NIAMEY, Niger (AP) — The general who led a coup in Niger took to state television Friday to ask for support for the takeover, two days after members of the military detained the democratically elected president and set off political chaos that could set back the nation's fight against jihadists and increase Russia’s influence in West Africa. As Gen. Abdourahmane Tchiani spoke, Niger state television identified him as the leader of the National Council for the Safeguarding of the Country, the group of soldiers who said they staged the coup.

MANILA, Philippines (AP) — At least 21 people died and 40 others were rescued after a Philippine passenger boat overturned on Thursday when it was lashed by strong winds in Laguna Lake southeast of Manila, police said. Police said rescue operations were continuing, but did not immediately provide figures for the total number of people on board the MBCA Princess Aya that capsized in Rizal province.

KYIV, Ukraine (AP) — Fierce fighting raged Thursday in southeastern Ukraine, where a Western official said Kyiv has launched a major push and Russian President Vladimir Putin said “hostilities have intensified significantly.”

Sometime this summer, if President Vladimir Putin can be believed, Russia moved some of its short-range nuclear weapons into Belarus, closer to Ukraine and onto NATO's doorstep. The declared deployment of the Russian weapons on the territory of its neighbor and loyal ally marks a new stage in the Kremlin’s nuclear saber-rattling over its invasion of Ukraine and another bid to discourage the West from increasing military support to Kyiv.

NIAMEY, Niger (AP) — Mutinous soldiers claimed to have overthrown Niger's democratically elected president, announcing on state television late Wednesday that they have put an end to the government over the African country's deteriorating security. The soldiers said all institutions had been suspended and security forces were managing the situation. They urged external partners not to interfere.

MANILA, Philippines (AP) — Typhoon Doksuri blew ashore in a cluster of islands and lashed northern Philippine provinces with ferocious wind and rain Wednesday, leaving at least two people dead and displacing thousands of others as it blew roofs off rural houses, flooded low-lying villages and toppled trees, officials said.

IXTENCO, Mexico (AP) — On the slopes of the Malinche volcano, Juan Vargas starts the dawn routine he’s had since childhood, carefully checking stalks of colorful native corn. For years, Vargas worried that these heirloom varieties — running from deep red to pale pink, from golden yellow to dark blue — passed down from his parents and grandparents would disappear. White corn long ago came to dominate the market and became the foundation of Mexicans’ diet.

PERTH, Australia (AP) — Volunteers worked frantically on a second day Wednesday to save dozens of pilot whales that have stranded themselves on a beach in Western Australia, but more than 50 have already died. Nearly 100 long-finned pilot whales, stranded themselves Tuesday on the beach by the city of Albany, on the southern tip of Western Australia, south of Perth.

SEOUL, South Korea (AP) — The truce that stopped the bloodshed in the Korean War turns 70 years old on Thursday and the two Koreas are marking the anniversary in starkly different ways, underscoring their deepening nuclear tensions. North Korea has invited delegations from China and Russia as it prepares to stage huge celebrations with thousands of citizens who have rehearsed for months to commemorate the armistice it sees as a victory in the “Grand Fatherland Liberation War.”

RHODES, Greece (AP) — Major fires raging in parts of Greece and in other Mediterranean countries advanced Wednesday, causing additional deaths, destroying homes and threatening nature reserves during a third successive wave of extreme temperatures.

DNIPRO, Ukraine (AP) — The horrors of war arrive through the night at a hospital in eastern Ukraine, a procession of stretchers bearing limp bodies whisked from the front line. The soldiers come with bandaged limbs soaked in blood, faces blackened with shrapnel fragments and stunned eyes fixed on the ceiling, frozen in shock. Lately, they’ve been coming with ever-greater frequency.

WASHINGTON (AP) — A former U.S. Marine who was released from Russia in a prisoner swap last year has been injured while fighting in Ukraine, the State Department said Tuesday. Trevor Reed was wounded several weeks ago, according to a person familiar with the situation who was not authorized to discuss the matter by name and spoke to The Associated Press on condition of anonymity. He has been taken to Germany for medical care, said State Department spokesman Vedant Patel.

