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Brazil's Bolsonaro to attend Americas Summit after doubts

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  BRASILIA, Brazil -- Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro has decided to attend the Summit of the Americas in Los Angeles next month and plans to meet with U.S. President Joe Biden , close allies of the South American leader said late Wednesday. Three of Bolsonaro's Cabinet ministers confirmed Bolsonaro's decision to The Associated Press, following weeks during which his attendance remained a question, with some media reporting he had ruled it out. The Brazilian officials, who spoke on condition of anonymity because they weren't authorized to speak publicly, said the bilateral meeting with Biden has been confirmed. The press office of the U.S. Embassy in Brasilia declined to comment. A bilateral meeting in Los Angeles would be a first for the U.S. and Brazilian leaders. The summit, which the United States is hosting for the first time since the inaugural event in 1994, has risked collapsing over concerns about the guest list, with several leaders in the region threatening no...

China wants 10 Pacific nations to endorse sweeping agreement

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WELLINGTON, New Zealand -- China wants 10 small Pacific nations to endorse a sweeping agreement covering everything from security to fisheries in what one leader warns is a “game-changing” bid by Beijing to wrest control of the region. A draft of the agreement obtained by The Associated Press shows that China wants to train Pacific police officers, team up on “traditional and non-traditional security" and expand law enforcement cooperation. China also wants to jointly develop a marine plan for fisheries — which would include the Pacific's lucrative tuna catch — increase cooperation on running the region's internet networks, and set up cultural Confucius Institutes and classrooms. China also mentions the possibility of setting up a free trade area with the Pacific nations. China’s move comes as Foreign Minister Wang Yi and a 20-person delegation begin a visit to the region this week. In Washington, U.S. State Department spokesman Ned Price expressed concern Wednesday abou...

Ukraine: 200 bodies found in basement in Mariupol's ruins

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KYIV, Ukraine -- Workers digging through the rubble of an apartment building in Mariupol found 200 bodies in the basement, Ukrainian authorities said Tuesday, as more horrors come to light in the ruined city that has seen some of the worst suffering of the 3-month-old war. The bodies were decomposing and the stench hung over the neighborhood, said Petro Andryushchenko, an adviser to the mayor. He did not say when they were discovered, but the sheer number of victims makes it one of the deadliest known attacks of the war. Heavy fighting, meanwhile, was reported in the Donbas, the eastern industrial heartland that Moscow’s forces are intent on seizing. Russian troops took over an industrial town that hosts a thermal power station, and intensified efforts to encircle and capture Sievierodonetsk and other cities. Twelve people were killed by Russian shelling in the Donetsk region of the Donbas, according to the regional governor. And the governor of the Luhansk region of the Donbas said t...

Iran building collapse kills 11 as mayor and others detained

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TEHRAN, Iran -- Rescuers dug through debris Tuesday of a building collapse in southwestern Iran that killed at least 11 people, fearful that many more could still be trapped beneath the rubble as authorities arrested the city's mayor in a widening probe of the disaster. The collapse Monday of an under-construction 10-story tower at the Metropol Building exposed its cement blocks and steel beams while also underscoring an ongoing crisis in Iranian construction projects that has seen other disasters in this earthquake-prone nation. Video from the initial collapse Monday showed thick dust rise over Abadan, a crucial oil-producing city in Khuzestan province, near Iran's border with Iraq. The Metropol Building included two towers, one already built and the other under construction, though its bottom commercial floors had finished and already had tenants. On Tuesday, an emergency official interviewed on state television suggested that some 50 people may have been inside of the build...