Austria says Russia's Gazprom will cut off natural gas supply this weekend

VIENNA (AP) — Russia’s state-owned natural gas company Gazrom will cut off supplies to Austria’s OMV utility early Saturday, Austria’s chancellor said Friday, adding that his country’s underground gas storage was full and that it had alternative, non-Russia supplies. The...

Austrian chancellor says Russia's Gazprom will cut off natural gas on Saturday, says country has alternative supplies

Biden set to meet South Korean and Japanese leaders amid growing worries about North Korea

LIMA, Peru (AP) — President Joe Biden is gathering South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol and Japanese Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba for talks Friday amid heightened concerns about North Korea’s growing military partnership with Russia and Pyongyang’s stepped-up cadence of ballistic missile...

Germany's Scholz discusses Ukraine with Russia's Putin in first such call in 2 years

BERLIN (AP) — German Chancellor Olaf Scholz on Friday urged Russia to be willing to negotiate with Ukraine in his first call with Russian President Vladimir Putin in nearly two years. The Kremlin responded that Moscow was open to new talks and pointed to Putin's earlier proposal that Kyiv should...

Police and protesters clash in Georgia's separatist Abkhazia region over pro-Moscow property measure

TBILISI, Georgia (AP) — Protesters opposing a measure that would have allowed Russians to buy property in the Georgian territory of Abkhazia stormed into the separatist region's parliament building and presidential office on Friday and clashed with police. At least eight people...

Hungary's Orbán says sanctions on Russia will 'destroy' EU economy

BUDAPEST, Hungary (AP) — The European Union must abandon its policy of sanctioning Russia for its war in Ukraine or risk causing an economic collapse, Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán told state radio on Friday. The EU has imposed several rounds of sanctions against Moscow...

What to know about Doug Collins, Trump's pick to oversee veterans affairs

ATLANTA (AP) — President-elect Donald Trump announced Thursday that he would appoint Doug Collins to lead the Veterans Affairs Department in his new administration. Here are five things to know about the former Republican congressman from Georgia who would lead the agency tasked...

NATO and the EU press China to help stop North Korea's support for the war on Ukraine

BRUSSELS (AP) — NATO and the European Union are ramping up efforts to persuade China to help get North Korea to stop sending troops and other support to Russia to back its war on Ukraine. Up to 12,000 North Korean troops have been sent to Russia’s Kursk border region to help beat...

In Cyprus, Ukrainians learn how to dispose of landmines that kill and maim hundreds

NICOSIA, Cyprus (AP) — In a Cypriot National Guard camp, Ukrainians are being trained on how to identify, locate and dispose of landmines and other unexploded munitions that litter huge swaths of their country, killing and maiming hundreds of people, including children. Analysts...

Gaetz pick shows value Trump places on loyalty — and retribution — as he returns to Washington

WASHINGTON (AP) — Donald Trump has had few defenders in Congress as reliable as Matt Gaetz, who has thundered at one prosecutor after another for perceived bias against the president-elect and emphatically amplified the Republican's rallying cry that the criminal investigations into him are...