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Pakistani security forces killed six militants in twin raids Wednesday targeting their hideouts in the country's volatile northwest region bordering Afghanistan, the military said.

SUICIDE ATTACK THAT KILLED 5 CHINESE NATIONALS WAS PLANNED IN AFGHANISTAN, PAKISTAN'S MILITARY SAYS

Five militants were killed in the first raid in Dera Ismail Khan district in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province, the military said in a statement. It did not provide further details about the slain insurgents, and only said the men were behind various previous attacks on the security forces.

Another militant was killed in the second raid in a former stronghold of the Pakistani Taliban in the North Waziristan district in the northwest.

The statement did not provide any further details about the identity of the slain men.

Such operations often target the Pakistani Taliban, which has been emboldened by the Taliban takeover in Afghanistan in 2021. Known as the Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan or TTP, it is a separate group but a close ally of the Afghan Taliban.

More than 60 people were arrested and hundreds of charges were filed in a series of investigations into child sexual abuse in Ontario, Canadian police said Wednesday.

Provincial Police Det. Staff Sgt. Tim Brown said the investigations were carried out over 10 days in February and led to the arrest of dozens of suspects accused of making, possessing and distributing child sexual abuse material.

2 OF 3 SUSPECTS IN CANADIAN SIKH SEPARATIST LEADER'S KILLING APPEAR IN COURT

"We were reacting to complaints from different electronic service providers, so services like any of the social media platforms," Brown said. "The bulk of this project was that."

Brown said one case involved luring and involved an undercover officer online.

Investigators said 64 people have been charged with a total of 348 offenses and more than 600 devices have been seized. The suspects range in age from 16 to 67.

Police allege one of the people charged was in possession of 21 terabytes of data containing child sexual abuse material.

They say 34 victims have been identified and 30 children were safeguarded.

Excitement is building in the southern French city of Marseille, where a majestic three-mast ship carrying the Olympic torch arrived from Greece ahead of a welcoming ceremony at sunset Wednesday.

Paris Games organizers have promised "fantastic" celebrations in the city, where the Old Port has been placed under high security.

The torch was lit in Greece last month before it was officially handed to France. It left Athens aboard a ship named Belem, which was first used in 1896, and spent twelve days at sea.

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More than a thousand boats will accompany the Belem’s parade around the Bay of Marseille. The ship will dock on a pontoon that looks like an athletics track in the Old Port.

The welcoming ceremony at dusk on Wednesday will include a demonstration by the jets of the Patrouille de France, the acrobatic team of the French air force.

"The return of the Games to our country will be a fantastic celebration," said Paris 2024 Olympics Organizing Committee President Tony Estanguet.

"As a former athlete, I know how important the start of a competition is. That is why we chose Marseille, because it's definitely one of the cities most in love with sports," added Estanguet, a former Olympic canoeing star with gold medals from the 2000, 2004 and 2012 Games.

Safety of visitors and residents has been a top priority for authorities in Marseille, France's second-largest city with nearly a million inhabitants. About 8,000 police officers have been deployed around the harbor where tens of thousands of spectators are expected to gather for the ceremony.

Thousands of firefighters and bomb disposal squads have been positioned around the city along with maritime police and anti-drone teams patrolling the city's waters and its airspace.

"It's a monumental day and we have been working hard for visitors and residents of Marseille to enjoy this historical moment," said Yannick Ohanessian, the city's deputy mayor.

The torch relay will start on Thursday in Marseille, before heading to Paris through iconic places across the country, from the world-famous Mont Saint-Michel to D-Day landing beaches in Normandy and the Versailles Palace.

Many people and families were strolling along the boardwalk on the Mediterranean, beaming with excitement and curiosity. A band of musicians, wearing T-shirts with the slogan "Marseille, proud to welcome the Olympics Flame," entertained tourists and residents as well as workers who were setting up the Olympic stage and the pontoon bridge over which the Olympic flame is expected to be carried from the boat to France's mainland.

"I wanted to see how things are going and maybe come back later with the kids, if it's not too crowded, to see the flame arrive," said Paul Vuarambon, a Marseille resident, on a walk along the Old Port with his son. Despite high security and the overhaul of the entire city for Wednesday's ceremony, Vaurambon said, "People here are pretty happy with the Olympics."

France's Sports Minister Amelie Oudea-Castera stressed the symbolic and practical importance of the event after years of preparations for the Paris Games.

"We really want to make sure that the beginning of the torch relay here will drive enthusiasm and a sense of pride for French people. That will give us a big moment of celebration and joy," Oudea-Castera said in an interview with The Associated Press.

"Sport can bring up these type of emotions and Olympism is much more than sport," she added. "It conveys a message to the world and the torch relay is a symbol of peace."

Olympic swimmer Florent Manaudou has been chosen to be the first carrier of the flame in France. Manaudou, who won four Olympic medals, is the brother of swimmer Laure Manaudou, who won three Olympic medals at Athens in 2004.

"We are extremely proud," Marseille mayor Benoît Payan said. "This is where it all begins."

The show will "dazzle the world," said Payan, adding that up to 150,000 spectators are expected in the Old Port.

Marseille people "have a sense of celebration, a sense of the game, sport and Olympism in their guts," he said, recalling that the city was founded by Greek colonists some 2,600 years ago.

Heavy police and military presence was seen patrolling Marseille's city center Tuesday, as a military helicopter flew over the Old Port, where a range of barriers have been set up.

French Interior Ministry spokesperson Camille Chaize said officials were prepared for security threats including terrorism.

"We're employing various measures, notably the elite National Gendarmerie Intervention Group unit, which will be present in the torch relay from beginning to end," she said.

The Olympic cauldron will be lit after the Games’ opening ceremony that will take place on the River Seine on July 26.

The cauldron will be lit at a location in Paris that is being kept top-secret until the day itself. Among reported options are such iconic spots as the Eiffel Tower and the Tuileries Gardens outside the Louvre Museum.

British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak was accused Wednesday of leading a "chaotic" government as another one of his Conservative lawmakers defected to the main opposition Labour Party ahead of a looming general election.

In a stunning move just ahead of weekly prime minister's questions, Natalie Elphicke crossed the floor of the House of Commons to join the ranks of Keir Starmer's Labour Party, which appears headed for power after 14 years.

