Politics

  VILNIUS / AP Lithuania’s president says that large numbers of NATO forces being stationed in the Baltics sends a clear signal that the alliance stands “strong and united.” Dalia Grybauskaite says that Lithuania has “never before” seen “forces of such size and integrity” deployed in one of NATO’s easternmost countries close to key Russian exclave Kaliningrad. Grybauskaite spoke Tuesday ...

  BEIRUT / AP Airstrikes on a rebel-held city in Syria early Tuesday killed at least 15 people, wounded dozens more and demolished several buildings, in one of the deadliest attacks since a cease-fire went into effect last year, Syrian activists and medics said. The airstrikes hit the city of Idlib, the capital of a northwestern province of the same ...

  WARSAW / AP German Chancellor Angela Merkel visits Warsaw on Tuesday for talks with Poland’s top leaders, taking efforts to save the European Union to a country that is keen to keep as much national power as possible and fears being marginalized in a “two-speed Europe.” Her trip is “one of the most important visits in Polish-German relations since ...

  BUCHAREST / AP Romania’s government is on a high-risk mission: devise a legal and politically acceptable way to remove penalties for some types of official corruption. First, the government tried to effect the change by imposing an emergency decree without public debate. The move backfired badly, sparking massive demonstrations in the capital of Bucharest and other major cities that ...

  JAKARTA / AP Asylum seekers who have been in Indonesia for years rallied in the capital on Monday urging the UN refugee agency to speed up the process of resettling them in third countries. Dozens of people from war-torn nations including Afghanistan, Iraq, Sudan and Somalia called on the UNHCR to accelerate their resettlement, expressing concerns that they could ...

  BERLIN / AP Chancellor Angela Merkel is meeting her Bavarian conservative allies in a show of unity following a long-running argument over migrant policy, setting the scene for a joint campaign for German elections in September. Bavaria’s Christian Social Union has dominated its southeastern state for decades and is traditionally an important source of national election votes for the ...

  TOKYO / AP In his debut abroad as the first retired general to lead the Pentagon in more than half a century, Jim Mattis found that in Japan and South Korea his experience in uniform is seen as an asset. Not everyone who knows Mattis well in the US shares that view, but he clearly was an instant hit ...

  BEIJING / AP A highly accurate Chinese ballistic missile capable of threatening U.S. and Japanese bases in Asia has made its latest appearance at recent Rocket Force drills. The medium-range DF-16 featured in a video posted last week on the Defense Ministry’s website showing the missiles aboard their 10-wheeled mobile launch vehicles being deployed in deep forest during exercises ...

  SEATTLE / AP Dozens of tech companies, including behemoths like Apple, Google, and Facebook, are siding with Washington state and Minnesota as they fight President Donald Trump’s ban on refugees and travelers from seven predominantly Muslim countries from entering the United States. The companies filed briefs late Sunday with a federal appellate court saying the Trump executive order hurts ...

  BOSTON / AP A tiny liberal arts college in Massachusetts has created a refugee scholarship in response to President Donald Trump’s order on immigration and refugees and is calling on other colleges to do the same. Wheaton College in Norton announced the offer after the Republican billionaire issued his Jan. 27 executive order, suspending America’s refugee program and halting ...