SEOUL, South Korea (AP) — North Korea said Friday it test-fired long-range cruise missiles in waters off its eastern coast a day earlier, adding to a provocative streak in weapons demonstrations as its rivals step up military training. The launches, which were later confirmed by South Korea’s military, were intended to verify the reliability of the missiles and the rapid-response capabilities of the unit that operates those weapons, North Korean state media said.

BAIKONUR, Kazakhstan (AP) — Russia launched a rescue ship on Friday for two cosmonauts and a NASA astronaut whose original ride home sprang a dangerous leak while parked at the International Space Station. The new, empty Soyuz capsule should arrive at the orbiting lab on Sunday. The capsule leak in December was blamed on a micrometeorite that punctured an external radiator, draining it of coolant. The same thing appeared to happen again earlier this month, this time on a docked Russian cargo ship. Camera views showed a small hole in each spacecraft.

ALXA LEAGUE, China (AP) — Rescuers with backhoes and bulldozers dug through tons of earth and rubble Thursday for 48 people missing after a landslide buried an open-pit mine in northern China. State broadcaster CCTV reported that the confirmed death toll in the disaster rose to five. Conditions in the area remain dangerous, and the search had to be suspended for several hours because of a second landslide at the gigantic facility in Inner Mongolia’s Alxa League.

ANKARA, Turkey (AP) — The death toll from the massive earthquake that hit parts of Turkey and Syria on Feb. 6 continues to rise as more bodies are retrieved from the rubble of demolished buildings. A magnitude 6.4 earthquake that struck the already battered province of Hatay this week damaged or demolished more buildings, compounding the devastation. The combined death toll in Turkey and Syria now stands at 47,244.

TEL AVIV, Israel (AP) — Palestinian militants in Gaza launched rockets at southern Israel and Israeli aircraft struck targets in the coastal enclave early Thursday after a gunbattle in the occupied West Bank killed 10 Palestinians. The Israeli military said Palestinian militants fired six rockets and two anti-aircraft missiles from the Gaza Strip toward the country’s south early Thursday. Air defenses intercepted five of the rockets and one landed in an open field, according to the military.

MOGADISHU, Somalia (AP) — Security forces in Somalia have ended a siege by al-Shabab extremists that killed 10 people and wounded three others at a home in the capital, Mogadishu. The Information Ministry late Tuesday said the al-Qaida-linked fighters launched the rare attack on a private home with a suicide bombing. Al-Shabab often attacks hotels and government buildings.

ANTANANARIVO, Madagascar (AP) — A weakened Cyclone Freddy which pummeled Madagascar Tuesday night with heavy rains and strong destructive winds, killing four people, is continuing to wreak havoc in the southwest of the Indian Ocean nation. Freddy battered the western city of Mananjary and left 16,660 people displaced and damaged nearly 5,000 homes in the country, according to the latest provisional assessment by Madagascar's risk and disaster management office.

NABLUS, West Bank (AP) — Israeli troops on Wednesday entered a major Palestinian city in the occupied West Bank in a rare, daytime arrest operation, triggering fighting that killed at least 10 Palestinians and wounded scores of others. The Israeli military said it entered Nablus on Wednesday to arrest three wanted militants suspected in previous shooting attacks in the West Bank. It said it tracked down the men in a hideout.

ANTAKYA, Turkey (AP) — For nearly two weeks, Mehmet Ismet has lived in the ruins of Antakya’s most beloved historic mosque, a landmark in a now-devastated city that was famed for thousands of years as a meeting place of civilizations and revered by Christians, Muslims and Jews. The 74-year-old took refuge in the Habib Najjar mosque after a 7.8-magnitude earthquake killed tens of thousands in Turkey and Syria on Feb. 6. He has slept and prayed under the few arches still standing, mourning the future of a city renowned for its past.

ISTANBUL (AP) — Survivors of the earthquake that jolted Turkey and Syria 15 days ago, killing tens of thousands of people and leaving hundreds of thousands of others homeless, dealt with more trauma and loss Tuesday after another strong quake and aftershocks rocked the region. The 6.4 magnitude earthquake that struck Monday evening had its epicenter in the Defne district of Turkey's Hatay province, which was of the areas most affected by the Feb. 6 magnitude 7.8 quake that killed nearly 46,000 people in the two countries.

ANKARA, Turkey (AP) — There are reports of more collapsed buildings Turkey in Syria after another 6.4 magnitude earthquake struck Turkey’s Hatay province which was devastated by a massive tremor two week ago. Syria's state news agency, SANA, is reporting six people have been injured in Aleppo from falling debris, while the mayor of Hatay says a number of buildings have collapsed, trapping people inside. Turkey’s disaster management agency, AFAD, said the new quake was centered around the town of Defne, in Hatay province.