"We need to move on from the broken promises of Rishi Sunak’s tired and chaotic government," said Elphicke, who represents the constituency of Dover in southern England which is at the front line of migrant crossings from France. "Under Rishi Sunak, the Conservatives have become a byword for incompetence and division."

JOHN SWINNEY EXPECTED TO LEAD SCOTLAND AFTER TAKING THE HELM OF THE SCOTTISH NATIONAL PARTY

Elphicke is the second Conservative lawmaker to defect to Labour in two weeks after Dan Poulter quit in anger over the government’s handling of the National Health Service.

The defection of Elphicke is particularly surprising as she was widely considered to be on the right of the Conservative Party and has been hugely critical of Labour in the past. But she has recently been increasingly disapproving of the government's approach to migrant crossings.

"From small boats to biosecurity, Rishi Sunak’s government is failing to keep our borders safe and secure," she said.

Just under 30,000 people have arrived in Britain in small boats in 2023, and Sunak has made reducing that number a key issue ahead of the election due this year, notably with his controversial plan to send some asylum-seekers to Rwanda. More than 8,000 have made the dangerous crossing already this year.

Elphicke was elected in 2019, taking over the Dover seat that had been held by her then-husband Charlie, who was jailed for two years after being found guilty in 2020 of sexually assaulting two women.

Starmer welcomed Elphicke to the Labour benches as well as Chris Webb, the party's new lawmaker in Blackpool South in northwest England following his big victory in a special election last Thursday.

Starmer reiterated his call for Sunak to call a general election now, saying the Conservatives cannot carry on when even a lawmaker at the forefront of the small boats crisis said Sunak "cannot be trusted with our borders."

Last week, the Conservatives suffered a historic drubbing in local elections, losing nearly half of its candidates, while Labour made gains and won most of the key mayoral races it fought, including in London.

Particularly encouraging for Labour was that it won in areas that voted for Britain’s departure from the European Union in 2016, and where it was crushed by former Prime Minister Boris Johnson at the general election in 2019.

Elphicke's defection may help Labour deflect Conservative attacks during the election that it may seek to reverse Brexit. In her statement Wednesday, she said Labour "has accepted Brexit and its economic policies."

Her defection has not only raised eyebrows within the Conservative Party.

The left-wing Labour grouping, Momentum, said Elphicke has "consistently demonized refugees and aid groups" and that she "should have no place in a Labour Party committed to progressive values and working-class people."

In the U.K., the date of the general election rests in the hands of the prime minister. It has to take place by January, and Sunak has repeatedly said that his "working assumption" was that it would take place in the second half of 2024.

Kosovo's foreign minister said Wednesday that her country is convinced that Russia must lose the war in Ukraine for conflict not to spread further in Europe. She said her young nation's support for Ukraine is unconditional even though Kyiv has not recognized Kosovo's independence.

Donika Gërvalla-Schwarz, who is both foreign minister and deputy prime minister, said her small Balkan nation, which declared its independence from Serbia in 2008, is constantly reminded of the aggressive intentions of both Serbia and its ally Russia.

"Ukraine hasn’t recognized the Republic of Kosovo as a state, but we really believe that we know exactly what Ukraine is going through," she told The Associated Press in an interview.

TOP STATE DEPT. OFFICIAL REASSURES KOSOVO OF SHARED RESPONSIBILITY IN SERBIAN RELATIONS DURING VISIT

"And we know that there is only one solution, not only for Ukraine, but for Europe," she said. "It can only be Russia to lose the war and Ukraine to win this war. Otherwise, Europe should prepare for other conflicts in our continent."

Like Ukrainians today, the people of Kosovo were the targets of war crimes and other atrocities by Serbia's security forces in the 1990s, an experience that led Kosovo to seek independence.

"While Kosovo is a small state with very modest possibilities to help, we have tried to be very helpful with Ukraine and have not hesitated to show our unconditional support and sympathy to the people and to the state of Ukraine," Gërvalla-Schwarz told the AP.

The latest reminder of Moscow threatening Kosovo came this week when a Russian Telegram channel called for a denial-of-service attack on Kosovo government websites after Kosovo's defense minister announced new military aid for Ukraine at a conference in Warsaw on Tuesday.

Gërvalla-Schwarz on Wednesday inaugurated Kosovo's first consular mission in Poland, part of an effort to improve economic and cultural cooperation between the two countries. Poland recognized Kosovo's statehood in 2008 but the two countries did not establish diplomatic relations at the time. For now, the Kosovo mission has the status of a consulate general, but she said she hopes it could be a step to having an embassy in Poland.

Her visit to Poland this week coincided with a visit to the capital of Serbia, Belgrade, by Chinese President Xi Jinping which included pledges to deepen ties.

Gërvalla-Schwarz said the Chinese leader's visit has implications for Europe because it shows that while Serbia is a European Union candidate state, it is "more and more identifying itself with the adversaries of the European Western democracies."

"You cannot be at the same time a candidate state of the European Union and be the proxy of Russia in these times where Russia has declared the war not only to Ukraine but to the West as such," she said.

Serbian forces fought a 1998-99 war with ethnic Albanian separatists in what was then the province of Kosovo. About 13,000 people, mostly ethnic Albanians, died until a 78-day NATO bombing campaign pushed Serbian forces out.

Kosovo declared independence in 2008, but the government in Belgrade doesn’t recognize its neighbor as a separate country.

European Union nations reached a tentative breakthrough deal to provide Ukraine with billions in additional funds for arms and ammunition coming from the profits raised from frozen Russian central bank assets held in the bloc.

The agreement among the 27 EU ambassadors was announced by Belgium, which holds most of the frozen assets in the bloc. It came after weeks of tough negotiations among member states, which were made more complicated by the stringent financial limits on using such funds.

The deal should free up to $3.2 billion a year for Kyiv, of which 90% could be spent on ammunition and other military equipment.

REPORTER’S NOTEBOOK: UKRAINE’S ZELENSKYY OPENS UP ON US AID, ISRAEL, TRUMP

Officials said a first installment of the funds could reach Kyiv in July.

The EU is holding around $225 billion in Russian central bank assets, most of it frozen in Belgium, in retaliation for Moscow’s war against Ukraine. Kyiv has long been urging that those funds be used to get vital military supplies as it struggles to stave off renewed Russian attacks.

