NICOSIA, Cyprus (AP) — The United Nations’ refugee agency said Friday that Cypriot efforts at sea to stop numerous Syrian refugee-laden boats departing Lebanon from reaching the European Union-member island nation mustn’t contravene international human rights laws or put passengers at risk.Cypriot authorities have reportedly dispatched police patrol vessels just…

ROME (AP) — An Italian court on Friday dismissed a long-running case against rescue ship crews of three humanitarian organizations, dropping charges accusing them of collaborating with smugglers as they helped rescue thousands of migrants at sea.The judges in the Sicilian city of Trapani decided not to proceed to trial…

15 British soldiers accused of lying in an inquiry regarding Bloody Sunday will not be charged with perjury, prosecutors announced Friday.Bloody Sunday was one of the deadliest days of the Troubles, a decades-long regional conflict. 13 civilians were killed by members of the British Parachute Regiment in Derry.Victims’ families expressed…

A suicide bomber detonated his explosive-laden vest near a van carrying Japanese autoworkers in Pakistan’s port city of Karachi on Friday, police said. They narrowly escaped the attack but three bystanders were wounded.Separately, an Afghan Taliban religious scholar was killed in an attack in the southwest of Pakistan the previous…

ATHENS, Greece (AP) — The flame that will burn at the Olympics is spending the night at the ancient Acropolis in Athens, a week before its handover to Paris 2024 organizers.During a lull in heavy rain late Friday, a torchbearer lit a cauldron in front of the 2,500-year-old Parthenon temple,…

Dominican authorities on Friday ordered the arrest of a Dominican soldier accused of raping a 14-year-old Haitian girl while searching for immigrants in the country illegally near the upscale resort town of Punta Cana.The soldier, identified as Paulino de la Cruz, is one of 15 members of the Dominican Air…

WASHINGTON (AP) — A Bangkok-based plastics firm has agreed to pay $20 million to settle with the U.S. over 467 “egregious” violations of Iran sanctions, the U.S. Treasury announced on Friday.SCG Plastics Co. used U.S. banks to process $291 million in sales of Iranian high-density polyethylene resin from 2017 to…

TALLINN, Estonia (AP) — A Belarusian hacker activist group claims to have infiltrated computers at the country’s largest fertilizer plant to pressure the government to release political prisoners.The state-run Grodno Azot plant has made no comment on the claim by the Belarusian Cyber-Partisans group to have done damage including destroying…

Iranian leadership is downplaying Israeli strikes against their country, despite previously vowing total war in the event of the “tiniest invasion.”During a Friday speech, President Ebrahim Raisi did not mention the Israeli missile strike launched against the Isfahan region of Iran earlier the same day.Instead, Raisi focused on justifying Iran’s…

European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen has voiced her concerns about the security implications of Finland’s border closure with Russia.Finland extended border closures due to perceived risks orchestrated by Moscow, leaving only one checkpoint open for rail travel.Finland shares an 832-mile land border with Russia, spanning from forests in…