World News - The Morning Sun

Lawyers unfurl a banner, which reads "Marriage freedom for all," before a ruling outside the Fukuoka District Court in Fukuoka, southern Japan Thursday, June 8, 2023. A Japanese court on Thursday ruled that the government’s denial of same-sex marriage is in “unconstitutional state,” a latest court decision in favor of the couples and their supporters seeking equal rights as the only member of Group of Seven with no legal protection for LGBTQ faces growing global attention.(Kyodo News via AP)

Japan's denial of same-sex marriage, other LGTBQ+ protections looks unconstitutional, judge rules

A Japanese court says the lack of legal protections for LGTBQ+ people appears to be unconstitutional in the latest ruling that may push the country toward allowing same-sex marriage. Japan is the … more

By MARI YAMAGUCHI | 6/8/23

Mayon Volcano spews white smoke as seen from Daraga, Albay province, central Philippines on Thursday June 8, 2023. The Philippine Institute of Volcanology and Seismology raised Thursday the status of Mayon Volcano in Albay to Alert Level 3 due to "increased tendency towards a hazardous eruption." (AP Photo/John Michael Magdasoc)

Philippines raises alert level around volcano, villagers told to leave danger zone

Philippine officials have raised the alert level for one of the country’s most active volcanoes after superheated streams of gas, debris and rocks cascaded down its upper slope in a condition they … more

6/8/23

FILE - A view of part of the wreckage of a capsized boat that was washed ashore at a beach near Cutro, southern Italy, on Feb. 27, 2023. Italian media say three members of Italy's border police are being investigated for a suspected role in a shipwreck off the country's southern coast this year that killed more than 90 migrants. Corriere della Sera newspaper said Friday, June 2 investigators cited “significant anomalies” in the border police's log of activity of their patrol boat that had been reported to have searched for the overcrowded migrant vessel, that would break apart after ramming a sandbank close to Cutro. (AP Photo/Paolo Santalucia, File)

EU makes fresh attempt to overcome yearslong crisis over migrants

European Union interior ministers are making a fresh attempt to overcome one of the bloc’s most intractable political problems as they weigh new measures for sharing out responsibility for migrants … more

6/8/23

The playground of the Foster Home for Orphans is seen in Khartoum, Sudan, May 2023. At least 60 infants, toddlers and older children perished over the past six weeks while trapped in horrific conditions in the orphanage in Sudan's capital as fighting raged outside. (AP Photo/Nazim Sirag)

UNICEF says 300 trapped children rescued from a Sudanese orphanage after 71 others died

The UN children's agency says about 300 children have been rescued from an orphanage in Sudan’s capital after being trapped there while fighting raged outside. UNICEF's announcement Thursday came … more

By SAMY MAGDY | 6/8/23

FILE - A vehicle passes by a flag of the Islamic State group in central Rawah, 175 miles (281 kilometers) northwest of Baghdad, Iraq. U.N. investigators are compiling evidence on the development and use of chemical weapons by Islamic State extremists in Iraq after they seized about a third of the country in 2014, and are advancing work on the militant group’s gender-based violence and crimes against children, Sunni and Shiite Muslims, Christians and Yazidis, the head of the investigative team said Wednesday, June 7, 2023. (AP Photo/File)

UN investigators compiling evidence on chemical weapons use by Islamic State extremists in Iraq

U.N. investigators are compiling evidence on the development and use of chemical weapons by Islamic State extremists in Iraq after they seized about a third of the country in 2014. And they are … more

By EDITH M. LEDERER | 6/7/23

FILE - Mexican President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador speaks at the National Palace in Mexico City, Jan. 10, 2023. Mexico’s president described the slayings of five men caught on security camera footage as an apparent “execution” by soldiers, and vowed Wednesday, June 7, 2023, that the perpetrators would face justice. (AP Photo/Fernando Llano, File)

Mexican president: Soldiers apparently executed five men, will face prosecution

Mexico’s president has described the slayings of five men caught on security camera footage as an apparent “execution” by soldiers, and has vowed that the perpetrators would face justice. … more

By CHRISTOPHER SHERMAN | 6/7/23

FILE-- Cardinal Camerlengo Kevin Farrell talks during an interview with The Associated Press in his office in Rome, Tuesday, July 31, 2018. During the period between the end of one pontificate and the election of a new pope the camerlengo, or chamberlain, runs the administration and finances of the Holy See, but under canon law Pope Francis was still pope, fully in charge of running the Vatican and the 1.3-billion-strong Catholic Church, even while unconscious and undergoing surgery Wednesday, June 7, 2023, to repair a hernia in his abdominal wall. (AP Photo/Paolo Santalucia)