SAO PAULO (AP) — Heavy rain caused flooding and landslides that have killed 36 people on the northern coast of Brazil’s Sao Paulo state, officials said Monday, while fatalities could rise. Sao Paulo's state government said in a statement that 35 died in the city of Sao Sebastiao and a 7-year-old girl was killed in neighboring Ubatuba. On Monday morning, more than 500 people were continuing search and rescue efforts.

MOMBASA, Kenya (AP) — A cyclone that is intensifying as it approaches the southeastern African coast has been labeled as “dangerous” by the United Nation's weather agency on Monday as nations brace for landfall. Cyclone Freddy is projected to reach Madagascar on Tuesday evening and hurtle toward Mozambique by the end of the week. The tropical cyclone is equivalent to a Category 4 hurricane and is expected to dump heavy rain and bring turbulent winds.

SEOUL, South Korea (AP) — North Korea fired two short-range ballistic missiles into the sea east of the country Monday in its second test launch in three days, prompting Japan to request an emergency meeting of the U.N. Security Council. The launches continue a tit-for-tat exchange that began Saturday, and follow a year in which North Korea launched more than 70 missiles, the most ever.

KYIV, Ukraine (AP) — President Joe Biden paid an unannounced visit to Ukraine on Monday to meet with President Volodymyr Zelenskyy in a defiant display of Western solidarity with a country still fighting what he called “a brutal and unjust war” days before the one-year anniversary of Russia’s invasion. “One year later, Kyiv stands,” Biden declared after meeting Zelenskyy at Mariinsky Palace. Jamming his finger for emphasis on his podium, against a backdrop of three flags from each country, he continued: “And Ukraine stands. Democracy stands. The Americans stand with you, and the world stands with you.”

Like many people in Nigeria, Godgift Inemesit’s savings are trapped in a bank. A changeover to a redesigned currency has plunged Africa’s largest economy into crisis: There aren’t enough new …

BEIRUT (AP) — The U.S. military said Friday a helicopter raid led by its forces in northeast Syria left a senior leader with the Islamic State group dead and four American service members wounded. Separately, local media and a monitor group said an IS attack on Friday in central Syria killed dozens of civilians.

SAMANDAG, Turkey (AP) — Nearly two weeks after a massive earthquake leveled tens of thousands of buildings and displaced millions of people in Turkey and Syria, many are still struggling to fulfill their basic needs and some are bedding down in tents, factories, train cars and greenhouses. People pushed from their homes in the disaster zone described a wide range of conditions: Some were able to find regular hot showers, while others feared freezing to death.

SEOUL, South Korea (AP) — North Korea threatened Friday to take “unprecedently” strong action against its rivals, soon after South Korea announced a series of planned military drills with the United States to hone their joint response to the North’s increasing nuclear threats. North Korea has halted weapons testing activities since its short-range missile firing on Jan. 1, though it launched more than 70 missiles in 2022 — a record number for a single year.

MUNICH (AP) — Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy urged Western allies Friday to quicken their military support for Ukraine, warning at a major international security conference that delays would play into Russia’s hand as the invasion approaches its first anniversary. “There is no alternative to speed, because it’s speed that life depends on,” Zelenskyy told the Munich Security Conference in Germany.

WASHINGTON (AP) — Those melancholy tunes sung by humpback whales may really be a sign of loneliness. Scientists who tracked humpback whales in Australia noticed that fewer whales wailed to find mates as their population grew. “Humpback whale song is loud and travels far in the ocean,” said marine biologist Rebecca Dunlop, who has studied humpback whales that breed near the Great Barrier Reef for more than two decades.

Israel's foreign minister has arrived in Kyiv, the first public visit to Ukraine’s capital by a senior Israeli official since Russia’s invasion last year. Eli Cohen’s visit came just before the …

BEIJING (AP) — China said Wednesday it will take measures against U.S. entities related to the downing of a suspected Chinese spy balloon off the American East Coast. At a daily briefing, Foreign Ministry spokesperson Wang Wenbin gave no details and did not identify the targets of the measures.

MANILA, Philippines (AP) — The United States renewed a warning that it would defend its treaty ally if Filipino forces come under attack in the disputed South China Sea, after a Chinese coast guard ship allegedly hit a Philippine patrol vessel with military-grade laser that briefly blinded some of its crew.

BEIJING (AP) — Amid speculation over alleged Chinese spy balloons, Taiwan’s Defense Ministry said Tuesday it would shoot down any suspected military object coming close to its shores from mainland China.