World News - The Morning Sun

$FILE - Opposition lawmakers demanding a statement from Prime Minister Narendra Modi on the violence in Manipur state carry placards and a banner with name of "INDIA" outside the Parliament building in New Delhi, India, Monday, July 24, 2023. India’s fractured opposition parties have joined forces in a rare show of unity and formed an alliance called 'INDIA' to unseat the popular but polarizing prime minister Narendra Modi and his Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party. Last week, more than two dozen parties joined the alliance, named the Indian National Developmental Inclusive Alliance which is called INDIA for short. (AP Photo, File)$

An alliance of Indian opposition parties — called INDIA — joins forces to take on Modi

India’s fractured opposition parties have joined forces in a rare show of unity and formed an alliance to unseat the popular but polarizing prime minister Narendra Modi and his Hindu nationalist … more

By SHEIKH SAALIQ | 7/26/23

In this photo provided by the Philippine Coast Guard, stranded passengers stay at passenger terminal after sea travel was suspended due to Typhoon Doksuri in Manila, Philippines on Tuesday July 25, 2023. The powerful typhoon blew closer to the northern Philippines on Tuesday, forcing thousands of evacuations and a halt to sea travel ahead of torrential rains and tidal surges up to 3 meters (nearly 10 feet). (Philippine Coast Guard via AP)

Typhoon blows off roofs, floods villages and displaces thousands in northern Philippines

Typhoon Doksuri has ripped tin roofs off of homes, flooded low-lying villages, knocked out power and displaced more than 12,000 people as it smashes into a small island and lashes northern Philippine … more

By JIM GOMEZ | 7/25/23

U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken, left, shakes hands with Tonga's Prime Minister Tonga's Prime Minister Siaosi Sovaleni in Nuku'alofa, Tonga Wednesday, July 26, 2023. (Tupou Vaipulu/Pool Photo via AP)

Blinken visits tiny Tonga as US continues diplomatic push to counter China in the Pacific

Secretary of State Antony Blinken is visiting the tiny kingdom of Tonga as the United States continues to increase its diplomatic efforts in the Pacific while China’s influence in the region grows. … more

By NICK PERRY | 7/25/23

In this photo provided by the Department of Biodiversity, Conservation and Attractions, a pod of long-finned pilot whales gather closely near Cheynes Beach east of Albany, Australia, Tuesday, July 25, 2023. Nearly 100 pilot whales stranded themselves on the beach in western Australia Tuesday, and about half had died by Wednesday morning, despite the efforts of wildlife experts and volunteers to save them. (DBCA via AP)

Nearly 100 pilot whales strand themselves on an Australian beach. Half have died despite efforts

Nearly 100 pilot whales have stranded themselves on a beach in western Australia, and about half had died by Wednesday morning, despite the efforts of wildlife experts and volunteers to save them. … more

7/25/23

FILE - Li Hongzhong, Communist Party secretary of Tianjin, attends a group discussion session held on the sidelines of the annual meeting of China's National People's Congress (NPC) in the Tibet Hall of the Great Hall of the People in Beijing, Wednesday, March 6, 2019. Both Russia and China are sending government delegations to North Korea this week for events marking the 70th anniversary of the armistice that halted fighting in the 1950-53 Korean War. China’s ruling Communist Party is sending a mid-level official, Li Hongzhong, in hopes of restoring exchanges between the allies. (AP Photo/Mark Schiefelbein, File)

Chinese and Russian officials to join North Korean commemorations of Korean War armistice

Both Russia and China are sending government delegations to North Korea this week for events marking the 70th anniversary of the armistice that halted fighting in the 1950-53 Korean War. The visits … more

7/25/23

FILE - In this handout image taken from a video released by Prigozhin Press Service on Friday, May 5, 2023, head of Wagner Group Yevgeny Prigozhin stands in front of multiple bodies lying on the ground in an unknown location. Britain has “underplayed and underestimated” the threat posed by Wagner and should ban the Russian mercenary group as a terrorist organization, a powerful committee of U.K. lawmakers said Wednesday, July 26. (Prigozhin Press Service via AP, File)

Lawmakers say the UK should ban Russia's Wagner as a terrorist group

British lawmakers say the U.K. has underestimated the threat posed by the Russian Wagner mercenary group and should ban it as a terrorist organization. The House of Commons Foreign Affairs Committee … more

By JILL LAWLESS | 7/25/23

Ensconced in a glass cage lined with bamboo shoots, the first panda ever born in France bid ‘’adieu’’ to the French zoo where it grew up and set off Tuesday for its new home in China. (July 25)

