WASHINGTON (AP) — Houthi rebels in Yemen have shot down seven U.S. Reaper drones in less than six weeks, a loss of aircraft worth more than $200 million in what is becoming the most dramatic cost to the Pentagon of the military campaign against the Iran-backed terrorist group.

PLATEAU, Nigeria (BP) — More than 240 Christians were massacred in attacks on villages in Plateau and Benue states during Lent and Easter, some as they worshiped, news agencies and religious liberty advocates reported.

SRINAGAR, India (AP) — India on Wednesday closed a border crossing, suspended a water-sharing treaty, and downgraded diplomatic ties with rival Pakistan, blaming its neighbor for an attack by militants the previous day that left 26 people dead in the Indian-held portion of Kashmir.

ISTANBUL (AP) — An earthquake with a preliminary magnitude of 6.2 shook Istanbul and other areas of Turkey on Wednesday, prompting widespread panic and scores of injuries in the city of 16 million people, though there were no immediate reports of serious damage.

KYIV, Ukraine (AP) — A planned meeting Wednesday between top U.S., British, French, and Ukrainian diplomats to push forward a peace deal between Russia and Ukraine was scrapped at the last minute, with U.S. Vice President JD Vance saying negotiations are reaching a moment of truth.

HADERA, Israel (AP) — Israeli police on Tuesday were scouring the coast for a swimmer they fear may have been attacked by a shark in an area that has long seen close encounters between marine predators and beachgoers who sometimes seek them out.

SRINAGAR, India (AP) — Gunmen shot and killed at least 26 tourists on Tuesday at a resort in Indian-controlled Kashmir, police said in what appeared to be a major shift in a regional conflict in which tourists have largely been spared.

KYIV, Ukraine (AP) — Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy accused Russia on Sunday of creating a false appearance of honoring an Easter ceasefire, saying Moscow continued to launch attacks after Russian President Vladimir Putin announced a unilateral temporary truce.

WINDHOEK, Namibia (AP) — Susan de Meyer's horses have different effects on different children. Hyperactive kids learn to be a little quieter around them, while nonverbal children are moved to communicate and to bond with them.

LYON, France (AP) — Church bells tolled in mourning. Well-wishers flocked into pews. Tributes to Pope Francis poured in from around the world on Monday after the Vatican announced the pontiff's death at age 88.

VATICAN CITY (AP) — Pope Francis, history’s first Latin American pontiff, died Monday. He was 88.

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) — U.S. airstrikes again hit the Yemeni capital of Sanaa, Houthi rebels said early Monday.

PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti (AP) — At least three Haitian soldiers were killed in what appeared to be a gang ambush in a town on the outskirts of Haiti's capital on Sunday, Haitian authorities confirmed. The area of Kenscoff has been under heavy fire in recent days as Haitian law enforcement has warred with the gang coalition known as Viv Ansanm.

SAN SALVADOR, El Salvador (AP) — Salvadoran President Nayib Bukele proposed carrying out a prisoner swap with Venezuela on Sunday, suggesting he would exchange Venezuelan deportees from the United States being held by his government for what he called “political prisoners” in Venezuela.

PARIS (AP) — Secretary of State Marco Rubio said Friday that the U.S. may “move on” from trying to secure a Russia-Ukraine peace deal if there is no progress in the coming days, after months of efforts have failed to bring an end to the fighting.

PARIS (AP) — Paris is hosting a series of talks Thursday about Ukraine and its security, including U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio and presidential envoy Steve Witkoff, French President Emmanuel Macron, and top Ukrainian and European officials.

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) — Talks between Iran and the United States over Tehran's rapidly advancing nuclear program are “in a very crucial” stage, the head of the United Nations' nuclear watchdog said Thursday while on a visit to the Islamic Republic.

BINYAMINA, Israel (AP) — Rachel Dancyg never thought she would see her dog again after it disappeared in the Hamas terror attack that sparked the ongoing war with Israel.

CAIRO (AP) — A notorious paramilitary group fighting against the Sudanese military announced that it was forming a rival government which will rule parts of the country controlled by the group, including the western Darfur region where the United Nations says recent attacks by the group have killed over 400 people.

LONDON (AP) — The U.K. Supreme Court ruled Wednesday that a woman is someone born biologically female, excluding biological males claiming to be transgender from the legal definition in a long-running dispute between a feminist group and the Scottish government.

CAIRO (AP) — As Sudan marks two years of civil war on Tuesday, atrocities and famine are only mounting in what the U.N. says is the world’s worst humanitarian crisis.

UNITED NATIONS (AP) — More than 300 civilians were killed in two days of intense fighting in Sudan’s conflict-wracked Darfur region, the U.N. humanitarian agency reported Monday, as the African country's brutal civil war nears the two-year mark.

SUMY, Ukraine (AP) — Russian missiles struck the heart of the Ukrainian city of Sumy as people gathered to celebrate Palm Sunday, killing at least 34 people, officials said, in the second large-scale attack to claim civilian lives in just over a week.

ROME (AP) — Talks between Iran and the United States over Tehran's rapidly advancing nuclear program appeared ready Monday to leave the Middle East, as an Italian source said the next round of negotiations would take place in Rome.

LIMA, Peru (AP) — Peruvian author Mario Vargas Llosa, Nobel literature laureate and a giant of Latin American letters, died Sunday. He was 89.