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TAIPEI, Taiwan (AP) — Taiwan will extend its compulsory military service from four months to a year starting in 2024, President Tsai Ing-wen said Tuesday, as the self-ruled island faces China’s military, diplomatic and trade pressure. Taiwan, which split from the mainland in 1949 during a civil war, is claimed by China. The decades-old threat of invasion by China into the self-governed island has sharpened since China cut off communications […]

BEIJING (AP) — Companies welcomed China’s decision to end quarantines for travelers from abroad as an important step to revive slumping business activity while Japan on Tuesday announced restrictions on visitors from the country as infections surge. The ruling Communist Party’s abrupt decision to lift some of the world’s strictest anti-virus controls comes as it tries reverse an economic downturn. It has ended curbs that confined millions of people to […]

JERUSALEM (AP) — Israel’s largest medical center and healthcare workers from hospitals around the country have spoken out against remarks by allies of Benjamin Netanyahu calling for a law to allow discrimination against LGBTQ people in hospitals and businesses. It was part of a broader blowback against remarks made this week by Religious Zionism politicians calling for legal discrimination against LGBTQ people. Netanyahu’s new government — the most religious and […]

TOKYO (AP) — Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida announced Tuesday that Japan will tighten border controls against COVID-19 by requiring tests for all visitors from China starting Friday as a temporary emergency measure against the surging infections there. The announcement comes days after the World Health Organization said it was very concerned about rising reports of severe cases across China after the country largely abandoned its “zero-COVID” policy. The quantitative […]

CAIRO (AP) — A passenger bus slammed into a parked truck on a highway in the Sudanese city of Omdurman early on Tuesday, killing at least 16 people, police said. The bus swerved off the road and hit a parked truck in Omdurman, the twin city of the capital, Khartoum, according to a police statement. At least 19 people were injured in the accident, police said. The bus was heading […]

KABUL, Afghanistan (AP) — The Islamic State group has claimed responsibility for a car bombing that killed a local police chief in Afghanistan. The IS regional affiliate — known as the Islamic State in Khorasan Province — has increased its attacks since the Taliban takeover of Afghanistan in August 2021. Abdulhaq Abu Omar, the police chief of the country’s northeastern Badakhshan province, died on Monday morning when a car bomb […]

ECATEPEC, Mexico (AP) — On a November afternoon, Mónica Citlalli Díaz left home in a sprawling suburb of Mexico’s capital and headed to the school where she’d been teaching English for years. It seemed an ordinary day, but on this one, she never arrived at work. Her absence was an immediate red flag for family and colleagues. Díaz loved her work and was diligent about showing up. Friends and relatives, […]

TOKYO (AP) — Japan’s Prime Minister Fumio Kishida on Tuesday dismissed his fourth minister in two months to patch a scandal-tainted Cabinet that has raised questions over his judgment of staff credentials. Kenya Akiba, minister in charge of reconstruction of Fukushima and other disaster-hit areas, has faced allegations of mishandling political and election funds and of ties to the Unification Church, whose practices and huge donations have raised controversy. “I […]

PORTLAND, Ore. (AP) — Jusuf Nurkic scored 27 points, including a career-high five 3-pointers, to go with 14 rebounds and six assists as the Portland Trail Blazers defeated the Charlotte Hornets 124-113 on Monday night. Jerami Grant led all scorers with 32 points for Portland. Damian Lillard had 17 points and nine assists on a night when he was honored for becoming the leading scorer in Trail Blazers history. “I […]