A small group of member states, especially Hungary, refuse to supply weapons to Ukraine so special safeguards had to be included in the deal to allow for some 10% of the funds to be considered general aid.

EU member states still need to officially endorse the ambassadors' agreement.

Britain will expel Russia’s defense attaché over spying allegations as part of several measures the government announced Wednesday to target Moscow’s intelligence gathering operations in the U.K.

Home Secretary James Cleverly said the measures were aimed at what he called the "reckless and dangerous activities of the Russian government across Europe."

The latest round of measures will boot the attaché, Maxim Elovik, a Russian colonel who the government termed an "undeclared military intelligence officer." It will also rescind the diplomatic status of several Russian-owned properties because they are believed to have been used for intelligence purposes, and impose new restrictions on Russian diplomatic visas and visits.

RUSSIA THREATENS STRIKES ON BRITISH MILITARY INSTALLATIONS, PLANS NUCLEAR DRILLS AFTER CAMERON'S REMARKS

"In the coming days we should expect accusations of Russophobia, conspiracy theories and hysteria from the Russian government," Cleverly said in Parliament. "This is not new and the British people and the British government will not fall for it, and will not be taken for fools by Putin’s bots, trolls and lackeys."

Maria Zakharova, a spokesperson for Russia’s foreign ministry, told The Associated Press that "Russia will respond in kind."

The U.K. has had an uneasy relationship with Russia for years, accusing its agents of targeted killings and espionage, including cyberattacks aimed at British parliamentarians and leaking and amplifying sensitive information to serve Russian interests. Following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, Britain has also sanctioned hundreds of wealthy Russians and moved to clamp down on money laundering through London’s property and financial markets.

The government said Wednesday's actions followed criminal cases in London alleging espionage and sabotage by people acting on behalf of Russia.

It also cited allegations that the Russian government planned to sabotage military aid for Ukraine in Germany and Poland and carried out spying in Bulgaria and Italy, along with cyber and disinformation activities, air space violations and jamming GPS signals to hamper civilian air traffic.

"Since the illegal invasion of Ukraine, Russia’s attempts to undermine UK and European security have become increasingly brazen," Foreign Secretary David Cameron said. "These measures are an unequivocal message to the Russian state — their actions will not go unanswered."

Elovik has been based in Britain since at least 2020. Russian state news agency Tass said he was summoned to the U.K.’s Defense Ministry the day Russia invaded Ukraine in February 2022.

He has subsequently been pictured laying flowers to Soviet soldiers who died during the Second World War in both London and Manchester.

The mother of two Australian surfers killed in Mexico delivered a moving tribute to her sons Tuesday at a beach in San Diego.

"Our hearts are broken and the world has become a darker place for us," Debra Robinson said, fighting back tears. "They were young men enjoying their passion of surfing together."

Her sons, Callum and Jake, were allegedly killed by car thieves in Baja California, across the border from San Diego, somewhere around April 28 or 29.

MEXICAN AUTHORITIES REVEAL BIZARRE REASON THEY BELIEVE AUSTRALIANS, AMERICAN WERE MURDERED ON SURFING VACATION

Robinson also mourned the American who was killed with them, Jack Carter Rhoad.

The beachside location where she spoke, across the border from the Baja California city of Tijuana, was no coincidence. She noted that her son Callum "considered the United States his second home."

Robinson noted that her son Jake loved surfing so much that, as a doctor, he liked to work in hospitals near the beach.

"Jake’s passion was surfing, and it was no coincidence that many of his hospitals that he worked in were close to surfing beaches," she said.

Choking back tears, Robinson conveyed a final message that coincided with her sons' adventurous lifestyles.

"Live bigger, shine brighter, and love harder in their memory," she said.

Robinson thanked Australian officials and supporters there and in the United States.

While she thanked Mexico’s ambassador to Australia, she notably did not thank the local officials in Baja California who eventually found the bodies of her sons and Carter Rhoad.

Their killers dumped the bodies of the men into a well about 4 miles away from where they had been attacked at a beachside campsite. Investigators were surprised when, underneath the bodies of the three foreigners, a fourth body was found that had been there much longer. It was unclear if the body was related to the current case.

The fact that such killers are not caught or stopped in the overwhelming majority of cases in Mexico has led some Mexicans to protest that authorities only investigate such disappearances when they are high-profile cases involving foreigners.

Robinson said that her sons' bodies, or their ashes, will eventually be taken back to Australia.

"Now it’s time to bring them home to families and friends," she said. "And the ocean waits in Australia."

Prosecutors have identified three people as potential suspects, two of whom were caught with methamphetamines. One of them, a woman, had one of the victims’ cellphones when she was caught. Prosecutors said the two were being held pending drug charges but continue to be suspects in the killings.

A third man was arrested on charges of a crime equivalent to kidnapping, but that was before the bodies were found. It was unclear when or if he might face more charges.

The third man was believed to have directly participated in the killings. In keeping with Mexican law, prosecutors identified him by his first name, Jesús Gerardo, alias "el Kekas," a slang word that means quesadillas, or cheese-filled tortillas.

He had a criminal record that included drug dealing, vehicle theft and domestic violence, and authorities said they were certain that more people were involved.

Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese told a radio station in the Robinsons’ home town of Perth in Western Australia state that every parent felt for the family’s loss.

"I think the whole nation’s heart goes out to the parents of Callum and Jake Robinson. It is every parent’s worst nightmare to lose a son or a daughter. To lose these two brothers is just awful and my deepest sympathies and condolences and I’m sure the whole nation’s with the parents and with the other family and friends of these two fine young Australians," Albanese told Perth Radio 6PR.

Albanese said he was reminded of when his only child Nathan Albanese traveled last year at the age of 22 to a musical festival in Spain.

"You do worry, but you think as well that’s part of the Australian right of passage, is traveling around with a backpack and meeting people and it’s how you grow as a person as well so you want to encourage them," Albanese said.

In 2015, two Australian surfers, Adam Coleman and Dean Lucas, were killed in western Sinaloa state, across the Gulf of California — also known as the Sea of Cortez — from the Baja peninsula. Authorities said they were victims of highway bandits. Three suspects were arrested in that case.

