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ANKARA, Turkey -- Turkish officials say a deal on a U.N. plan to unblock the exports of Ukrainian grain amid the war and to allow Russia to export grain and fertilizers will be signed Friday in Istanbul. Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan's office said that he, U.N. Secretary General Antonio Guterres and officials from Russia and Ukraine will oversee the signing ceremony. It did not provide further details. “The grain export agreement, critically important for global food security, will be signed in Istanbul tomorrow under the auspices of President Erdoğan and U.N. Secretary General Mr. Guterres together with Ukrainian and Russian delegations,” Erdogan spokesman Ibrahim Kalin said in a tweet. Guterres has been working on a plan that would enable Ukraine to export millions of t...

MEXICO CITY -- One of Nicaragua’s leading national newspapers announced Thursday on its website that its staff had been forced to flee the country and would continue working from outside Nicaragua. Nicaraguan authorities took control of La Prensa’s offices in August and arrested two of its employees earlier this month. Those arrests came after La Prensa reported on the expulsion nuns from the Missionaries of Charity established by Mother Teresa. The government of President Daniel Ortega has moved repeatedly against independent press outlets, as well as shutting down more than 1,000 civil society organizations. “The persecution by the Daniel Ortega regime intensified this month against the personnel of La Prensa newspaper and forced the outlet’s personnel flee the country,” the pap...

ROME -- Italy is headed for an early election after its president accepted Premier Mario Draghi's resignation Thursday and decided there was no possibility for cobbling together another government following the rapid collapse of the ruling coalition. The demise of Draghi’s coalition in the eurozone’s third-largest economy and the uncertainty of what Italian voters will decide at the polls have dealt a destabilizing blow to the country and Europe amid rising inflation and Russia’s war in Ukraine. Dissolving Parliament "is always the last choice to make, especially if, as in this moment, there are important tasks to carry to completion,'' President Sergio Mattarella said in a brief speech at the presidential Quirinal Palace, where Draghi had tendered his resignation hours earlier. M...

President Joe Biden sought to reassure the nation Thursday that he's OK and working hard as he grapples with a coronavirus case the White House said was basically inevitable. "Hey, folks, I guess you heard. This morning I tested positive for COVID," a maskless, business-suited president said in a video posted on social media. "I've been double vaccinated, double boosted, symptoms are mild, and I really appreciate your inquiries and concerns." He said he was "doing well, getting a lot of work done. ... In the meantime, keep the faith. It's going to be OK." The news that the 79-year-old president had tested positive for a potentially fatal illness might have been devastating less than two years ago. But fully vaccinated, experiencing just a runny nose, a dry cough ...