What happens to papal power when a pope is unconscious? Nothing

Pope Francis' surgery to repair a hernia in his abdominal wall has raised questions about what happens to papal power when Francis is unconscious or unable to lead the church. The answer is: nothing. … more

By NICOLE WINFIELD | 6/7/23

FILE-- Pope Francis appears on a balcony of the Agostino Gemelli University Polyclinic in Rome, Sunday, July 11, 2021, where he was recovering from intestinal surgery, for the traditional Sunday blessing and Angelus prayer. The Vatican said Francis, 86, would be put under general anesthesia for the procedure Wednesday afternoon, June 07, 2023, and would be hospitalized at Rome's Gemelli hospital for several days. (AP Photo/Alessandra Tarantino, file)

What kind of surgery is Pope Francis having, and why?

The Vatican says Pope Francis has been admitted to a Rome hospital for abdominal surgery after developing a hernia linked to a 2021 operation. Francis is undergoing a laparotomy to open up his … more

By MARIA CHENG | 6/7/23

FILE - Workers are seen in Ninh Binh Power Plant, which is a coal fired power plant to supply electricity, in Ninh Binh Province in Vietnam, on Sept. 19, 2007. The German said Wednesday June 7, 2023 that it is concerned by the recent detention of a prominent environmental campaigner in Vietnam, warning that a recent multi-billion-dollar deal to help the country phase out coal use requires the involvement of civil society activists. (AP Photo/Chitose Suzuki, File)

Germany alarmed by detention of Vietnam climate activist, warns on coal phase-out pact with Hanoi

The German government says it is concerned by the recent detention of a prominent environmental campaigner in Vietnam. It warned that a recent multi-billion-dollar deal to help the country phase out … more

By FRANK JORDANS | 6/7/23

Bodhi Mani Risby-Jones from Queensland, Australia, left, is escorted by a prosecutor upon arrival at the local immigration office in Meulaboh, Aceh, Indonesia on Wednesday, June 7, 2023. The Australian surfer who was jailed for attacking several people while drunk and naked in Indonesia's deeply conservative Muslim province of Aceh will be deported back to his country after he agreed to apologize and pay compensation, officials said Wednesday. (AP Photo/Sultan Ikbal Abiyyu)

Indonesia to deport Australian surfer jailed for drunken rampage in conservative province

An Australia surfer who was jailed for attacking several people while drunk and naked in Indonesia’s deeply conservative Muslim province of Aceh will be deported to his country after he agreed to … more

6/7/23

FILE - Felicien Kabuga's defense lawyer Emmanuel Altit, left, speaks with prosecutor Rupert Elderkin in court at the UN International Residual Mechanism for Criminal Tribunals (IRMCT) in The Hague, Thursday, Sept. 29 2022. United Nations judges have on Wednesday, June 7, 2023 declared Kabuga, an elderly Rwandan genocide suspect, unfit to continue to stand trial because he has dementia and will establish a procedure to continue to hear evidence without the possibility of convicting him. (Koen van Weel/Pool Photo via AP, file)

UN judges declare elderly Rwandan genocide suspect unfit to stand trial due to dementia

United Nations judges have declared an elderly Rwandan genocide suspect unfit to continue to stand trial because he has dementia. They say they will establish a procedure to continue to hear evidence … more

By MIKE CORDER | 6/7/23

In this GOES-16 GeoColor satellite image taken Monday, June 5, 2023 at 7 p.m. EDT and provided by CIRA/NOAA, smoke from wildfires burning in Quebec, Canada, top center, drifts southward. (CIRA/NOAA via AP)

Quebec orders more evacuations as dozens of wildfires in Canada remain out of control

Northern Quebec’s largest town was being evacuated as authorities turned their attention to communities in the northern and northwestern parts of the province where firefighters worked to beat back … more

6/7/23

FILE - The male lion named "Loonkiito", one of Kenya's oldest wild lions who was killed by herders in May 2023, is seen in Amboseli National Park, in southern Kenya on Feb. 20, 2023. Recent lion killings highlight the growing human-wildlife conflict in parts of east Africa that conservationists say has been exacerbated by a yearslong drought. (Philip J. Briggs/Lion Guardians via AP, File)

In Kenya, lions are speared to death as human-wildlife conflict worsens amid drought

Parkeru Ntereka lost almost half of his goat herd to hungry lions that wandered into his pen located near Kenya’s iconic Amboseli national park. The 56-year-old’s loss made headlines in the east … more