One of Colombia’s most dangerous criminals has reportedly escaped from prison during a mass jailbreak, potentially fleeing the country in the process. 

"It is a very strange situation, everything could point to an act of corruption, it is not understood why he was still being held in a station with his criminal profile," a police source told ES Euro. 

Retired Army Major Juan Carlos Rodriguez, also known as "Zeus," was in prison for two weeks before making a daring escape on April 21. Local police claimed that 21 others detainees also escaped in the mass jailbreak, which started when an inmate faked an illness to draw guards into his cell and then ambush them. 

The inmates used the cover of a tropical storm to mask their escape from the facility, and video showed that Rodriguez covered his face with a towel as he hurried out of the cell and into the streets. At least 10 officers were present when the first guard opened the cell to check the inmates, according to Jam Press. 

RUSSIAN COURT SAYS DETAINED US ARMY SOLDIER WILL BE HELD UNTIL JULY FOR ALLEGEDLY CAUSING ‘SIGNIFICANT DAMAGE’

"As general director of the Police, I apologize for what happened in the city of Cúcuta: There have been a series of errors that are part of the investigation carried out by the Police Inspector," William Salamanca, general of the National Police, said following the escape. 

A reward of 50 million Colombian pesos (around $12,000) has been offered for the capture of Rodriguez. 

Colombian President Gustavo Petro denounced Rodriguez as the "type of criminal association" that "must be dismantled as soon as possible."

Police have initiated a wide-scale operation, including the closure of all exit routes from the city of Cucuta, in order to recapture the various fugitives. Reports have claimed as many as 50 inmates could now be at large following the escape.

2 OF 3 SUSPECTS IN CANADIAN SIKH SEPARATIST LEADER'S KILLING APPEAR IN COURT

Some of the prisoners returned after sustaining injuries in the prison break, including one inmate who was trapped under the fence that surrounded the parking lot after it collapsed under the weight of the inmates trying to climb over it. 

One person claimed that Rodriguez was the one who actually planned the whole escape, according to Noticias Caracol. 

Three police officers have been arrested for their role in the escape, though details remain scarce as to how they might have assisted the prisoners. 

Rodriguez was arrested and convicted for arms trafficking and for serving in the paramilitary for the Norte del Valle cartel, considered a major ally of drug dealer Diego Montoya, alias Don Diego, who traffics cocaine. Police arrested four other individuals with Rodriguez at the time. 

AUSTRALIAN TEEN WHO STABBED MAN IN BACK, WAS SHOT BY POLICE, WAS IN ‘DERADICALIZATION PROGRAM’

He tried to present himself and his allies as members of the National Protection Unit and offered a "millionaire sum of money" to the officers to let him go free. Police seized a small military unit's haul of weapons, including 9 mm pistols, Glocks, grenades, mortars and two bars of C4 explosives. 

Police also suspect Rodriguez of carrying out extrajudicial killings on behalf of his criminal associates, including the alleged murder of a journalist. He has previously served time in prison and has "numerous convictions," with his first arrest coming in 2005.

His most recent arrest ended with parole in 2021, after agreeing to cooperate with authorities and provide information on ties between the military, paramilitary groups and drug traffickers throughout the country, according to Colombia Reports. 

Rodriguez had provided information about how the National Army had supported a rival cartel gang member to force a civil war in Norte del Valle. 

The prime minister of Thailand, the first country in Asia to legalize cannabis two years ago, said Wednesday that he wants to outlaw the drug again amid concerns that the lack of regulation had made it available to children and increased crimes.

Prime Minister Srettha Thavisin wrote on the social media platform X that he asked the Health Ministry to amend its list of narcotics to again include cannabis, and issue new rules to allow its use for medical purposes only.

Srettha also ordered local authorities to suppress criminal activities linked to the illegal drug trade and demanded to see progress within 90 days.

THAI LAWMAKERS CONSIDER BAN ON RECREATIONAL MARIJUANA 2 YEARS AFTER LEGALIZATION

After cannabis was decriminalized in 2022, it was initially said that it would be allowed only for medicinal use, but in practice the market was unregulated. It has prompted public backlash and concerns over misuse and crime.

Decriminalization was spearheaded by the Bhumjaithai Party, whose stronghold is in the impoverished northeast where it promised farmers cannabis would be a new cash crop.

In the 2023 elections, all major parties — including Bhumjaithai — promised to restrict cannabis for medical use.

Cannabis advocates and entrepreneurs have opposed a radical rollback, which they claimed would be damaging to the economy. Legal cannabis has fueled Thailand’s tourism and farming sectors and spawned thousands of cannabis retails ranging from shops, trucks to market stalls all over the country.

Poland’s security officials said Wednesday that a 41-year-old man from Russia had been detained and was being questioned after illegally crossing in from Russia’s ally Belarus.

The Border Guard confirmed that a 41-year-old "deserter" from Russia has been detained.

Deputy Interior Minister Czeslaw Mroczek said that officials were trying to establish whether the man was a deserter from Russian army "trying to flee the horrors of the war" or whether he was assigned to carry out secret tasks in the European Union for Russia.

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"We must determine what his intentions were," Mroczek said. "The question is whether we are dealing here with someone who was carrying out tasks for Russian (secret) services."

Polish media reported the man was not armed and was in civilian clothes, but was carrying a written contract with the Russian army that included participation in actions being part of Russia’s full-scale war against Ukraine.

The detention came as Poland’s Prime Minister Donald Tusk was meeting with top security officials over alleged Russian influences in Poland and its leadership. The development also came shortly after a controversial Polish judge, who had access to sensitive information, defected to Belarus this week, which Tusk described as "high treason."

Kenya’s President William Ruto has declared Friday a public holiday to mourn the 238 people who have died due to ongoing flooding.

The president on Wednesday said the day will be observed by national tree planting activities to help mitigate the effects of climate change.

Kenya, along with other parts of East Africa, has been overwhelmed by floods. More than 235,000 people are displaced and living in dozens of camps.

KENYA’S MILITARY CHIEF DIES IN A HELICOPTER CRASH

President Ruto also announced the reopening of schools countrywide, after a two-week delay due to heavy rains that have destroyed hundreds of schools.