ISLAMABAD (AP) — The Taliban announced Tuesday that all beauty salons in Afghanistan must now close as a one-month deadline ended, despite rare public opposition to the edict. Sadiq Akif Mahjer, spokesman for the Taliban-run Virtue and Vice Ministry, did not say whether it would use force against salons that do not comply.

BEIJING (AP) — China removed its sometimes outspoken foreign minister on Tuesday and replaced him with his predecessor at an unusually scheduled meeting, a move that has fueled rumors about what might be going on with the nation's Communist Party elite. The step to remove Qin Gang after less than a year and replace him with Wang Yi doesn’t appear to signal any significant change in the hard-edged foreign policy adopted in recent years by leader Xi Jinping, who oversees the world's second-largest economy — and a nation that is the primary U.S. rival for international influence.

WASHINGTON (AP) — A Russian fighter jet flew within a few meters of a U.S. drone over Syria and fired flares at it, striking the American aircraft and damaging it, the U.S. military said Tuesday, the latest in a string of aggressive intercepts by Russia in the region.

RHODES, Greece (AP) — A firefighting plane crashed in southern Greece on Tuesday as authorities battled fires across the country amid a return of heat wave temperatures. The crash occurred on the island of Evia and was aired in a state television broadcast that showed the low-flying aircraft disappearing into a canyon before a fireball was seen moments later. There was no immediate information about the plane's crew.

ALGIERS, Algeria (AP) — Wildfires raging across Algeria have killed 25 people, including 10 soldiers trying to get the flames under control in the face of high winds and scorching summer temperatures, government ministries said Monday. At least 1,500 people were evacuated, the Interior Ministry said, without providing details.

SEOUL, South Korea (AP) — North Korea fired two short-range ballistic missiles into its eastern sea, South Korea’s military said Tuesday, adding to a recent streak in weapons testing that is apparently in protest of the U.S. sending major naval assets to South Korea in a show of force.

SEOUL, South Korea (AP) — The American-led U.N. Command said Monday it has started a conversation with North Korea about a U.S. soldier who ran into the North last week across one of the world's most heavily fortified borders. Andrew Harrison, a British lieutenant general who is the deputy commander at the U.N. Command, refused to say when the conversation started, how many exchanges have taken place and whether the North Koreans responded constructively, citing the sensitivity of the discussions.

IWAKI, Japan (AP) — Beach season has started across Japan, which means seafood for holidaymakers and good times for business owners. But in Fukushima, that may end soon. Within weeks, the tsunami-hit Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant is expected to start releasing treated radioactive wastewater into the sea, a highly contested plan still facing fierce protests in and outside Japan.

KYIV, Ukraine (AP) — Russian authorities accused Ukraine of launching a drone attack on Moscow early Monday that saw one of the aircraft fall near the Defense Ministry’s main headquarters, while the Russian military unleashed new strikes on port infrastructure in southern Ukraine. Moscow Mayor Sergei Sobyanin said there were no casualties when the drones struck two nonresidential buildings in Moscow.

RHODES, Greece (AP) — A weeklong wildfire on the Greek island of Rhodes tore past defenses Monday, forcing more evacuations, as three major fires raged elsewhere in the country fueled by strong winds and successive heat waves. The latest evacuations were ordered in south Rhodes after 19,000 people, mostly tourists, were moved in buses and boats over the weekend out of the path of the fire that reached several coastal areas from nearby mountains.

JERUSALEM (AP) — Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was rushed to the hospital early Sunday for an emergency implantation of a heart pacemaker. A physician at the Sheba Medical Center said later that the procedure went well and Netanyahu felt fine.

NEW DELHI (AP) — Hundreds of rescuers ended a four-day search for scores of people still missing after heavy monsoon rains triggered a massive landslide in a village in western India, an official said Sunday. The rescue teams recovered the bodies of 27 people killed in the Wednesday night landslide that hit the Raigadh district village of Irshalwadi, located nearly 50 miles from Mumbai, the Maharashtra state capital.

ODESA, Ukraine (AP) — Russia struck the Ukrainian Black Sea city of Odesa on Sunday, keeping up a barrage of attacks that have damaged critical port infrastructure in southern Ukraine in the past week. At least one person was killed and 22 others wounded in the early morning attack, officials said.