rare, powerful earthquake struck Morocco, sending people racing from their beds into the streets and toppling buildings in mountainous villages and ancient cities not built to withstand such force. More than 2,000 people were killed, and the toll was expected to rise as rescuers struggled Saturday to reach hard-hit remote areas. The magnitude 6.8 quake, the biggest to hit the North African country in 120 years, sent people fleeing their homes in terror and disbelief late Friday. One man said d

Foreign Affairs Sept. 10, 2023

RABAT, Morocco — A powerful earthquake struck Morocco late Friday, damaging buildings in major cities and sending panicked people pouring into streets and alleyways from the capital Rabat to Marrakech, the county's most visited tourist destination. There was no immediate word on whether there were any injuries or deaths. Government officials had made no comment on the extent of the quake’s impact as of early Saturday. Moroccans posted videos showing some buildings turned to ru

World News Sept. 9, 2023

WASHINGTON (AP) -- The founder of North Korea’s ruling dynasty, an isolationist totalitarian leader named Kim Il Sung, was still building some of the country’s first nuclear facilities when Syd Seiler arrived on the Korean Peninsula as a young US military intelligence officer. Over the four decades since, Seiler has watched closely as Kim, his son and now his grandson have clung to their nuclear program and developed the potential to lob nuclear warheads at the US and its allies if t

North Korea Sept. 8, 2023

LONDON — The European Union is targeting Apple, Amazon, Microsoft, Google parent Alphabet, Facebook owner Meta and TikTok parent ByteDance under new digital rules aimed at reining in the market power of online companies. The six companies were classified Wednesday as online "gatekeepers" that must face the highest level of scrutiny under the 27-nation bloc's Digital Markets Act. The act amounts to a list of do's and don'ts that seeks to prevent tech giants from c

World Business Sept. 6, 2023

SEOUL, South Korea (AP) — North Korean leader Kim Jong Un severely rebuked his premier and other senior officials over their “irresponsible” response to recent flooding that inundated farmlands, state media reported Tuesday. Summer floods in North Korea often cause serious damage to its agricultural sector due to poor drainage and deforestation. Observers say Kim’s lambasting of top officials likely aims to shift blame for the country’s worsened economic hardships

North Korea Aug. 22, 2023

EINDHOVEN, Netherlands (AP) — Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy arrived in the Netherlands on Sunday, two days after the country said the United States had given its approval for Dutch and Danish authorities to deliver F-16 fighter jets to Ukraine's air force. Zelenskyy is meeting Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte at a military air base in the southern city of Eindhoven. The Ukrainian leader was in Sweden a day earlier. The U.S. approval Friday for the Netherlands and Denmark to d

World News Aug. 20, 2023

The capital of Canada's Northwest Territories was virtually deserted after nearly all the residents of the city of just over 20,000 fled as a huge wildfire burned nearby. To the south, in British Columbia, thousands more people were told to leave their homes while firefighters battled a growing fire that set homes ablaze. Officials in Northwest Territories said Friday evening that about 19,000 people had left Yellowknife in less than 48 hours, with about 15,000 driving out in convoys and 3,

World News Aug. 19, 2023

President Joe Biden and first lady Jill Biden arrived in Nevada late Friday for more rest and relaxation. The first couple is renting a private home on Lake Tahoe, the massive alpine lake that abuts California and Nevada and is a tourist attraction, particularly in the winter for its ski resorts. The president flew there from Camp David, where he hosted a summit Friday with the leaders of South Korea and Japan. The home in the Glenbrook community belongs to Tom Steyer and Kat Taylor. Steyer is

World News Aug. 19, 2023

President Joe Biden marked the historic summit with Japan and South Korea at Camp David on Friday by saying that “our countries are stronger and the world is safer … as we stand together.” He described the meeting as the first standalone summit among leaders of the three countries. Addressing South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol and Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida , Biden said, “I want to thank you both for your political courage that brought you here.” He ad

Foreign Affairs Aug. 19, 2023

North Korea appears to have cracked open its borders in the first significant way since they were shut at the start of the COVID-19 pandemic in early 2020, with the impoverished nation sending a large group of taekwondo athletes and officials through Beijing to an international competition. The group of around 80 men and women wearing white track suits with the North Korean flag on the front were in the departure hall of Beijing’s international airport. They reportedly arrived Wednesday or

North Korea Aug. 18, 2023

China is renewing its criticism of this weekend’s summit among the leaders of the US, Japan and South Korea, saying no country should “seek its own security at the expense of the security interests of others and of regional peace and stability.” “The international community has its own judgment as to who is creating contradictions and increasing tensions,” Foreign Ministry spokesperson Wang Wenbin told reporters at a daily briefing Friday. “Attempts to form va

Foreign Affairs Aug. 18, 2023

LAHAINA, Hawaii — Survivors of deadly wildfires on Maui contended with intermittent power and unreliable cell service as they sought help rebuilding their lives. Teams of people, meanwhile, labored to find the dead and identify them. With the death toll already at 106 , a mobile morgue unit with additional coroners arrived in Hawaii on Tuesday to help with the grim task of sorting through remains. The governor warned that a new storm could complicate the search and recovery. A week after

World Business Aug. 16, 2023

Russia thwarted an attack by 20 Ukrainian drones targeting Moscow-annexed Crimea overnight, the Russian Defense Ministry said Saturday. Fourteen drones were shot down by Russian air defenses and a further six were jammed electronically, the ministry said in a Telegram post. No casualties or damage were reported. Kyiv officials neither confirmed nor denied Ukraine’s involvement in the attacks. As videos circulated on Russian social media Saturday appearing to show smoke rising above a bridg

World News Aug. 13, 2023

MILAN -- During Europe's heat wave last month, Floriana Peroni’s vintage clothing store had to close for a week. A truck of rented generators blocked her door as they fed power to the central Roman neighborhood hit by a blackout as temperatures surged. The main culprit: air conditioning. The period -- in which temperatures hit 40 degrees Celsius -- coincided with peak electricity use that came close to Italy’s all-time high, hitting a peak load of more than 59 gigawatts on Jul

World News Aug. 2, 2023