BEIJING (AP) — China accused the U.S. of abusing international law with its military maneuvers in the western Pacific, one day after an American naval destroyer sailed through the politically sensitive Taiwan Strait.

While China welcomes with the United States, Defense Ministry spokesperson Wu Qian said Thursday that U.S. warplane and warship activity “on China’s doorstep” is the root cause of the problems between the two military powers.

“The United States side should stop abusing international law, cease all dangerous and provocative

WARSAW, Poland (AP) — The fate of two Polish opposition politicians became the focus Thursday of a running feud between the country’s new pro-European Union government and conservative opposition as the sides disagreed whether they can remain lawmakers.

The weeks-old government of Prime Minister Donald Tusk has moved to reverse policies of his predecessors that were deemed harmful and led to clashes with the EU, especially in the judiciary.

However, the previously ruling right-wing Law and Justice party, frustrated over its , has been

ANKARA, Turkey (AP) — Turkey’s central bank raised its key interest rate by another 2.5 percentage points on Thursday, pressing ahead with a aimed at combating inflation that reached nearly 65% in December.

The bank brought its benchmark rate to 45%. It’s the eighth interest rate hike since President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has abandoned his unconventional economic policies that economists say helped trigger a and drove up the cost of living. Many households were left struggling to afford basic goods.

Erdogan is

Snowballing protests by French farmers crept closer to Paris on Thursday, with tractors driving in convoys and blocking roads in many regions of the country to to protect the influential agricultural sector from foreign competition, red tape, rising costs and poverty-levels of pay for the worst-off producers.

Traffic-snarling drive-slows, barricades of straw bales, stinky dumps of agricultural waste outside government offices and other demonstrations have rapidly blown up to become the first major crisis for , installed two weeks ago by President in hopes of injecting

TALLINN, Estonia (AP) — A Russian court on Thursday sentenced a woman to 27 years in prison for a cafe blast that killed a prominent pro-war blogger after he was given a bust of himself that later exploded.

In a separate proceeding, a Moscow court convicted a former leader of separatist rebels in Ukraine who called President Vladimir Putin a coward of extremism and sentenced him to four years.

, 26, was convicted by a court in St. Petersburg of carrying out a terrorist attack, illegal trafficking

KATHMANDU, Nepal (AP) — Nepal has asked Russia to send back hundreds of Nepali nationals who were recruited to and repatriate the bodies of those who died in the conflict, Nepal’s top diplomat said Thursday.

The Russian army is estimated to have recruited more than 200 Nepali nationals to fight in Ukraine and at least 14 of them have died there, Nepal’s Foreign Minister Narayan Prakash Saud said in an interview with The Associated Press.

“We have asked Russia to immediately stop the recruitment of

ISLAMABAD (AP) — The Pakistani Taliban pledged Thursday not to attack election rallies, saying their targets are limited to the military and security forces, as political parties and independent candidates ramp up their campaigns ahead of the Feb. 8 vote.

“We have nothing to do with these elections and the parties participating in them,” the Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan, or TTP, said in a statement.

Other militant groups have not made similar pledges, and some previous Pakistani elections have been marred by violence. Two

Alabama executes a man with nitrogen gas, the first time the new method has been used

ATMORE, Ala. (AP) — Alabama executed a convicted murderer with nitrogen gas Thursday, putting him to death with a first-of-its-kind method that once again placed the U.S. at the forefront of the debate over capital punishment. The state said the method would be humane, but critics called it cruel and experimental.

Officials said Kenneth Eugene Smith, 58, was pronounced dead at 8:

NEW DELHI (AP) — French President Emmanuel Macron toured historic sites in western India with on Thursday and was set to be the chief guest at the country’s national day celebrations.

Modi greeted at an 18th-century observatory in Jaipur and the two stood in an open jeep as they were driven for about 1.5 kilometers (1 mile). Macron waved at the crowds lining the streets that welcomed the leaders with a showering of rose and marigold petals.

Large cutouts of their images with the inscription