A court on Wednesday convicted a Turkish journalist of threatening President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, reports said, in a case that critics view as an attempt to silence a prominent voice against the government.

Fatih Altayli, 63, a veteran journalist whose YouTube programs attracted hundreds of thousands of views daily, was sentenced to four years and two months in prison.

Thirteen people were killed in a fire that spread across multiple high-rise apartment buildings in a Hong Kong housing complex, the city's fire services said Wednesday.

Nine people were declared dead on the scene and four others who were sent to the hospital were later confirmed dead, authorities told reporters.

Lebanon and Cyprus on Wednesday signed a treaty to demarcate their maritime border, with the Cypriot president calling it a “strategic achievement that sends a strong message.”

The treaty ends an almost 20-year impasse that had stalled some oil and gas exploration in the Mediterranean Sea, as Europe seeks alternatives to Russian fuel.

The Olympic flame began its journey Wednesday to the Milan Cortina Winter Games — missing a little of its usual magic.

Bad weather lashing western Greece forced organizers to move the torch-lighting ceremony indoors, from Olympia's ancient stadium and temples to a nearby museum.

President Donald Trump has said his plan to end the war in Ukraine has been "fine-tuned" and he's sending envoy Steve Witkoff to meet with Russian President Vladimir Putin and Army Secretary Dan Driscoll to meet with Ukrainian officials.

Trump suggested Tuesday he could eventually meet with Putin and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, but not until further progress has been made in negotiations. Speaking to reporters on Tuesday evening aboard Air Force One, Trump said resolving the war was difficult, and described what had been a 28-point plan as a work in progress. "That was not a plan — it was a concept," Trump said.

Hospital officials in Gaza said Wednesday that Israel handed over 15 more Palestinian bodies, completing the latest swap of the ceasefire as the first phase of the agreement nears a conclusion and officials convened to discuss moving to the second.

It came a day after Palestinian militants returned the remains of Israeli hostage Dror Or, who the Israeli military says was killed by the militants in their Oct. 7, 2023 attack. Israel has agreed to return 15 Palestinian bodies for each hostage returned.

Pope Leo XIV is embarking on his first foreign trip, a pilgrimage to Turkey and Lebanon that would be delicate under any circumstances but is even more fraught given Mideast tensions and the media glare that will document history's first American pope on the road.

Leo is fulfilling a trip Pope Francis planned to make, to mark an important anniversary with the Orthodox church in Turkey. In Lebanon, he'll try to boost a long-suffering Christian community as well as Lebanese of all faiths who are still demanding justice over the 2020 Beirut port blast.

Ousmane Dembélé trained with his PSG teammates on Tuesday and could make his return from injury for the Champions League match against Tottenham this week.

The Ballon d'Or winner has not played since he was forced off injured midway through the first half of PSG's 2-1 home loss to Bayern Munich in the competition on Nov. 4

Two giant pandas were flying home from France to China for retirement on Tuesday, after the female was diagnosed with kidney failure, AFP journalists said.

Huan Huan and her partner Yuan Zi took off aboard a plane from the French capital's Charles de Gaulle airport, the journalists said, after more than a decade living in France and emotional goodbyes from visitors of the Beauval Zoo in the center of the country at the weekend.

As Pope Leo XIV prepares to embark on his first trip abroad with a visit to Turkey to mark a key event that shaped the foundations of Catholic and Orthodox Christianity, there has been a surge of renewed optimism over the possible reopening of a Greek Orthodox religious seminary that has been closed since 1971.

The Halki Theological School has become a symbol of Orthodox heritage and a focal point in the push for religious freedoms in Turkey.