By EVELYNE MUSAMBI and DESMOND TIRO | 6/7/23

People carry an injured person away from a home that collapsed due to an earthquake in Jeremie, Haiti, Tuesday, June 6, 2023. (AP Photo/Ralph Simon)

4.9 magnitude quake strikes southern Haiti; 3 dead, several injured

Authorities in Haiti say that three people have been killed when a 4.9 magnitude earthquake struck the south of the country. Several other people have been injured. The U.S. Geological Survey said … more

By EVENS SANON and DÁNICA COTO | 6/6/23

This image made from video provided by Ukraine's Presidential Office shows the damaged Kakhovka dam near Kherson, Ukraine, Tuesday, June 6, 2023. Ukraine on Tuesday accused Russian forces of blowing up a major dam and hydroelectric power station in a part of southern Ukraine that Russia controls, sending water gushing from the breached facility and risking massive flooding. (Ukraine's Presidential Office via AP)

Ukrainian dam breach: What is happening and what's at stake

The dramatic rupture of the dam that upheld Ukraine’s largest reservoir released a torrent of water, raising fears of widespread damage and flooding in areas where tens of thousands of people live. … more

By JAMEY KEATEN | 6/6/23

Children returning from school walk between container apartments at the Ukraine village, which has been constructed for Ukrainian families fleeing the war, in Linkeroever, Belgium, Friday, March 17, 2023. Despite the warm welcome for millions of Ukraine refugees on European Union soil since the Russian invasion, EU officials said Tuesday, June 6, 2023 that there are some fears of wavering support caused by a bad economy hitting poor families especially and the creeping influence of Russian propaganda. (AP Photo/Virginia Mayo)

EU warns of 'solidarity fatigue' despite warm welcome for millions of Ukraine refugees

The EU is warning of “solidarity fatigue” toward Ukrainian refugees as the bloc's economy slows, affecting poor families in particular. EU officials say the warm welcome for millions of … more

By RAF CASERT | 6/6/23

A view of the Agostino Gemelli hospital in Rome,Tuesday, June 6, 2023. Pope Francis has made a quick trip to the hospital for tests Tuesday. The visit comes more than two months after he was hospitalized with an acute case of bronchitis. (AP Photo/Andrew Medichini)

Pope briefly in hospital for scheduled tests two months after bronchitis, returns to Vatican

Pope Francis has made a quick trip to the hospital for tests. The visit comes more than two months after he was hospitalized with an acute case of bronchitis. The ANSA news agency said Francis went … more

By PAOLO SANTALUCIA and NICOLE WINFIELD | 6/6/23

Women look at Fattah missile in a ceremony in Tehran, Iran, Tuesday, June 6, 2023. Iran is claiming that it's created a hypersonic missile capable of traveling at 15 times the speed of sound. The announcement comes as tensions are high with the United States over Tehran's nuclear program. (Hossein Zohrevand/Tasnim News Agency via AP)

Iran unveils what it calls a hypersonic missile able to beat air defenses amid tensions with US

Iran is claiming that it's created a hypersonic missile capable of traveling at 15 times the speed of sound. The announcement comes as tensions are high with the United States over Tehran's nuclear … more

By JON GAMBRELL | 6/6/23

FILE - Demonstrators sing a theme song written by protestors "Glory to Hong Kong" at the Times Square shopping mall in Hong Kong, Sept. 12, 2019. Hong Kong’s government said Tuesday, June 6, 2023, it is seeking a court order to prohibit people from broadcasting or distributing the popular protest song “Glory to Hong Kong” after it was mistakenly played as the city’s anthem at several international sporting events in the past year.(AP Photo/Vincent Yu, File)

Hong Kong government seeks court injunction to ban 'Glory to Hong Kong' protest song

Hong Kong’s government says it's seeking a court order to prohibit people from broadcasting or disseminating the protest song “Glory to Hong Kong” after it was mistakenly played as the city’s … more

6/6/23

A vendor tights a flowers deco in between of the planets shaped of China and American flags on display at a store during a Spring Carnival in Beijing on May 13, 2023. Senior U.S. and Chinese diplomats held "candid and productive" talks in Beijing and agreed to keep open lines of communication to avoid tensions from spiraling into conflict, officials said Tuesday, June 6, 2023. (AP Photo/Andy Wong)

Senior US, Chinese diplomats hold 'candid' talks to avoid escalation of tensions

Senior U.S. and Chinese diplomats have held “candid and productive” talks in Beijing and agreed to keep open lines of communication to avoid tensions from spiraling into conflict. Daniel … more

6/6/23