Nearly 90 countries and organizations, half from Europe, have confirmed attending the Swiss-hosted Ukraine peace summit over the weekend despite Russia’s refusal to participate, Switzerland’s president said Monday. Viola Amherd told reporters in the Swiss capital, Bern, that the summit, on Saturday and Sunday, will aim to chart a path toward possible peace nearly 28 months after Russian forces invaded Ukraine and the war grinding on. “This is not about propaganda,” said A

British diet guru and TV personality Michael Mosley was found dead on Sunday on the Greek island of Symi where he went missing this week, police said. "People on a boat saw a body close to the rocky coast," said Petros Vassilakis, police chief for the southern Aegean region. The lifeless body was spotted by a television crew from Greece's ERT public channel out filming in the area where the 67-year-old disappeared. A cameraman "saw something strange near the fence, 50 metres

Iran’s Guardian Council on Sunday approved the country’s hard-line parliament speaker and five others to run in the country’s June 28 presidential election following a helicopter crash that killed President Ebrahim Raisi and seven others. The council again barred former President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, a firebrand populist known for the crackdown that followed his disputed 2009 re-election, from running. The council’s decision represents the starting gun for a shortened,

  WASHINGTON -- North Korea, China and Russia are expanding and diversifying their nuclear weapons stockpiles at a "breakneck" speed, a White House official said Friday, warning that absent a change in the trajectory of their arsenals, the United States may have to increase its own. Pranay Vaddi, senior director for arms control, disarmament and nonproliferation at the National Security Council, made the remarks at a forum, noting that the three countries are driving the US and it

ROME (DPA) -- Italy celebrated the inclusion of Italian opera singing on the World Heritage List with a gala concert at the Arena of Verona on Friday night that was broadcast on national television. The concert, presided over by star Italian conductor Riccardo Muti, featured performances by greats including German and Peruvian tenors Jonas Kaufmann and Juan Diego Flórez. There was also an orchestra of 160 musicians and a choir of 300 singers. There were 20,000 spectators at the sold-out a

BANGKOK (AFP) -- Authorities in Vietnam have arrested a leading independent journalist for "abusing democratic freedoms" to undermine the state by posting articles on Facebook, police announced on Saturday. Huy Duc was detained for investigation for posts that "violate the interests of the State, the legitimate rights and interests of organizations and individuals," the Ministry of Public Security said. The 62-year-old former senior lieutenant worked for several influential n

COPENHAGEN (DPA) -- Leaders have strongly condemned an assault on Danish Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen in a central Copenhagen square, adding to the alarming rash of political violence rattling Europe. European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen called it a "despicable act which goes against everything we believe and fight for in Europe" in a post on the social media platform X. Charles Michel, the president of the European Council, said he was "outraged" by the &qu

ST PETERSBURG (Reuters) -- President Vladimir Putin said on Friday Russia needed to cut imports, significantly boost the use of non-Western currencies in trade settlement and called for a major expansion of the country's domestic financial markets. Putin, speaking at the St. Petersburg International Economic Forum, said trade with Asia was soaring and that nearly 40 percent of Russian external trade was now in rubles as the share conducted in US dollars, euros and other Western currencies d

PARIS (AP) -- US President Joe Biden on Friday for the first time publicly apologized to Ukraine for a monthslong congressional holdup in American military assistance that let Russia make gains on the battlefield. The apology came as Biden met in Paris with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, who appealed for bipartisan US support going forward “like it was during World War II.” A day earlier, the two had attended ceremonies marking the 80th anniversary of the D-Day landings in

Billions of cicadas will appear this year in a rare occurrence that hasn’t been seen in the United States since Thomas Jefferson was president and won’t be seen again until 2245, entomologists say. According to scientists, 2024 will see a rare event called “double brood emergence,” in which two different broods of cicadas — one that appears every 13 years and another every 17 years — emerge simultaneously. The 13-year group, known as Brood XIX or the “

NEW DELHI — Prime Minister Narendra Modi declared victory Tuesday for his alliance in India’s general election, claiming a mandate to push forward with his agenda, even though his party lost seats to a stronger than expected opposition, which pushed back against his mixed economic record and polarizing politics. “Today’s victory is the victory of the world’s largest democracy," Modi told the crowd at his party’s headquarters, saying Indian voters had &ldq

WASHINGTON -- A Korean American lawmaker won the Democratic Party's nomination for New Jersey's Senate seat in a primary Tuesday, reports said, as he has vowed to play a role as a "bridge" between South Korea and the United States and cement the bilateral alliance. Rep. Andy Kim, a third-term, 41-year-old congressman, bested two long-shot rivals to become his party's standard-bearer for the Nov. 5 election, according to The New York Times. If elected, Kim would become

NEW YORK — President Joe Biden won Democratic primaries Tuesday in New Jersey and Washington, DC, among some of the last contests on the 2024 primary calendar. Biden's wins came as a handful of states were holding presidential primary contests for both parties, marking the first time Donald Trump’s name appeared on the ballot since his historic conviction on felony crimes . The former president was on the ballot in Republican contests in Montana , New Mexico and New Jersey . T

A recent report from Microsoft reveals that 3 out of 4 knowledge workers worldwide are using artificial intelligence in their jobs, marking 2024 as the year AI becomes integral to the workplace. The “2024 Work Trend Index,” a collaborative research effort by Microsoft and LinkedIn, examines how AI is transforming work, leadership, and hiring practices globally, based on a survey of 31,000 individuals across 31 countries. The study found that 75 percent of global workers (including

New York and London are ranked the top two global cities according to economic advisory firm Oxford Economics in its inaugural Global Cities Index. This index is described as a “comprehensive evaluation of the world’s 1,000 largest urban economies.” Tokyo, ranking fourth, is Asia's top urban economy, followed by Seoul at 41st and Singapore at 42nd. Korea’s second-largest city, Busan, came in at 252nd. The index was compiled using five broad categories — econo