The government has said more than 1,000 schools were affected by the heavy rains and flooding and set aside funds for renovations.

The meteorology department in its daily weather forecast has continued to predict moderate to heavy rainfall in most parts of the country.

The government is in the process of forcefully evacuating people living in flood-prone areas and those near rivers and dams as water levels in the country’s major hydroelectric dams rise to "historic levels".

This week, the government bulldozed houses in the informal settlements of Mathare and Mukuru in the capital Nairobi and the president promised evicted families the equivalent of $75 to relocate after a deadline passed to evacuate amid deadly rains.

Voters in North Macedonia were casting ballots on Wednesday in a parliamentary election and a presidential runoff dominated by issues including the country's path toward European Union membership, corruption and the economy.

The first round of the election for president, a largely ceremonial post, was seen as a barometer for the parliamentary vote. It gave a clear lead to Gordana Siljanovska-Davkova, the candidate backed by the center-right opposition, over incumbent Stevo Pendarovski, who is supported by the governing center-left coalition.

Siljanovska-Davkova garnered 41.2%, in the first round on April 24, compared to 20.5% for Pendarovski. The two had also squared off in the previous election in 2019, when Pendarovski won with nearly 54% of the vote. Turnout in the runoff must be at least 40% for the result to be valid.

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In the parliamentary election, more than 1,700 candidates are vying for the 120 seats in the unicameral assembly. There are also three seats reserved for expatriates, but in the previous election in 2020, turnout was too low for them to be filled.

The monthlong campaign focused on North Macedonia’s progress toward joining the 27-nation EU, the rule of law, corruption, fighting poverty and tackling the country’s sluggish economy.

Skopje voter Atanas Lovacev expressed disappointment with the current government, but had low expectations from whoever comes next.

"Yes, (I expect changes), because the current government did nothing," he said. "But I don’t expect anything either from the new government. … They all make promises, but the result is nothing."

Opinion polls ahead of the vote had consistently shown the center-right opposition VMRO-DPMNE party, at the head of a 22-party coalition called "Your Macedonia," with a double-digit lead over the coalition "For A European Future," led by the Social Democratic Union of Macedonia, or SDSM.

There are also two coalitions representing ethnic Albanians, who account for a quarter of North Macedonia’s population. They include the European Front, led by the Democratic Union of Integration (DUI), which has been the coalition partner of all governments of the past 20 years. But VMRO-DPMNE leader Hristijan Mickoski wants to ally with the VLEN (Worth) four-party coalition, which has positioned itself to the right of DUI.

North Macedonia’s path to the EU is being blocked by neighboring Bulgaria, which demands that the constitution be amended to recognize a Bulgarian minority. And while the center-left has agreed to the demand, VMRO-DPMNE has denounced the government's "capitulation (to) Bulgarian dictates."

Just over 3,500 people out of nearly 1.84 million identified themselves as Bulgarians in North Macedonia’s latest census, in 2021.

North Macedonia has been a candidate to join the EU since 2005, but was blocked for years by neighboring Greece in a dispute over the country’s name. That was resolved in 2018, but Bulgaria is now the one blocking the process — it has said it will only lift its veto once the constitution is amended.

Skopje resident Gordana Gerasimovski said she was disappointed that the country had been waiting for so long to join the EU, but hoped there would now be real progress.

"We should have been part of European Union long time ago. This is what we are lacking, but we hope that the time will get us where we want to be for so long," she said.

EU membership negotiations with North Macedonia — and fellow-candidate Albania — began in 2022 and the process is expected to take years.

Corruption is the other hot-button issue, with a European Commission report last year saying it "remains prevalent in many areas" of North Macedonia. In December, U.S. Ambassador Angela Aggeler said there was "an epidemic of corruption in this country that has affected every sector, every organization, and only by exposing the corrupt actors can we begin to help the country address these issues."

Mickoski has accused the ruling SDSM and DUI of a "corruption pandemic." Prime Minister Dimitar Kovachevski has said he is "aware that people are not satisfied" and promised anti-corruption measures.

More than 2,300 domestic and international observers were scheduled to monitor the election, according to the State Electoral Commission. Preliminary results were expected early Thursday.

Israeli forces released footage of a "precise counterterrorism operation" conducted in eastern Rafah on Tuesday as the nation faces criticism from President Biden for moving forward with the attack.

The Israeli infantry could be seen operating with armored vehicles in the footage, even as Israel said it conducted some 100 air strikes across Gaza. The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) says its ground operations eliminated Hamas terrorists and destroyed underground infrastructure.

"During several encounters over the past day, IDF troops eliminated terrorists and uncovered terrorist infrastructure, as well as underground shafts in several locations in the eastern Rafah area. The troops have started the process of dismantling the terrorist infrastructure and underground shafts," the IDF said in a statement.

"Simultaneously, based on intelligence about terrorists operating in the area, IDF troops are conducting targeted raids on the Gazan side of the Rafah Crossing in the eastern part of Rafah," the statement continued.

ISRAELI TROOPS GAIN OPERATIONAL CONTROL OF GAZAN SIDE OF RAFAH CROSSING, IDF SAYS

"Throughout the past day, IAF fighter jets and aircraft struck over 100 terror targets throughout the Gaza Strip, including military structures, observation posts, launch posts and additional military infrastructure," the IDF added.

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The operation comes just one day after Biden urged Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu not to move forward with an attack on Rafah.

The two world leaders reportedly spoke for approximately 30 minutes, during which Biden raised the issue of the more than 1.5 million Palestinians currently living in Rafah.

WHITE HOUSE SAYS COMMITMENT TO ISRAEL 'IRONCLAD,' DESPITE REPORT OF SLOW-WALKING MILITARY AID

"The president doesn’t want to see operations in Rafah that put at greater risk the more than a million people that are seeking refuge there," White House national security spokesman John Kirby said.

Overnight on Monday, Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant told U.S. Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin that Israel was left with no choice but to act in Rafah after Hamas terrorists carried out a deadly rocket attack from Rafah earlier in the day that left four Israeli soldiers dead.

Biden's administration confirmed on Tuesday that it had paused a shipment of weapons to Israel due to its opposition to the Rafah campaign.

An appeals court on Wednesday granted the Hong Kong government's request to ban a popular protest song, overturning an earlier ruling and deepening concerns over the erosion of freedoms in the once-freewheeling global financial hub.

