YEREVAN, Armenia (AP) — Armenia said one of its warplanes was shot down Tuesday by a fighter jet from Azerbaijan’s ally Turkey, killing the pilot, in fighting over the separatist territory of Nagorno-Karabakh. Both Turkey and Azerbaijan denied it.
The move would represent a major escalation in the decades-old conflict between Armenia and Azerbaijan over the region that was reignited on Sunday. It followed numerous calls from around the globe for a cease-fire.
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NEW DELHI (AP) — The worldwide death toll from the coronavirus has eclipsed 1 million, nine months into a crisis that has devastated the global economy, tested world leaders’ resolve, pitted science against politics and forced multitudes to change the way they live, learn and work.
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KYIV, Ukraine (AP) — Authorities in Belarus have detained about 500 people during weekend protests against the country’s authoritarian president, who has claimed a sixth term in office in an election widely seen as rigged.
Belarus’ Interior Ministry said Monday that 150 protesters were detained on Saturday and over 350 more on Sunday, when anti-government protests spanned 22 cities. Daily rallies have rocked Belarus for over seven weeks now, with the largest ones drawing up to 200,000 people, in the biggest challenge yet to President Alexander Lukashenko’s long hard-line reign.
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HARARE, Zimbabwe (AP) — With Zimbabwe’s coronavirus infections on the decline, schools are reopening, along with churches, bars, restaurants, airports and tourist attractions. Strict lockdowns designed to curb the disease are being replaced by a return to relatively normal life.
The threat has eased so much that many people see no need to be cautious. With his face mask stuffed into his pocket, Omega Chibanda said he’s not worried about COVID-19.
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BARCELONA, Spain (AP) — Spain has temporarily prohibited yachting across 100 kilometers (62 miles) of its northwestern coast after orca whales apparently got carried away while playing and damaged several sailboats.
Spain’s transport ministry issued the week-long prohibition for sailboats under 15 meters (49 feet) long starting Tuesday. It said the area covered by the ban meant to protect both boats and maritime mammals and could be extended to “follow the migration routes” of the whales.
Boats can leave port to go into the open sea between the capes of the Prioriño Grande and la Punta de Estaca de Bares, but they must not remain near the coast off the country’s northwestern tip.
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DENVER (AP) — A majority of President Donald Trump’s supporters plan to cast their ballot on Election Day, while about half of Joe Biden’s backers plan to vote by mail, a sign of a growing partisan divide over how best to conduct elections in the United States.
Overall, 39% of registered voters say they will vote by mail, well above the 21% who say they normally do so, according to a new poll from The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research. The rise is skewed toward backers of the former vice president, 53% of whom plan to vote by mail. Fifty-seven percent of Trump’s supporters say they’ll vote in person on Nov. 3.
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BERLIN (AP) — Germany’s defense minister is apologizing for decades of discrimination against gay servicepeople in the military until a change of policy in 2000.
A study commissioned by the defense ministry and being presented Thursday documented “systematic discrimination” in the Bundeswehr — the military of West Germany and since 1990 of reunited Germany — from 1955 until the beginning of the new millennium.
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LE PECQ, France (AP) — France will reward foreign health care-workers and other front-line personnel who distinguished themselves in the fight against COVID-19 by fast-tracking citizenship applications for those who want to become French.
Instructions this week from the Interior Ministry, seen by The Associated Press, ordered regional officials to prioritize naturalization requests from foreigners who “actively participated in the national effort, with devotion and courage” against the epidemic that has killed nearly 31,000 in France.
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LONDON (AP) — Oxford University announced Saturday it was resuming a trial for a coronavirus vaccine it is developing with pharmaceutical company AstraZeneca, a move that comes days after the study was suspended following a reported side-effect in a U.K. patient.
In a statement, the university confirmed the restart across all of its U.K. clinical trial sites after regulators gave the go-ahead following the pause on Sunday.
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BOISE, Idaho (AP) — After flames trapped 14 firefighters in California and they had to use last-resort fire shelters to survive, questions are emerging about how well the emergency devices work and how often crews are forced to use them during wildfires.
“They are for an extreme emergency, never to be considered as an alternative to safe firefighting,” National Interagency Fire Center spokeswoman Carrie Bilbao said Wednesday. “They’re to be used as a last resort if there’s no planned escape out or safety zones become inadequate.”
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