Politics

TOKYO (AP) — Japan and South Korea almost simultaneously dropped their export claims against each other on Thursday in the latest sign of improving ties.

NEW DELHI (AP) — An Indian court found opposition leader Rahul Gandhi guilty of defamation Thursday over his remarks about Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s surname and sentenced him to two years in prison.

WASHINGTON (AP) — In his U.S. Capitol office, Rep. Jason Crow keeps several war mementos. Sitting on a shelf are his military identification tags, the tailfins of a spent mortar and a piece of shrapnel stopped by his body armor.

CANBERRA, Australia (AP) — Australians expect to vote this year in a referendum that would enshrine in the nation’s constitution a mechanism for Indigenous people to advise Parliament on policies that effect their lives known as the Voice.

BANGKOK (AP) — The United States denied Chinese claims Thursday that its military had driven away an American guided-missile destroyer from operating around disputed islands in the South China Sea as tensions rise in the region between the two powers

COPENHAGEN, Denmark (AP) — Denmark’s Queen Margrethe II, whose half-century reign makes her Europe’s longest-serving monarch, is expected to resume most of her official duties on her 83rd birthday next month, the palace said Thursday.

OTTAWA — A federal source says the coming budget will detail how the Liberals plan to go after hidden or unexpected consumer fees, following the United States announcing its own crackdown on these charges.

OTTAWA — It remains to be seen whether the president’s Irish eyes will be smiling in Ottawa this week, but Joe Biden and Justin Trudeau will almost certainly have a more pleasant get-together than the last visit by a U.S.

JERUSALEM (AP) — Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu appeared to back down on Wednesday, saying his government has no intention of returning to four abandoned settlements in the occupied West Bank under a law that was repealed by parliament this week.

UNITED NATIONS (AP) — The African Union appealed for nearly $90 million Wednesday for its peacekeeping force in Somalia, which is providing support to its military forces battling al-Shabab extremists.