"Glory to Hong Kong" was often sung by demonstrators during huge anti-government protests in 2019. The song was later mistakenly played as the city’s anthem at international sporting events, instead of China’s "March of the Volunteers," in mix-ups that upset city officials.

It is the first time a song has been banned in the city since Britain handed the territory back to Chinese rule in 1997.

CHINA URGES HONG KONG TO 'TIGHTLY HOLD' NATIONAL SECURITY LINE

Critics have said prohibiting broadcast or distribution of the song further reduces freedom of expression since Beijing launched a crackdown in Hong Kong following the 2019 protests. They have also warned the ban might disrupt the operation of tech giants and hurt the city’s appeal as a business center.

Judge Jeremy Poon wrote that the composer intended for the song to be a "weapon," pointing to its power in arousing emotions among some residents of the city.

"We accept the assessment of the executive that prosecutions alone are clearly not adequate to tackle the acute criminal problems and that there is a compelling need for an injunction," he said.

He said the injunction was necessary to persuade internet platform operators to remove "problematic videos in connection with the song" from their platforms. The operators have indicated they are ready to accede to the government's request if there is a court order, he added.

The ban would target anyone who broadcasts or distributes the song to advocate for the separation of Hong Kong from China. It would also prohibit any actions that misrepresent the song as the national anthem with the intent to insult the anthem.

The song can still be played if it's for lawful journalistic and academic activities.

Failure to comply with the court order may be considered as contempt of court and could be liable for a fine or imprisonment.

Authorities have previously arrested some residents who played the song in public under other offenses, such as playing a musical instrument in public without a permit, local media reported.

As of mid-afternoon on Wednesday, "Glory to Hong Kong," whose artist is credited as "Thomas and the Hong Kong people," was still available on Spotify and Apple Music in both English and Cantonese. A search on YouTube for the song also displayed multiple videos and renditions.

Google said in an email to the AP that it was "reviewing the court’s judgment." Spotify and Apple did not immediately comment.

George Chen, co-chair of digital practice at The Asia Group, a Washington-headquartered business and policy consultancy, said it would be most practical for tech companies to restrict access to the content in question in a certain region to comply with the order.

Chen called on the government to consider how to ease public concerns over the order's chilling effect on free speech.

He said he hoped such bans will not become "the new normal" and establish a precedent. "This will get people really worried about how free Hong Kong’s internet will be like tomorrow," he said.

Beijing imposed a sweeping national security law in 2020 to quell the months-long unrest. That law was used to arrest many of the city’s leading pro-democracy activists. In March, the city enacted a home-grown security law, deepening fears that the city’s Western-style civil liberties would be further curtailed. The two laws typically target more serious criminal acts.

After the judgment was handed down, Lin Jian, a spokesperson for China’s Foreign Ministry, said stopping anyone from using the song to incite division and insult the national anthem is a necessary measure for the city to maintain national security.

Eric Lai, a research fellow at Georgetown Center for Asian Law, said that even though judicial deference to the executive on national security matters is common in other jurisdictions, the court has failed to balance the protection of citizens' fundamental rights including free expression.

"It disappointingly agreed to use civil proceedings to aid the implementation of national security law," he said.

The government went to the court last year after Google resisted pressure to display China’s national anthem as the top result in searches for the city’s anthem instead of the protest song. A lower court rejected its initial bid last July, and the development was widely seen as a setback for officials seeking to crush dissidents following the protests.

The government's appeal argued that if the executive authority considered a measure necessary, the court should allow it unless it considered it will have no effect, according to a legal document on the government’s website.

The government had already asked schools to ban the protest song on campuses. It previously said it respected freedoms protected by the city’s constitution, "but freedom of speech is not absolute."

After three decades selling homemade buns on the streets of the Chinese city of Xian, 67-year-old Hu Dexi would have liked to slow down.

Instead, Hu and his older wife have moved to the edge of Beijing, where they wake at 4 a.m. every day to cook their packed lunch, then commute for more than an hour to a downtown shopping mall, where they each earn $552 monthly, working 13-hour shifts as cleaners.

The alternative for them and many of the 100 million rural migrants reaching retirement age in China over the next 10 years is to return to their village and live off a small farm and monthly pensions of $17.

CHINA'S YOUNG ADULTS QUIT JOB MARKET TO BECOME 'FULL-TIME CHILDREN' AMID HIGH UNEMPLOYMENT

"No one can look after us," said Hu, still mopping the floor. "I don't want to be a burden on my two children and our country isn't giving us a penny."

The generation that flocked to China's cities at the end of last century, building the infrastructure and manning the factories that made the country the world's biggest exporter, now risks a sharp late-life drop in living standards.

Reuters interviewed more than a dozen people, including rural migrant workers, demographers, economists and a government adviser, who described a social security system unfit for a worsening demographic crisis, which Beijing is patching rather than overhauling as it pursues growth through industrial modernization. At the same time, demand for social services is growing rapidly as the population ages.

"The elderly in China will live a long and miserable life," said Fuxian Yi, a demographer who is also a senior scientist at University of Wisconsin-Madison. "More and more migrant workers are returning to the countryside, and some are taking low-paid jobs, which is a desperate way for them to save themselves."

If these migrants were to rely solely on China's basic rural pension, they would live on less than the World Bank's poverty threshold of $3.65 a day, though many supplement their earnings by laboring in the cities or by selling some of their crop.

China's National Development and Reform Commission, the human resources and civil affairs ministries and the State Council did not respond to faxed requests for comment.

China's latest statistics showed some 94 million working people - around 12.8% of China's 734 million labor force - were older than 60 in 2022, up from 8.8% in 2020.

That share, while lower than in wealthier Japan and South Korea, is set to skyrocket as 300 million more Chinese reach their 60s in the coming decade.

A third of this cohort are rural migrants, who typically lack the professional skills for an economy aspiring to move up the value chain.

The main reason China has not built a stronger safety net for them is that policymakers, fearing the economy might fall into the middle-income trap, prioritise growing the pie rather than sharing it, the government adviser told Reuters.

To achieve that, China is directing economic resources and credit flows towards new productive forces, a catch-all term for President Xi Jinping's latest policy push for innovation and development in advanced industries such as green energy, high-end chips and quantum technology.

