PARIS (AP) -- A prominent French film director has been handed preliminary charges of rape, sexual assault and violence by a French judge investigating a case involving female actors, the Paris prosecutor's office said Thursday. Read More

PARIS (AP) -- A 76-year-old American swimmer took a dip in the Seine River on Thursday, braving the murky waters in central Paris to celebrate the Fourth of July and highlight the French government's efforts to clean up the river for the Olympic Games. Read More

GOMA, Congo (AP) -- A militia attack on a gold mine in northeastern Congo killed six Chinese miners and two Congolese soldiers, a civil society group said Thursday, the latest assault as violence worsens in the resource-rich region. Read More

MELBOURNE, Australia (AP) — Police on Thursday found the remains of a 12-year-old girl, two days after she was snatched by a crocodile while swimming in a creek in remote northern Australia. Read More

ROME (AP) -- Pope Francis' chief of staff became one of the highest-ranking Holy See officials to testify in a foreign court Thursday, giving a British tribunal a detailed explanation of the negotiations at the heart of the Vatican's so-called "trial of the century" and pointing a finger at his onetime deputy who escaped the scandal unscathed. Read More

GENEVA (AP) -- The international swimming federation says its executive director has been ordered to testify as a witness in a U.S. criminal investigation into the case of 23 Chinese swimmers who tested positive for a banned substance in 2021 yet were allowed to continue competing. Read More

HELSINKI (AP) -- Dozens of classic sailing vessels from 13 countries that are plying the Baltic Sea arrived at the Finnish capital on Thursday at the end of the first leg of the Tall Ships Races that began in the Lithuanian port city of Klaipeda in late June. Read More

The age question for presidential candidates is more than four decades old. President Ronald Reagan answered it with a pledge to resign if he became impaired, and later with a clever joke that reset his campaign from a stumbling debate performance to a 49-state landslide and a second term. Read More

CARACAS, Venezuela (AP) -- Venezuela's self-described socialist government is facing a serious electoral challenge in a presidential election for the first time in decades. Read More

COPENHAGEN, Denmark (AP) -- Sweden's Foreign Ministry said Thursday it will summon the Iraqi charge d'affaires in Stockholm to protest against death sentences received by Swedes in Iraq. Read More

ANKARA, Turkey (AP) -- Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan plans to travel to Berlin to attend the 2024 European Championship quarterfinal game between Turkey and the Netherlands, an official said Thursday, after a controversial gesture by a national team player ignited a diplomatic row between Turkey and the host nation, Germany. Read More

MORIGAON, India (AP) -- A blue tarp covered a mother and her newborn daughter from the incessant rain on their boat journey. Jahanara Khatoon, 25, had just given birth on the boat on their way to a healthcare center, surrounded by the raging floodwaters of the Brahmaputra River. Read More

DENPASAR, Indonesia (AP) -- An Indonesian court sentenced an Australian man to six-month medical rehabilitation on Thursday after finding him guilty of possessing methamphetamine on the tourist island of Bali. Read More

BERLIN (AP) -- The Swifties are about to take over the German city formerly known as Gelsenkirchen, where American superstar Taylor Swift is set to give three Eras Tour concerts later this month. Read More

TOKYO (AP) -- Japan's Nikkei 225 stock index closed Thursday at a fresh record high of 40,913.65, pushing past its most recent record close set in March on heavy buying of automaker and technology shares. Read More

KUALA LUMPUR, Malaysia (AP) -- A Japanese hairstylist has been sentenced to 17.5 years in prison and 20 strokes of the cane in Singapore for what the judge described as a "brutal and cruel" assault and rape of a drunk student five years ago, his lawyer said Thursday. Read More

KYIV, Ukraine (AP) -- A spokesperson for Ukraine's military said its army has retreated from a neighborhood in the outskirts of Chasiv Yar, a strategically important town in the eastern Donetsk region which has been reduced to rubble under a months-long Russian assault. Read More

MANILA, Philippines (AP) -- Philippine forces will defend themselves with "the same level of force" if they come under assault again from China's coast guard in the disputed South China Sea, where Chinese personnel armed with machetes and spears injured Filipino navy personnel and damaged two of their boats in a chaotic faceoff last month, the Philippine military chief said Thursday. Read More

BRATISLAVA, Slovakia (AP) -- The suspect in the attempted assassination in May of Slovakia's populist prime minister, Robert Fico, is now facing terror charges as part of an investigation by authorities, the country's prosecutor general said Thursday. Read More

COPENHAGEN, Denmark (AP) -- A verdict is expected Thursday in the case of an Iranian-born Norwegian man who is charged with terrorism in a 2002 attack at an LGBTQ+ festival in Oslo, Norway, in which two people were killed and nine seriously wounded at three locations. Read More

PESHAWAR, Pakistan (AP) -- A Japanese climber has died while descending one of the highest mountains in northern Pakistan, the third death of a Japanese on the mountain in less than a month, officials said Thursday. Read More

Russian President Vladimir Putin and Chinese President Xi Jinping are attending the summit of a security grouping created by Moscow and Beijing to counter Western alliances

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