First panda born in France says goodbye and heads to China

The first panda ever born in France bid farewell to the French zoo where it grew up and set off Tuesday for its new home in China. The 264-pound panda peered out of the cage as staff at the Beauval … more

7/25/23

Police check a vehicle and its driver during the start of a curfew decreed by Ecuador´s President Guillermo Lasso to try to reduce the ongoing wave of violence in Manta, Ecuador, Monday, July 24, 2023. (AP Photo/Dolores Ochoa)

Ecuador suspends rights of assembly in some areas, deploys soldiers to prisons amid violence wave

Ecuador President Guillermo Lasso is again making use of the executive’s power to suspend some of people’s rights and mobilize the military in an attempt to quell the most recent spike in … more

7/25/23

FILE - An elderly Kashmiri man walks on a road damaged by flash floods after a cloudburst on the outskirts of Srinagar, Indian controlled Kashmir, July 22, 2023. Such intense rainfall events, especially when more than 10 centimeters (3.94 inches) of rainfall occurs within a 10 square kilometers (3.86 square miles) region within an hour are called cloudbursts and have potential to wreak havoc, causing intense flooding and landslides that affect thousands in mountain regions. (AP Photo/Dar Yasin, File)

What are cloudbursts and is climate change making them more frequent?

Intense rainfall in the Himalayan regions of India’s Kashmir state and adjacent mountainous cold desert of Ladakh earlier this week destroyed roads and caused flooding of dozens of villages. Such … more

By AIJAZ HUSSAIN and SIBI ARASU | 7/25/23

FILE - Candles and flowers surround an image of Debanhi Escobar, an 18-year-old who was found dead in a motel's water tank days after getting out of a taxi on a dark highway near the northern city of Monterrey, during a protest against Escobar's disappearance and other women who have gone missing at the Attorney General's office in Mexico City, April 22, 2022. The most reliable count shows that homicides in Mexico declined significantly for the first time in several years in 2022, Mexico’s National Statistics Institute said Tuesday, July 25, 2023. (AP Photo/Eduardo Verdugo, File)

Mexico's homicide rate dropped in 2022, but appears to flatline in 2023, official figures show

The most reliable count shows that homicides in Mexico declined for the first time in several years in 2022, but the number appears to have flatlined in the first half of 2023. Mexico's National … more

7/25/23

FILE - Demonstrators hold a poster of former Catalan regional president Carles Puigdemont outside the European Parliament in Strasbourg, eastern France, on July 2, 2019. Nearly six years ago, the leader of Catalonia's failed secession bid slipped secretly across the Spanish border to escape arrest and start a life of a self-styled political exile. Now, Carles Puigdemont, after eluding repeated extradition attempts by Spanish justice, has the future of Spain’s government in his hands. (AP Photo/Jean-Francois Badias, File)

A fugitive Catalan separatist may hold the key to Spain's government after an inconclusive election

Nearly six years ago, the leader of Catalonia’s failed secession bid slipped secretly across the Spanish border to escape arrest and start a life as a self-styled political exile. Now, Carles … more

By JOSEPH WILSON and DAVID BRUNAT | 7/25/23

Security personnel inspect the site of suicide bomber attack inside a roadside mosque in the Khyber district in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province, of Pakistan, Tuesday, July 25, 2023. A suicide bomber blew himself up inside a roadside mosque when a police officer tried to arrest him after a chase in northwestern Pakistan near the Afghan border on Tuesday, killing the officer, police said. (AP Photo/Muhammad Sajjad)

Police officer killed as suicide bomber detonates explosive vest at mosque in northwest Pakistan

Pakistani police say a suicide bomber detonated his explosive vest inside a roadside mosque when a police officer tried to arrest him after a chase in northwestern Pakistan, killing the officer. It … more

7/25/23

FILE - Myanmar's leader Aung San Suu Kyi, left, attends the bilateral meeting with Chinese President Xi Jinping at the president house in Naypyitaw Myanmar, on Jan. 18, 2020. Myanmar’s military-controlled government plans to transfer the country’s ousted leader Aung San Suu Kyi from a prison in the capital Naypyitaw to home confinement as part of an act of clemency to be granted prisoners in connection with a religious ceremony on Aug. 1, a security official said Tuesday July 25, 2023. (Nyein Chan Naing/Pool Photo via AP, File)

Myanmar's military plans to move Suu Kyi to house arrest, according to unofficial reports

Reports from Myanmar say its military-controlled government plans to transfer the country’s ousted leader Aung San Suu Kyi from a prison in the capital of Naypyitaw to home confinement as part of … more

