BANGKOK (AP) — An explosion at a fireworks factory in central Thailand killed at least 23 people on Wednesday, according to provincial officials. The death toll was announced by authorities with Suphan Buri province, where the blast occurred in mid-afternoon. The Department of Disaster Prevention and Mitigation said officials were working to secure the site and help affected people.

KIBBUTZ NIR OZ, Israel (AP) — Standing in the ruins of her home in the Nir Oz farming village on the Gaza border, Sharon Alony Cunio gazed at the skyline of Khan Younis, the Palestinian city where Hamas militants dragged her more than three months ago. Her husband, David, remains captive in Gaza.

JERUSALEM (AP) — U.S. Navy SEALs seized Iranian-made missile parts and other weaponry from a ship bound for Yemen's Houthi rebels in a raid last week that saw two of its commandos go missing, the U.S. military said Tuesday. Meanwhile, a new ship came under suspected fire from the Houthis in the Red Sea and sustained some damage, though no one was wounded, officials said.

IRBIL, Iraq (AP) — Iraq recalled its ambassador from Tehran for consultations and summoned Iran’s chargé d’affaires in Baghdad on Tuesday in protest over Iranian strikes on northern Iraq that killed several civilians overnight, the Iraqi Foreign Ministry said. The Iranian attack was “a blatant violation" of Iraq's sovereignty and "strongly contradicts the principles of good neighborliness and international law, and threatens the security of the region,” it said in a statement.

DAVOS, Switzerland (AP) — Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy huddled with corporate executives and world leaders in a frenzied first full day of the World Economic Forum's annual meeting in the Swiss ski resort of Davos, where top officials from the United States, European Union, China, the Middle East and beyond spoke Tuesday about tackling conflict and embracing technology like artificial intelligence.

JERUSALEM (AP) — Houthi rebels fired a missile, striking a U.S.-owned ship Monday just off the coast of Yemen in the Gulf of Aden, less than a day after they launched an anti-ship cruise missile toward an American destroyer in the Red Sea. The attack on the Gibraltar Eagle, later claimed by the Houthis, further escalates tensions gripping the Red Sea after American-led strikes on the rebels.

IRBIL, Iraq (AP) — Iran said late Monday it had launched strikes against a “spy headquarters and gathering of anti-Iranian terrorist groups” shortly after missiles hit an upscale area near the U.S. consulate in Irbil, the seat of Iraq’s semi-autonomous Kurdish region. The security council of the Kurdish regional government said in a statement that four civilians were killed and six injured in the strikes.

SEOUL, South Korea (AP) — North Korean leader Kim Jong Un said his country would no longer pursue reconciliation with South Korea and called for rewriting the North’s constitution to eliminate the idea of shared statehood between the war-divided countries, state media said Tuesday. The historic step to discard a decades-long pursuit of unification, which was based on a sense of national homogeneity shared by both Koreas, comes amid heightened tensions where the pace of both Kim’s weapons development and the South’s military exercises with the United States have intensified in a tit-for-tat.

ANKARA, Turkey (AP) — Turkish authorities on Monday charged Israeli soccer player Sagiv Jehezkel with inciting hatred after he expressed solidarity with people held hostage by the Hamas militant organization during a top-flight league game. The Antalyaspor player, who was released from custody pending trial, was due to return to Israel later on Monday aboard a private jet, said Alkan Evren, the team's spokesman.

KYIV, Ukraine (AP) — The Ukrainian air force shot down a Russian early warning and control plane that can spot targets up to 400 miles away and a key command center aircraft that relays information to troops on the ground in a significant blow for the Kremlin’s forces, Ukraine’s military chief said Monday.

TAIPEI, Taiwan (AP) — Retired U.S. officials met with Taiwanese President Tsai Ing-wen on Monday and praised the island’s democratic processes under which it elected a new president and legislature over the weekend in defiance of China’s claim of sovereignty over Taiwan and threat to annex it by military force.

GUATEMALA CITY (AP) — Bernardo Arévalo was sworn in as Guatemala’s president on Monday minutes after midnight despite months of efforts to derail his inauguration, including foot-dragging and rising tensions right up until the transfer of power.

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) — Yemen's Houthi rebels fired an anti-ship cruise missile toward an American destroyer in the Red Sea on Sunday, but a U.S. fighter jet shot it down in the latest attack roiling global shipping amid Israel's war with Hamas in the Gaza Strip, officials said.

SEOUL, South Korea (AP) — North Korea on Monday said it flight-tested a new solid-fuel intermediate-range missile tipped with a hypersonic warhead as it pursues more powerful, harder-to-detect weapons designed to strike remote U.S. targets in the region. The report by North Korea’s state media came a day after the South Korean and Japanese militaries detected the launch from a site near the North Korean capital of Pyongyang, in the North’s first ballistic test of 2024.

A war of words erupted the day after Taiwan's presidential and parliamentary elections, with Taiwan on Sunday accusing China of making “fallacious comments” and China criticizing the U.S. for congratulating the winner.

JERUSALEM (AP) — An anti-tank missile fired from Lebanon hit a home in northern Israel on Sunday, killing two civilians and renewing concerns about the risk of a second front erupting in the Israel-Hamas war.

LONDON (AP) — A volcano has erupted in southwestern Iceland, sending semi-molten rock spewing toward a nearby settlement for the second time in less than a month. The eruption Sunday morning came after a swarm of earthquakes near the town of Grindavik, the Icelandic Meteorological Office said. The community was evacuated overnight, Iceland's RUV television reported.

TOKYO (AP) — An All Nippon Airways domestic flight turned back to Japan’s northern airport of Sapporo after a crack was found on the cockpit window, according to the airline and media reports.

SEOUL, South Korea (AP) — North Korea fired a ballistic missile toward the sea on Sunday, its first missile launch in about a month, its neighbors said. South Korea’s Joint Chiefs of Staff said the launch occurred Sunday but gave no further details like how far the weapon flew.

British D-Day veteran Bill Gladden turned 100 on Saturday, a day after his niece threw a surprise birthday party for him. It was a big fuss he didn’t really expect, though the old soldier had tears in his eyes long before he caught sight of a cake decorated with a replica of his uniform and the medals he earned.

Ruling-party candidate Lai Ching-te emerged victorious in Taiwan’s presidential election on Saturday, a result that will determine the trajectory of the self-ruled democracy’s contentious relations with China over the next four years.

Polls closed Saturday in Taiwan's presidential and parliamentary election that will chart the trajectory of the self-ruled democracy’s relations with China over the next four years.

TAIPEI, Taiwan (AP) — Taiwan is preparing to elect a president and legislature Saturday in what many see as a test of control with China, which claims the self-governing island republic as its own territory to be unified with force if necessary. The presidential race is tight, and both China and Taiwan's key ally, the U.S., are weighing in on political and economic issues they hope will sway voters.

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) — Yemen’s Houthi rebels vowed fierce retaliation Friday for American and British strikes against them, further raising the prospect of a wider conflict in a region already beset by Israel's war in Gaza.

KYIV, Ukraine (AP) — British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak unveiled new military funding for Ukraine on Friday during a visit to Kyiv aimed at reassuring the country that the West is still providing support nearly 23 months after Russia’s invasion.