CANBERRA, Australia (AP) — WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange returned to his homeland Australia aboard a charter jet on Wednesday, hours after pleading guilty to obtaining and publishing U.S. military secrets in a deal with Justice Department prosecutors that concludes a drawn-out legal saga.

YEKATERINBURG, Russia (AP) — Wall Street Journal reporter Evan Gershkovich went on trial behind closed doors in Yekaterinburg on Wednesday, 15 months after his arrest in the Russian city on espionage charges that he, his employer and the U.S. government vehemently deny.

BANGKOK (AP) — China's Chang'e 6 probe returned on Earth with rock and soil samples from the little-explored far side of the moon in a global first. The probe landed in the Inner Mongolian region in northern China on Tuesday afternoon.

PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti (AP) — The first U.N.-backed contingent of foreign police arrived in Haiti on Tuesday, nearly two years after the troubled Caribbean country urgently requested help to quell a surge in gang violence.

BANGKOK (AP) — A plane with WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange departed Bangkok after refueling Tuesday and he is on the way to Saipan to enter a plea deal with the U.S. government that will free him and resolve the legal case over the publication of a trove of classified documents.

TEL AVIV, Israel (AP) — The viability of a U.S.-backed proposal to wind down the 8-month-long war in Gaza was cast into doubt on Monday after Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said he would only be willing to agree to a “partial” cease-fire deal that would not end the war.

KIBBUTZ NIR OZ, Israel (AP) — A new kind of tourism has emerged in Israel in the months since Hamas’ Oct. 7 attack. Celebrities, politicians, influencers and others are making a somber visit to the devastated south that absorbed the brunt of the assault near the border with Gaza.

MOSCOW (AP) — Russia’s southern region of Dagestan held the first of three days of mourning Monday following a rampage by Islamic militants who authorities say killed 20 people, most of them police, and attacked houses of worship in apparently coordinated assaults in two cities.

SEOUL, South Korea (AP) — A fire likely sparked by exploding lithium batteries swept through a manufacturing factory near South Korea’s capital on Monday, killing 22 mostly Chinese migrant workers and injuring eight, officials said.

GABORONE, Botswana (AP) — The forced U.S. troop withdrawals from bases in Niger and Chad and the potential to shift some troops to other nations in West Africa will be key issues as the top U.S. military officer meets with his counterparts this week at a chiefs of defense conference.

CAIRO (AP) — More than 1,300 people died during this year’s Hajj pilgrimage in Saudi Arabia as the faithful faced extremely high temperatures at Islamic holy sites in the desert kingdom, Saudi authorities announced Sunday.

MOSCOW (AP) — More than 15 policemen and several civilians, including an Orthodox priest, were killed by armed militants in Russia’s southern republic of Dagestan on Sunday, its governor Sergei Melikov said in a video statement early Monday.

WARSAW, Poland (AP) — Ukrainians in Warsaw jumped over a bonfire and floated braids to honor the vital powers of water and fire on the Vistula River bank Saturday night, as they celebrated their solstice tradition of Ivan Kupalo Night away from war-torn home. Hundreds joined the event, most of them war refugees.

KYIV, Ukraine (AP) — Russian authorities said six people died and over 100 were wounded in Ukrainian drone and missile attacks on Sunday, while the second day of Russia's aerial bombing of Kharkiv in northeastern Ukraine killed at least one person.

SEOUL, South Korea (AP) — A nuclear-powered U.S. aircraft carrier arrived Saturday in South Korea for a three-way exercise involving Japan as they step up military training to cope with North Korean threats, which have escalated following a security pact with Russia.

BEIJING (AP) — A family of six was found dead by rescuers in Fujian province, state media reported Saturday, adding to the extreme weather deaths after downpours caused landslides in the area, even as authorities extended a warning of more severe weather ahead.

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) — An attack by Yemen's Houthi rebels targeted a commercial ship traveling through the Gulf of Aden but apparently caused no damage, authorities said Saturday, in the latest strike on the shipping lane by the group.

BEIJING (AP) — At least 47 people have died as downpours in southern China’s Guangdong province caused historic flooding and slides, state media reported Friday, while authorities warned of more extreme weather ahead in other parts of the country.

MWINGI, Kenya (AP) — Esther Kangali felt a sharp pain while on her mother’s farm in eastern Kenya. She looked down and saw a large snake coiling around her left leg. She screamed, and her mother came running.

KHARKIV, Ukraine (AP) — The first shock wave shattered aisles stacked almost to the ceiling with home improvement products. The next Russian bomb streaked down like a comet seconds later, unleashing flames that left the megastore an ashen shell.

HANOI, Vietnam (AP) — Russian President Vladimir Putin signed at least a dozen deals with his Vietnamese counterpart on Thursday and offered to supply fossil fuels including natural gas to Vietnam for the long term during a state visit that comes as Moscow is seeking to bolster ties in Asia to offset its growing international isolation over its military actions in Ukraine.

SEOUL, South Korea (AP) — A new agreement between Russia and North Korea reached by their leaders requires the countries to use all available means to provide immediate military assistance in the event of war, North Korean state media said.

MOSCOW (AP) — A court in Russia’s far eastern city of Vladivostok on Wednesday convicted a visiting American soldier of stealing and making threats of murder, and it sentenced him to three years and nine months in prison.

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) — A bulk carrier sank days after an attack by Yemen's Houthi rebels believed to have killed one mariner on board, authorities said early Wednesday, the second ship sunk in the rebels' campaign.

SEOUL, South Korea (AP) — Russian President Vladimir Putin and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un on Wednesday signed a new partnership that includes a vow of mutual aid if either country faces “aggression,” in a pact that came as both face escalating standoffs with the West.