BEIJING (AP) - China's leader Xi Jinping welcomed Russia's President Vladimir Putin at an official ceremony Thursday as he opened a state visit to China. Putin's visit comes as Russia has become more economically dependent on China following Moscow's full-scale invasion of Ukraine more than two years ago. Putin is expe...

WASHINGTON (AP) - The Supreme Court on Wednesday ordered Louisiana to hold congressional elections in 2024 using a House map with a second mostly Black district, despite a lower-court ruling that called the map an illegal racial gerrymander. The order allows the use of a map that has majority Black populations in two o...

WASHINGTON (AP) - The number of reported sexual assaults across the military decreased last year, and a confidential survey found a 19% drop in the number of service members who said they had experienced some type of unwanted sexual contact, according to new figures obtained by The Associated Press. Both are dramatic r...

GUATEMALA CITY (AP) - A Guatemalan court ordered the release Wednesday of journalist José Rubén Zamora, jailed for nearly 2 years on money laundering charges. Zamora, the 67-year-old founder of El Periodico newspaper, was sentenced to six years in prison last June for alleged money laundering. But that co...

It was untreated anxiety and depression that Colorado Avalanche defenseman Samuel Girard blamed for his alcohol abuse, a problem that reached the point where he needed to step away from hockey. He made a decision to leave the Avalanche and enter the NHL/NHLPA player assistance program earlier this season. Girard return...

KYIV, Ukraine (AP) - Ukrainian forces withdrew from some parts of the country's northeast and battled Russian troops in other areas Wednesday, as President Volodymyr Zelenskyy's decision to postpone all his upcoming foreign trips underscored the seriousness of the threat his soldiers face. Against that grim backdrop, v...

BUDAPEST, Hungary (AP) - Slovakian Prime Minister Robert Fico is in life-threatening condition after being wounded in a shooting after a political event Wednesday afternoon, an episode of violence that punctuated his long career spanning decades in politics. Fico, 59, returned to power in Slovakia last year. Having pre...

BRATISLAVA, Slovakia (AP) - Slovakia's populist Prime Minister Robert Fico was wounded in a shooting Wednesday afternoon and taken to hospital. Reports on TA3, a Slovakian TV station, said that Fico, 59, was hit in the stomach after four shots were fired outside the House of Culture in the town of Handlova, some 150 ki...

KUALA LUMPUR, Malaysia (AP) - Singapore's deputy leader Lawrence Wong was sworn in Wednesday as the nation's fourth prime minister in a carefully planned political succession designed to ensure continuity and stability in the Asian financial hub. A U.S.-trained economist, Wong, 51, succeeds Lee Hsien Loong, 72, who ste...

WASHINGTON (AP) - President Joe Biden said Wednesday on social media that he won't participate in the campaign debates sponsored by a nonpartisan commission, instead challenging Republican Donald Trump to a pair of debates. "Donald Trump lost two debates to me in 2020," Biden posted on X, the site formerly kn...