U.S. and European officials say this policy is unfair to Western firms competing with Chinese producers. They have warned Beijing that it stokes trade tensions, and that it diverts resources away from households, suppressing domestic demand and China's future growth potential.

China, which has rejected those assessments, has instead focused on upgrading production, rather than consumption, as its desired path toward prosperity.

"It would be easier to solve the equality problem if we could first solve the productivity growth problem," said the adviser, granted anonymity to speak freely about pension-policy debates happening behind closed doors.

"People have different views" on whether China can make that leap in productivity, the adviser said. "Mine is that it may be difficult if we do not reform further and remain at odds with the international community."

TEMPLE VISITS UP IN CHINA AS UNEMPLOYED COLLEGE GRADUATES PRAY TO FIND JOBS

Pensions in China are based on an internal passport system known as hukou, which divides the population along urban-rural lines, creating vast differences in incomes and access to social services.

Monthly urban pensions range from roughly 3,000 yuan in less-developed provinces to about 6,000 yuan in Beijing and Shanghai. Rural pensions, introduced nationwide in 2009, are meagre.

In March, China increased the minimum pension by 20 yuan, to 123 yuan per month, benefitting 170 million people.

Economists at Nomura say transferring resources to the poorest Chinese households is the most efficient way to boost domestic consumption.

But the rural pension hike amounts to an annual effort of less than 0.001% of China's $18 trillion GDP.

China's Academy of Social Sciences (CASS) estimates the pension system will run out of money by 2035.

Beijing has introduced private retirement schemes and is transferring funds to provinces with pension budget deficits which they cannot replenish due to high debts.

Other countries have tried to increase pension funding by lifting the retirement age. In China, it is among the lowest in the world, at 60 for men and 50-55 for women, depending on their line of work.

Beijing has said it plans to raise the retirement age gradually, without giving a timeline.

Government concerns that the population would perceive raising the threshold as benefiting "vested interests" at the expense of ordinary citizens are holding up the implementation of those plans, the adviser said.

Chinese think "officials want to retire later to fatten up their own pensions," he said.

CASS surveys show the level of healthcare funding for urban workers was in some cases about four times higher than for those with a rural hukou.

"There aren't enough social services to solve the problems of these people, who are prone to falling back into poverty," said Dan Wang, chief China economist at Hang Seng Bank.

More than 16% of rural residents older than 60 were "unhealthy", compared with 9.9% in the cities, according to an October article by Cai Fang, a CASS economist and former central bank adviser, published in the Chinese Cadres Tribune, a Communist Party magazine.

Sixty-year-old Yang Chengrong and her 58-year-old husband, Wu Yonghou, spend their days collecting piles of cardboard and plastic for a recycling station in Beijing, earning less than one yuan per kilogram.

Yang said she has heart issues, while Wu has gout, but they can't afford treatment. They fear their 4,000 yuan monthly income is unsustainable as "people consume and waste less."

"Villagers like us work ourselves to near-death, but we must keep working," said Yang, her shoulders covered in snow after a day of scavenging.

Wu, next to her, said they do not dare to retire.

"I only feel secure if I have work, even if it's dirty work," he said.

Traditionally in China, children have been expected to support the elderly.

But most of those retiring in the coming decade, a group almost as large as the entire U.S. population, only had one child due to birth limits enforced from 1980 to 2015.

High youth unemployment compounds the problem.

"Relying on families for elderly care is no longer feasible," Cai wrote in his article.

The silver lining for some of the elderly is that younger Chinese, despite struggling to find the services jobs they went to university for, reject hard labor.

"The mall can't find younger people," said Hu, the cleaner. "As long as I can still move, I'll keep working."

A prominent Berlin politician was violently assaulted and suffered injuries to her head and neck, police said Wednesday, in the latest attack on elected officials that raises concern over rising political violence in Germany.

Franziska Giffey, the city's top economic official, a former mayor and an ex-federal minister, was attacked at an event in a Berlin library on Tuesday by a man who approached her from behind and hit her with a bag containing a hard device, police said.

Giffey was taken to a hospital and treated for head and neck pain, police said. A 74-year-old man was detained and police searched his home, police said. They said the suspect was known to police, but did not give any indication for a motive.

GERMANY RECALLS AMBASSADOR TO RUSSIA IN RESPONSE TO ALLEGED CYBERATTACK TARGETING CHANCELLOR'S PARTY

Berlin Mayor Kai Wegner strongly condemned the attack.

"Anyone who attacks politicians is attacking our democracy," said Wegner, according to German news agency dpa. "We will not tolerate this. We will oppose all forms of violence, hatred and agitation and protect our democracy."

Giffey wrote on Instagram that "we live in a free and democratic country in which everyone is free to express their opinion ... and yet there is a clear limit. And that is violence against people who hold a different opinion, for whatever reason, in whatever form."

"They are a transgression of boundaries that we as a society must resolutely oppose," she said.

RUSSIA WILL FACE CONSEQUENCES FOR 'ABSOLUTELY INTOLERABLE' CYBERATTACK, GERMAN FOREIGN MINISTER SAYS

Later on Wednesday, Giffey, protected by several bodyguards, told reporters at a public event in Berlin that she was feeling fine but that "we also have to make it possible for us to live in a country where those who bear social and political responsibility can move freely."

Last week, a candidate from the party of Chancellor Olaf Scholz was beaten up in the eastern city of Dresden while campaigning for next month's election for the European Parliament and had to undergo surgery.

Police detained four suspects, aged between 17 and 18, and said that the same group had apparently attacked a Greens party worker minutes before they attacked Matthias Ecke. At least one of the teens is said to be linked to far-right groups, security officials said.

Also on Tuesday, a 47-year-old Green Party politician was attacked by two people while putting up election posters in Dresden, dpa reported.

The incidents have raised political tensions in Germany.

Both government and opposition parties say their members and supporters have faced a wave of physical and verbal attacks in recent months, and have called on police to step up protection for politicians and election rallies.

In February, the German Parliament said in a report there were a total of 2,790 attacks on elected representatives in 2023. Representatives of The Greens were disproportionally affected in 1,219 cases, those from the far-right Alternative for Germany party, or AfD, in 478 cases and representatives of the SPD in 420 cases.

