- UK's battered Tory party elects Badenoch as new leader
- Deadly Israeli strikes on 'apocalyptic' north Gaza
- Olympic medallist Koki Ikeda vows to clear name after doping suspension
- Cavendish coy on future as Girmay wins in Japan
- Spain braces for more flood deaths, steps up aid
- Japan urges 200,000 people to evacuate due to heavy rain
- Martin closes on MotoGP world title as Bagnaia crashes out
- UK's battered Tory party to reveal new leader
- Gill, Pant fight back for India in third Test against NZ
- UN nature summit agrees on body for Indigenous representation
- Bagnaia clinches pole for Malaysian MotoGP ahead of Martin
- Tatum propels Celtics over Hornets, Lakers hold off Raptors
- War decimates harvest in famine-threatened Sudan
- US-Israeli settlers hope to see a second Trump term
- 'Nobody cares about us': US election doubts in West Bank
- O'Brien bags two Breeders' Cup wins to match Lukas record for a trainer
- Man Utd said 'it was now or never', new manager Amorim says
- Trump, Harris clash over rhetoric as they battle for swing state votes
- Judge tosses New York plastic pollution lawsuit against PepsiCo
- Nuts! NY authorities euthanize Instagram squirrel star
- MLB star pitcher Snell opts out of Giants contract
- With stones and slings, supporters of Bolivia's Morales gird for battle
- Nvidia to join Dow Jones Industrial Average, replacing Intel
- Sacked Ten Hag wishes 'trophies and glory' for Man Utd
- Wasteful Leverkusen held by Stuttgart
- Trump says RFK Jr will have 'big role' in health care if he wins
- Gauff backs WTA Finals in Saudi Arabia despite 'reservations'
- Spain flood deaths top 200, hopes fade for missing
- Famed Indian designer Rohit Bal dies: fashion group
- Fake US election video signals sprawling Russian disinformation ops
- Spencer to end long wait for first England start against New Zealand
- Russian skater Valieva vows to compete again after doping ban
- Erdogan sues opposition chief, Istanbul mayor for slander
- Piastri takes Brazil sprint pole ahead of Norris
- Morales supporters storm Bolivia military barracks, take hostages
- Dodgers celebrate World Series win with long-awaited parade
- Tuipulotu says 'heart and soul' behind rise to Scotland rugby captaincy
- Amber alert as US figure skater leads French Grand Prix
- Black man convicted by all-white jury to be executed in South Carolina
- Last-ditch effort to solve funding deadlock at nature-saving summit
- France international Jegou resumes rugby after rape allegations
- Former Man Utd star Yorke named coach of Trinidad and Tobago
- Botswana's new president sworn in after historic election upset
- Death toll rises to 12 in Serbia train station roof collapse: minister
- US announces $425 mn in new Ukraine security aid
- Portraits of slain leaders watch out on Hezbollah's battered Beirut bastion
- Biden bites baby: a last week of US election oddities
- Emery says Villa are underdogs against Spurs
- Verstappen hit with five-place grid penalty at Brazilian Grand Prix
- South Carolina to execute Black man for shooting store clerk
Blinken says West preparing if Russia blocks Bosnia mission
Western powers are looking at alternatives to ensure an international force in Bosnia if Russia blocks renewal of a UN-backed peacekeeping mission, Secretary of State Antony Blinken said Tuesday.
Russia, an ally of the Bosnian Serbs and a veto-wielding Security Council member, has been critical of UN efforts in the Balkan country but reluctantly agreed in November to a one-year extension of the UN mandate for the European Union-led force.
Since then, the West's relations have deteriorated sharply with Russia which invaded Ukraine in February, and Bosnian Serb leaders have stepped up separatist language.
"Some kind of international force with an adequate mandate is essential to trying to maintain a safe and secure environment in Bosnia Herzegovina," Blinken told the Senate Foreign Relations Committee in response to a question.
"We are engaged with a variety of stakeholders in this on contingency planning," he said.
If the mandate is not renewed in November, "we're trying to make sure we have something to back this up," Blinken said.
Russia's embassy in Sarajevo earlier in April warned that the West's attitude could cause "destabilization" in Bosnia, raising fears of a spillover from the Ukraine conflict.
Russia's statement came after the top international envoy to Bosnia, Christian Schmidt -- who is backed by the West but not recognized by Moscow -- suspended a controversial law that would have enabled the country's Serbs to take over state-owned property on their territory.
Such a move would further weaken the central government, which has been run through a complicated power-sharing arrangement under the US-brokered 1995 Dayton Accords that ended the country's bloody war.
Bosnian Serbs have stepped up threats to secede from Bosnia, which their leader Milorad Dodik calls an "impossible country."
A.P.Maia--PC