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Leaders of French-speaking countries gathered Saturday on a Tunisian island to discuss debt relief, migration, food and energy shortages amid a soaring cost-of-living crisis across Africa, Europe and the Middle East due to Russia's war on Ukraine. French President Emmanuel Macron, Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and the presidents of eight African nations were attending the 18th biannual meeting of the 88-member International Organization of Francophonie, which promotes relations among nations that use French as their primary language. European Council President Charles Michel also was in Tunisia for the two-day summit, the organization's first gathering in three years following pandemic lockdowns. Louise Mushikiwabo, the group's secretary-general and Rwanda’s former foreign mini...

HALIFAX, Nova Scotia -- U.S. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin warned Saturday Russia’s invasion of Ukraine offers a preview of a world where nuclear-armed countries could threaten other nations and said Beijing, like Moscow, seeks a world where might makes right. Austin made the remarks at the annual Halifax International Security Forum, which attracts defense and security officials from Western democracies. “Russia’s invasion offers a preview of a possible world of tyranny and turmoil that none of us would want to live in. And it’s an invitation to an increasingly insecure world haunted by the shadow of nuclear proliferation,” Austin said in a speech. “Because (Russian President Vladimir) Putin’s fellow autocrats are watching. And they could well conclude that getting nuclear weapons wou...

DAWWAYAH, Iraq and ILISU DAM, Turkey -- Next year, the water will come. The pipes have been laid to Ata Yigit’s sprawling farm in Turkey’s southeast connecting it to a dam on the Euphrates River. A dream, soon to become a reality, he says. Over 1,000 kilometers (625 miles) downstream in southern Iraq, nothing grows anymore in Obeid Hafez’s wheat farm. The water stopped coming a year ago, the 95-year-old said. The starkly different realities are playing out along the length of the Tigris-Euphrates river basin, one of the world’s most vulnerable. River flows have fallen by 40% in the past four decades as countries along its length — Turkey, Syria, Iran and Iraq — pursue rapid, unilateral development of the waters’ use. The drop is projected to worsen as temperatures rise from climate chan...

In a scathing statement, Tom Petty's estate on Thursday night threatened to sue Arizona Republican Kari Lake's "failed" campaign after it used Petty's song, "I Won't Back Down," in a video this week, days after Lake's opponent, Katie Hobbs, was projected to win the race for governor. "The Tom Petty estate and our partners were shocked to find out that Tom's song, "I Won't Back Down" was stolen and used without permission to promote Kari Lake's failed campaign," Petty's estate said in a statement. "This is illegal. We are exploring all of our legal options to stop this unauthorized use of Tom's beloved anthem." Lake had tweeted a video Wednesday of campaign trail highlights put to two minutes of the song from the late singer-songwriter. Since the statement from Petty's estate, the video ...

The FBI has opened a probe into the recent death of an American woman vacationing in Mexico, which is also being investigated by Mexican authorities as a femicide. Shanquella Robinson, 25, of Charlotte, North Carolina, went to San Jose del Cabo, a resort city on the southern tip of Mexico's Baja California peninsula, with six friends on Oct. 28. They stayed at a rental villa in Fundadores, an exclusive gated community with vacation homes and a private beach club, Robinson's parents told Charlotte ABC affiliate WSOC-TV in a recent interview. The next day, Robinson's parents got a frantic telephone call from their daughter's friends saying she had died. "They said she wasn't feeling well, that it was alcohol poisoning," Robinson's mother, Sallamondra Robinson, told WSOC-TV. The Mexic...

HALIFAX, Nova Scotia -- Canada’s defense minister said Friday Ukraine’s military is winning the war and Russian President Vladimir Putin has only united NATO and renewed its purpose. Defense Minister Anita Anand made the remarks at the start of the annual Halifax International Security Forum which attracts defense and security officials from Western democracies. “The spirit and determination of the Ukrainian people and President (Volodymyr) Zelenskyy continue to inspire us all. Ukraine’s armed forces are driven, disciplined, and better-trained - and they are winning,” Anand said. Russia is facing mounting setbacks in nearly nine months of fighting. Moscow recently pulled troops out of the key city of Kherson in southern Ukraine. But Russia’s attacks on Ukraine’s energy and power f...