MEXICO CITY (AP) — Four people were killed Monday in a shootout with Mexican marines in the border city of Matamoros, triggering an alert to shelter in place from the U.S. consulate in the city across the Rio Grande from Brownsville, Texas. The Tamaulipas state communications office said via X, the platform formerly known as Twitter, that the clash occurred during an operation related to the investigation of a kidnapping.

BEIJING (AP) — High waters swept a fire truck into a river in southeastern China early Tuesday, leaving five crew members missing, local authorities said, as the second tropical storm in recent days hit the mainland. Haikui weakened to a tropical storm as it scraped along the coastline of Fujian and Guangdong provinces Tuesday morning, bringing up to 2 feet of rainfall to some areas as it moves inland, according to China’s meteorological agency.

GUAYAQUIL, Ecuador (AP) — Men walk through a lush plantation between Ecuador ’s balmy Pacific coast and its majestic Andes, lopping hundreds of bunches of green bananas from groaning plants twice their height. Workers haul the bunches to an assembly line, where the bananas are washed, weighed and plastered with stickers for European buyers. Owner Franklin Torres is monitoring all activity on a recent morning to make sure the fruit meets international beauty standards — and ever more important, is packed for shipment free of cocaine.

VIENNA (AP) — Iran has slowed the pace at which it is enriching uranium to nearly weapons-grade levels, according to a report by the United Nations’ nuclear watchdog seen by The Associated Press on Monday. That could be a sign Tehran is trying to ease tensions after years of strain between it and the U.S.

Turkey's President Recep Tayyip Erdogan on Monday sought to persuade Russian President Vladimir Putin to revive an agreement that allowed Ukraine to export grain and other commodities from three Black Sea ports despite the war with Russia.

KYIV, Ukraine (AP) — Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said Sunday that defense minister Oleksii Reznikov will be replaced this week with Rustem Umerov, a Crimean Tatar lawmaker. Zelenskyy made the announcement on his official Telegram account, writing that new leadership was needed after Reznikov went through "more than 550 days of full-scale war.”

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan will meet with Vladimir Putin on Monday, hoping to persuade the Russian leader to rejoin the Black Sea grain deal that Moscow broke off from in July.

As People’s Liberation Army fighter jets from China sped toward Taiwan on Friday, life on the self-governing island carried on as normal.

India launched its first space mission to study the sun on Saturday, less than two weeks after a successful uncrewed  landing near the south polar region of the moon . …

Russian President Vladimir Putin will host Turkish leader Recep Tayyip Erdogan for talks next week, the Kremlin announced Friday, just over six weeks after Moscow broke off a deal brokered by Ankara and the U.N. that allowed Ukrainian grain to reach world markets safely despite the 18-month war.

HONG KONG (AP) — Most of Hong Kong and other parts of southern China ground to a near standstill Friday with classes and flights canceled as powerful Typhoon Saola approached. Many workers stayed at home and students in various cities saw the start of their school year postponed to next week.

GUATEMALA CITY (AP) — Guatemala’s Congress, which is controlled by the currently governing party, on Wednesday refused to recognize the seven lawmakers from the Seed Movement party of President-elect Bernardo Arévalo, following the suspension of his party earlier this week. Lawmakers declared their Seed Movement colleagues independents in the latest move against the party since Arévalo’s landslide win Aug. 20.

DAKAR, Senegal (AP) — The ouster of Gabon's president by mutinous soldiers appears to have been well organized and capitalized on the population's grievances against the government as an excuse to seize power, analysts said. Soldiers on Wednesday ousted President Ali Bongo Ondimba, whose family has ruled the oil-rich country in Central Africa for more than five decades.

A rare blue supermoon — the closest full moon of the year — dazzled stargazers Wednesday night. Saturn joined the celestial spectacle, visible alongside the moon, at least where skies were clear. It was the second full moon of August, thus the blue label. And it was unusually close to Earth, therefore a supermoon.

SEOUL, South Korea (AP) — North Korea said Thursday its latest missile launches simulated “scorched earth” nuclear strikes on South Korea and that it’s also been rehearsing an occupation of its rival's territory in the event of conflict. Pyongyang has previously tested nuclear-capable missiles and described how it would use them in potential wars with South Korea and the U.S.

JOHANNESBURG (AP) — A nighttime fire ripped through a rundown apartment building mainly occupied by homeless people and squatters in Johannesburg early Thursday, leaving at least 74 dead, officials said. Some people threw babies out of third-story windows to others waiting below in the desperate scramble to evacuate, witnesses said.

SEOUL, South Korea (AP) — South Korea says North Korea has launched a ballistic missile toward the North’s eastern waters. South Korea’s Joint Chiefs of Staff says the launch occurred Wednesday but gave no further details, such as how far the missile flew.

MOSCOW (AP) — The Kremlin said Wednesday that “deliberate wrongdoing” is among the possible causes of the plane crash that killed mercenary leader Yevgeny Prigozhin last week. Speaking to reporters during his daily conference call, Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov noted that “different versions” of what happened exist and “are being considered,” including “let's put this way, deliberate wrongdoing.”

LIBREVILLE, Gabon (AP) — Mutinous soldiers in Gabon announced late Wednesday that the head of the country’s elite republican guard would lead the Central African country, hours after saying they had placed the country’s newly re-elected president under house arrest. The coup leaders said in an announcement on Gabon’s state TV that Gen. Brice Clotaire Oligui Nguema had been “unanimously” designated president of a transitional committee to lead the country.

KYIV, Ukraine (AP) — Ukraine sent waves of drones deep into western Russia in nighttime attacks that lasted more than four hours and struck military assets, Russian officials and media reports said Wednesday. The drones hit an airport near Russia’s border with Estonia and Latvia, causing a huge blaze and damaging four Il-76 military transport planes, which can carry heavy machinery and troops, the Russian state news agency Tass reported, citing emergency officials.

BEIRUT (AP) — Anti-government protests in southern Syria have stretched into a second week, with demonstrators waving the colorful flag of the minority Druze community, burning banners of President Bashar Assad's government and at one point raiding several offices of his ruling party. The protests were initially driven by surging inflation and the war-torn country's spiraling economy but quickly shifted focus, with marchers calling for the fall of the Assad government.

ST. PETERSBURG, Russia (AP) — President Vladimir Putin is not planning to attend the funeral for Yevgeny Prigozhin, the Kremlin said, following reports that the mercenary chief who challenged the Russian leader's authority would be buried Tuesday. Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov wouldn't say where or when the chief of the Wagner Group military company would be buried, adding that he couldn’t comment on a private family ceremony.

GUATEMALA CITY (AP) — Guatemala’s top electoral tribunal declared progressive Bernardo Arévalo the winner of the country’s presidential elections on Monday, but the prospect of him taking office on Jan. 14 was uncertain after another government body suspended all activities by his Seed Movement party. No authority has explained exactly what the suspension, confirmed to The Associated Press by the party’s lawyer, will mean for the president-elect.

WASHINGTON (AP) — "Hola, Mama.” What seems like an unremarkable greeting between mother and son was in this case anything but. Forty-two years ago, hospital workers took Maria Angelica Gonzalez’ son from her arms right after birth and later told her he had died. Now, she was meeting him face-to-face at her home in Valdivia, Chile.

ATHENS, Greece (AP) — The nightmare repeats itself every year: A towering wall of flames devours forests, farmland and homes, forcing animals and people to flee for their lives. With their hot, dry summers, Greece and its southern European neighbors experience hundreds of devastating wildfires each year. Last week alone, wildfires killed 21 people in Greece.