By GRANT PECK | 7/25/23

People inspect burnt vehicles after raging wildfires, in Bouira, 100 km from Algiers, Algeria, Monday, July 24, 2023. Wildfires raging across Algeria have killed at least 25 people, including soldiers trying to get the flames under control in the face of high winds and scorching summer temperatures, government ministries said Monday. (AP Photo)

Wildfires in Algeria leave at least 34 people dead and hundreds injured

Authorities and local media say fires raging through forests, mountain villages and towns in northern Algeria have left at least 34 people dead. The local radio station keeping track of the grim toll … more

7/25/23

FILE- Beauticians put makeup on customers at Ms. Sadat's Beauty Salon in Kabul, Afghanistan, Sunday, April 25, 2021. The one-month dateline given to women beauty salons ban in Afghanistan ended Tuesday, July 25, 2023. Taliban say that beauty salons must stop their activities otherwise their licenses will be cancelled. Sadiq Akif Mahjer, the spokesman for the Taliban-run Virtue and Vice Ministry says Tuesday that if they do not obey the orders of the ministry, their licenses will be cancelled by the municipality. (AP Photo/Rahmat Gul, File)

Taliban bans beauty salons in Afghanistan despite UN concern and rare public protest

The Taliban has announced that all beauty salons in Afghanistan must now close as a one-month deadline ended, despite rare public opposition to the edict. A spokesman for the Taliban-run Virtue and … more

By RAHIM FAIEZ | 7/25/23

FILE - First lady Jill Biden speaks during an event with the National Education Association in the South Court Auditorium on the White House campus, Tuesday, July 4, 2023, in Washington. Biden will join other VIPs and speak at a ceremony Tuesday, July 25, at the headquarters of the United Nations Scientific, Educational and Cultural Organization. The American flag will be raised to mark the U.S. return to membership after a five-year absence. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci, File)

First Lady Jill Biden to mark US reentry into UNESCO with flag-raising ceremony in Paris

United States First Lady Jill Biden is in Paris to attend a flag-raising ceremony at UNESCO, marking the United States’ official reentry into the United Nations’ educational, scientific and … more

By THOMAS ADAMSON | 7/25/23

FILE - A forensics officer works in front of the damaged Zaventem Airport terminal in Brussels, March 23, 2016 . A jury is expected to render its verdict Tuesday, July 25, 2023 over Belgium’s deadliest peacetime attack. The suicide bombings at the Brussels airport and a busy subway station in 2016 killed 32 people in a wave of attacks in Europe claimed by the Islamic State group. Among the 10 defendants is Salah Abdeslam, serving a life sentence in France over his role in 2015 Paris attacks. (AP Photo/Geert Vanden Wijngaert, Pool, FIle)

Jury to deliver verdict over Brussels extremist attacks that killed 32

A jury is expected to render its verdict Tuesday over Belgium’s deadliest peacetime attack. The suicide bombings at the Brussels airport and a busy subway station in 2016 killed 32 people in a wave … more

7/25/23

FILE - Injured people are helped at a street near the scene of a crush in Seoul, South Korea, on Oct. 30, 2022. South Korea’s Constitutional Court on Tuesday, July 25, 2023 rejected an attempt by lawmakers to oust the country’s public safety minister over the Halloween crowd surge that killed nearly 160 people last October at a nightlife district in the capital, Seoul. (AP Photo/Lee Jin-man, File)

South Korean court overturns impeachment of government minister ousted over deadly crowd crush

South Korea’s Constitutional Court has overturned the impeachment of the public safety minister ousted over a Halloween crowd surge that killed nearly 160 people last October at a nightlife … more

By KIM TONG-HYUNG | 7/25/23

A man works on the rubble of an apartment building destroyed in Russian missile attacks in Odesa, Ukraine, Sunday, July 23, 2023. In just a week, Russia has fired more than 125 missiles and drones at the Odesa region, hitting the historic city center that had been largely spared since the beginning of the war. (AP Photo/Jae C. Hong)

Anger grows in Ukraine's port city of Odesa after Russian bombardment hits beloved historic sites

In just a week, Russia has fired dozens of missiles and drones at the Odesa region of Ukraine, hitting the historic city center that had been largely spared since the beginning of the war. Among the … more

By HANNA ARHIROVA and LORI HINNANT | 7/25/23

Strong typhoon blows closer to northern Philippines, forcing evacuations and halting sea travel

A powerful typhoon is blowing closer to the northern Philippines, forcing thousands of evacuations and a halt to sea travel ahead of torrential rains and tidal surges near 10 feet. The strongest … more

7/25/23