World News TheFOXposts

Local media in the Maldives say opposition candidate Mohamed Muiz has won the presidential runoff MALE, Maldives -- Opposition candidate Mohamed Muiz won the Maldives presidential runoff on Saturday, securing more than 53% of the vote, local media reported. The election has turned into a virtual referendum on which regional power — India or China — will have the biggest influence in the Indian Ocean archipelago nation. Mihaaru News reported that incumbent President Ibrahim Mohamed Solih had received 46% of the vote and that Muiz had won by more than 18,000 votes. Official results were expected Sunday. “With today’s result we have got the opportunity to build the country's future. The strength to ensure the freedom of Maldives,” Muiz said in a statement after his victory. “It’s time we put our differences aside and come together. We need to be a peaceful society.” Muiz also requested that Solih transfer former president Abdulla Yameen to house arrest from prison. It was a surpr...

Pope Francis has presided over a ceremony to create 21 new cardinals VATICAN CITY -- Pope Francis create d 21 new cardinals at a ritual-filled ceremony Saturday, including key figures at the Vatican and in the field who will help enact his reforms and cement his legacy as he enters a crucial new phase in running the Catholic Church. On a crisp sunny morning filled with cheers from St. Pet er's Square, Francis further expanded his i NFL uence on the College of Cardinals who will help him govern and one day elect his successor: With Saturday's additions, nearly three-quarters of the voting-age “princes of the church ” owe their red hats to the Argentine Jesuit. In his instructions to the new cardinals at the start of the service, Francis said their variety and geographic diversity would serve the church like musicians in an orchestra, where sometimes they play solos, sometimes as an ensemble. “Diversity is necessary; it is indispensable. However, each sound must contribute to t...

NATO is reinforcing its troop presence in Kosovo in response to a weekend shootout that left four people dead PRISTINA, Kosovo -- NATO announced Friday that it is beefing up its troop presence in Kosovo after four people were killed in a weekend shootout and as the U.S. expressed concern about a buildup of Serbian force s along the border of its former territory. Kosovo's prime minister welcomed NATO's decision, saying that Sunday's attack, involving around 30 gunmen, is a new sign that Serbia wants to destabilize its former southern province with the help of ally Russia. “These people want to turn back time," Prime Minister Albin Kurti told The Associated Press. "They are in search of a time machine. They want to turn the clock back by 30 years. But that is not going to happen.” NATO launched a bombing campaign on Serb positions to halt a crackdown on separatist ethnic Albanians in Kosovo and end their 1998-99 war. The war left around 10,000 people dead, most...

Over 93,000 Armenians have now fled Nagorno-Karabakh, 75% of the disputed enclave's entire population. LONDON -- Over 93,000 ethnic Armenian refugees have fled Nagorno-Karabakh as of Friday, local authorities said, meaning 75% of the disputed enclave's entire population has now left in less than a week. Tens of thousands of ethnic Armenians have been streaming out of Nagorno-Karabakh following Azerbaijan's successful Military operation last week that restored its control over the breakaway region. It's feared the whole population will likely leave in the coming days, in what Armenia has condemned as "ethnic cleansing." Families packed into cars and trucks, with whatever belongings they can carry, have been arriving in Armenia after Azerbaijan opened the only road out of the enclave on Sunday. Those fleeing have said they are unwilling to live under Azerbaijan's rule, fearing they will face persecution. Ethnic Armenians fleeing Nagorno-Karabakh walk on...

The world of tequila is one of many male-dominated industries, but Melly Bajaras has built her own business from the ground up – all while employing other women. The world of tequila is one of many male-dominated industries, but one female entrepreneur has managed to build her own tequila Business from the ground up – all while employing other women. Melly Barajas is the master distiller behind the aptly named “Leyenda de Mexico” (Legend of Mexico) tequila. Of the nearly 140 tequila distilleries in Mexico, hers is the only one that’s led and operated solely by women. Melly Barajas walks through a field of blue agave plants in the Los Altos region of Jalisco, Mexico. ABC News It’s located near the town of Valle de Guadalupe in the state of Jalisco, Mexico, a region famous for the distilled alcoholic beverage made from fermenting the sugars of the blue agave plant. “All this adventure started because of my love for my dad,” Barajas told ABC News. “I was talking to my dad one afternoon,...

