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MOSCOW (AP) — Before Mikhail Gorbachev came along, the Soviet Union seemed an immovable superpower in perpetual antagonism to the United States. With a breathtaking series of reforms, Gorbachev changed all that — and re-directed the course of the 20th century.

CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. (AP) — NASA called off the launch of its mighty new moon rocket on its debut flight with three test dummies aboard Monday after a last-minute cascade of problems culminating in unexplained trouble related to an engine.

ISLAMABAD (AP) — Nearly a half million people crowded into camps after losing their homes in widespread flooding and the climate minister warned Monday that Pakistan is on the “front line” of the world's climate crisis after unprecedented monsoon rains wracked the country since mid-June, killing more than 1,130 people.

NIKOPOL, Ukraine (AP) — Ukrainians are once again anxious and alarmed about the fate of a nuclear power plant in a land that was home to the world’s worst atomic accident in 1986 at Chernobyl.

SEOUL, South Korea (AP) — North Korea on Thursday said it found four new fever cases in its border region with China that may have been caused by coronavirus infections, two weeks after leader Kim Jong Un declared a widely disputed victory over COVID-19.

KUALA LUMPUR, Malaysia (AP) — Najib Razak is Malaysia’s first former prime minister to go to prison — a mighty fall for a British-educated politician whose father and uncle were the country’s second and third prime ministers, respectively.

KYIV, Ukraine (AP) — Residents of Kyiv woke up to air raid sirens as Ukraine observed its Independence Day on Wednesday, six months since the start of the Russian invasion.

SINGAPORE (AP) — Singapore's gay community Monday hailed a plan to decriminalize sex between men as “a triumph of love over fear" but warned there is still a long way to equality and new bans on same-sex unions could entrench discrimination against them.

MOSCOW (AP) — People in Moscow who were disappointed when Starbucks closed its coffee shops after Russia sent troops into Ukraine may now feel a caffeine jolt of hope: A nearly identical operation is opening in the capital.

BANGKOK (AP) — China's response to U.S. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi's visit to Taiwan was anything but subtle — dispatching warships and military aircraft to all sides of the self-governing island democracy, and firing ballistic missiles into the waters nearby.