International

WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump called Russian President Vladimir Putin on Tuesday to congratulate him on his re-election, drawing bruising criticism from members of his own party, including a leading senator who scorned the election as a "sham." Trump also said he and Putin might meet "in the not too distant future" to discuss the arms race and other matters.

NEW YORK — Longtime New York journalist Les Payne, whose career took him from the poppy fields of Turkey to the Soweto uprising in South Africa to the streets of American cities, has died. He was 76.

SEOUL — South Korea said Tuesday it will send a 160-member artistic group to North Korea, including about 10 celebrated K-Pop singers, for rare concerts there.

NEW YORK — The Weinstein Co. filed for bankruptcy protection on Monday with a buyout offer in hand from a private equity firm, the latest twist in its efforts to survive the sexual misconduct scandal that brought down co-founder Harvey Weinstein, shook Hollywood and triggered a movement that spread out to convulse other industries.

WASHINGTON — A lawyer who has suggested that FBI officials were part of a "brazen plot" to exonerate Hillary Clinton and frame Donald Trump has been added to the president's legal team.

TOKYO — Asian shares have skidded following an overnight decline on Wall Street after Facebook reported its worst loss in four years. Investors are awaiting the first Federal Reserve meeting under the new chairman, Jerome Powell, and anticipating the first rate increase of the year.

A self-driving Uber SUV struck and killed a pedestrian in suburban Phoenix in the first death involving a fully autonomous test vehicle – a crash that could have far-reaching consequences for the new technology.

WICHITA, Kansas — A Muslim aerospace engineer has sued the Spirit Boeing Employees Association for religious discrimination stemming from a party at a lake in Wichita, Kansas.

MOSCOW — Vladimir Putin rolled to a crushing re-election victory Sunday for six more years as Russia's president, and he told cheering supporters in a triumphant but brief speech that "we are bound for success."

­LONDON — Britain's information commissioner is investigating whether Facebook data was "illegally acquired and used," after the social network suspended Cambridge Analytica, a firm that worked for U.S. President Donald Trump's 2016 campaign.