Friday marks six months since Wall Street Journal reporter Evan Gershkovich was arrested and detained by Russian authorities on espionage charges. Friday marks six months since Wall Street Journal reporter Evan Gershkovich was arrested and detained by Russian authorities on espionage charges, allegations that Gershkovich, the WSJ, the U.S. government and dozens of international news organizations have vehemently denied. Gershkovich remains behind bars in Moscow’s notorious Lefortovo prison . In March, Gershkovich, who was an accredited correspondent in Russia, was on a reporting trip in the city of Yekaterinburg, when he was arrested by the country’s powerful FSB domestic intelligence service. The U.S. government has declared Gershkovich wrongfully detained and most experts believe Russia has seized him as a bargaining chip to use as leverage with the United States, similar to other Americans held hostage by the Kremlin, such as the WNBA star Brittney Griner and former Marine Paul W...

A former neonatal nurse who was sentenced to life in prison for the murder of seven babies in her care and trying to kill six others at a U.K. hospital will face a retrial on a charge of attempting to murder a newborn baby girl LONDON -- A former neonatal nurse who was sentenced to life in prison for the murder of seven babies in her care and trying to kill six others at a U.K. hospital will face a retrial on a charge of attempting to murder a newborn baby girl, prosecutors said Monday. Lucy Letby, 33, was sentenced last month to life behind bars with no chance of release after a jury convicted her of murder ing seven babies in the neonatal unit at the Countess of Chester Hospital in northwest England between 2015 and 2016. She was also convicted of trying to murder six other infants. However, the jury of seven women and four men in her 10-month trial was not able to reach verdicts on six counts of attempted murder in relation to five other newborns. Letby had faced two counts o...

After Azerbaijan’s military offensive regained full control of the breakaway Nagorno-Karabakh region, another dispute is looming on the horizon with Armenia: the territory of Nakhchivan TALLINN, Estonia -- After Azerbaijan's Military offensive regained full control of the breakaway Nagorno-Karabakh region, another dispute is looming on the horizon with Armenia: the territory of Nakhchivan. Like Nagorno-Karabakh, where the Armenian population felt cut off from the country of Armenia, Nakhchivan is territorially separated from the rest of Azerbaijan. It accounts for about 6% of Azerbaijan's territory, with a swath of Armenia about 40 kilometers (25 miles) wide between the exclave and Azerbaijan. It also borders Azerbaijan's close ally Turkey and Iran. It's population is about 460,000 people, overwhelmingly Azeris but also some ethnic Russians. The two territories share several parallels but also differences. During Soviet times, Nakhchivan was connected with Azerbaija...

North Korean leader Kim Jong Un has called for an exponential increase in production of nuclear weapons and for his country to play a larger role in a coalition of nations confronting the United States in what he described as a “new Cold War.” SEOUL, South Korea -- North Korean leader Kim Jong Un called for an exponential increase in production of nuclear weapons and for his country to play a larger role in a coalition of nations confronting the United States in a “new Cold War,” state media said Thursday. The Korean Central News Agency said Kim made the comments during a two-day session of the country's rubber-stamp parliament which amended the constitution to include his policy of expanding the country's nuclear weapons program. The Supreme People’s Assembly's session on Tuesday and Wednesday came after Kim traveled to Russia's Far East this month to meet with Russian President Vladimir Putin and visit military and technology sites. The trip sparked Western concern...

Israeli police say that six people have been killed in shootings in northern Israel, including five in a single mass shooting JERUSALEM -- Five family members were killed in a mass shooting Wednesday in an Arab town in northern Israel, police and advocates said, the latest victims of a recent surge of gun violence within the country's Arab communities. Another Arab citizen of Israel was killed in a separate shooting earlier Wednesday. Israeli police said that three men and two women were shot and killed at a house in the northern Bedouin town of Basmat Tab’un. They said they were treating the incident as criminal and hunting down suspected assailants. Israeli medics said that a sixth man was shot and wounded in the rampage. The Abraham Initiatives, a Jewish-Arab advocacy and monitoring group in Israel, identified the victims as an Arab couple and their three children. The police declined to provide further details on the shooting or the victims due to the ongoing investigation...

About 50,000 ethnic Armenians have now fled the disputed enclave of Nagorno-Karabakh, according to local officials. LONDON -- About 50,000 ethnic Armenians have now fled the disputed enclave of Nagorno-Karabakh, according to local officials, as the exodus triggered by Azerbaijan's takeover of the region appeared to accelerate , with fears its entire population may leave. More than a third of the population have now left, with nearly 12,000 people leaving overnight, and thousands more continuing to arrive into Armenia on Wednesday morning, in what Armenia's government has called the "ethnic cleansing" of the enclave . Azerbaijan on Wednesday announced it had detained the former leader of enclave's unrecognized Armenian government as he sought to cross into Armenia. Ruben Vardanyan, a billionaire businessman who made his fortune in Russia, moved to Nagorno-Karabakh in 2022 and served as the head of its government for several months before stepping down earlier t...