The country's vice chancellor, Robert Habeck, who is a member of The Greens, was prevented from disembarking a ferry for hours by a group of angry farmers in January, and the vice president of the German Parliament, Katrin Goering-Eckardt, also from The Greens, was prevented from leaving an event in the state of Brandenburg last week when an angry crowd blocked her car.

Germany's federal interior minister, Nancy Faeser, said after a special meeting of the country's 16 state interior ministers on the issue of violence on Tuesday that possible measures included tightening Germany’s criminal law in order to "punish anti-democratic acts more severely,"

Many of the incidents have taken place in the former communist east of the country, where Scholz’s government is deeply unpopular. The Interior Ministry in the state of Saxony said it had registered 112 election-related crimes so far this year, including 30 against elected officials or representatives.

Mainstream parties have accused AfD of links to violent neo-Nazi groups and of fomenting an intimidating political climate. One of its leaders, Bjoern Hoecke, is currently on trial for using a banned Nazi slogan.

Alternative for Germany, which campaigns against immigration and European integration, is expected to make gains in the European polls as well as in elections in Saxony and two other eastern German states in the fall.

Ukrainian authorities suspect jailed tycoon Ihor Kolomoisky of being behind the attempted murder of a lawyer in a corporate dispute more than 20 years ago, the national police said on Wednesday.

Kolomoisky, who backed President Volodymyr Zelenskiy in the 2019 election and faces charges of fraud and money laundering, has previously denied any wrongdoing in those cases. His lawyer did not immediately respond to a Reuters request for comment on the attempted murder case.

"Police investigators have served a notice of suspicion to a well-known Ukrainian oligarch for ordering a premeditated murder," the police said in a statement.

FORMER ARMY SOLDIER CONVICTED OF MURDERING PREGNANT SOLDIER ON GERMANY BASE IN 2001

They did not identify him by name, but posted a photograph of a man with a lightly blurred-out face, which was easily identifiable as Kolomoisky, one of Ukraine's richest men, who was detained last autumn.

The alleged murder attempt carries a maximum punishment of life in prison.

National police said the suspect had threatened and failed to win over a lawyer who refused to help him overturn an unfavourable shareholders' decision at a metallurgical plant in 2003.

Through his bodyguard, the suspect, the police statement said, ordered four members of a criminal group to attack the lawyer in the summer of 2003 in the Crimean city of Feodosia.

The assailants beat the man with a metal rod and stabbed him in the chest, stomach and back, but his wife prevented the attackers from killing him and doctors managed to save his life, the statement said. The assailants were caught and jailed.

Serhiy Leshchenko, a former investigative journalist and lawmaker who works as an adviser in Zelenskiy's office, said on Telegram that the corporate dispute in the statement referred to the Dniprospetsstal enterprise in Zaporizhzhia.

Twenty-three searches were ongoing in four Ukrainian regions on Wednesday to collect additional evidence related to the case, the police said.

Kolomoisky is a former owner of PrivatBank, which was nationalised in 2016 as part of a clean-up of the Ukrainian banking system. He built up a fortune after the 1991 break-up of the Soviet Union, amassing power and media control to become one of Ukraine's most influential oligarchs.

Kolomoisky is under U.S. sanctions and faces multiple allegations relating to fraud, money laundering and embezzlement. He has denied these accusations.

Nearly 40 construction workers were still missing Wednesday in the rubble of a building that collapsed in South Africa on Monday as rescue teams continued to search for survivors for a third day in the wreckage of the unfinished five-story apartment complex.

Seven workers have been confirmed dead, while authorities in the city of George on South Africa's south coast released new information on the injuries, saying 16 of the 29 people rescued from the debris were in a critical condition in hospitals and another six had life-threatening injuries. They said 39 workers were still unaccounted for and buried in the rubble of concrete and mangled metal scaffolding.

The collapse of the building that was still under construction sparked a desperate rescue effort that has seen specialist disaster response teams brought in from other towns and cities to help. A total of 75 construction workers were at the building site when it came down, the George municipality said.

40 WORKERS TRAPPED AFTER BUILDING UNDER CONSTRUCTION REPORTEDLY COLLAPSES IN SOUTH AFRICA

More than 200 rescue personnel continued to search for survivors using sniffer dogs and underground cameras. Cranes and other heavy lifting equipment were brought in to lift some of the huge concrete slabs that came crashing down on workers, while rescuers formed lines to remove the smaller rubble by hand.

Rescuers said some of the survivors had used their cell phones while trapped under the debris to contact family members and that had helped emergency responders find them.

There were cheers and applause when some survivors were brought out Tuesday night.

The George municipality continued to call for donations of water, energy drinks and food for the rescue personnel, who had been working in shifts for more than 40 hours. The provincial Western Cape government has sent emergency response teams from Cape Town and other cities to help with a rescue effort that officials said would likely last at least until Friday.

George is a city of around 150,000 people on South Africa's picturesque coastal Garden Route and is more renowned as a vacation and golfing destination.

Authorities have announced multiple investigations into the cause of the building collapse, including by police, the provincial government and the national department of labor.

Chinese President Xi Jinping met Wednesday with the Serbian president, with both sides expressing optimism that the visit will further boost the "ironclad" friendly relations between China and the Balkan country.

Xi arrived in Serbia to a warm welcome on Tuesday evening from France, where he had a high-stakes state visit dominated by trade disputes and Russia’s war in Ukraine.

Thousands of people chanting "China-Serbia" and waving flags were bused in from across Serbia to attend a welcoming ceremony for Xi on Wednesday in front of the Serbia Palace, in the new part of Belgrade where the talks are being held.

DURING FRANCE VISIT, CHINESE PRESIDENT URGED TO INFLUENCE RUSSIA TO END WAR IN UKRAINE

Serbia's populist President Aleksandar Vucic addressed the crowd from a balcony, calling Xi an "ironclad" friend. He said hs visit to Serbia is "historic" because it opens the path for even closer ties.

"We are writing history today, although it doesn’t seem so to many (people)," Vucic said. "We thank President Xi. He hasn’t come to Europe in five years and he has again chosen our little Serbia."

At the start of the official meeting on Wednesday, Xi said "we are first-hand witnesses that the Serbian people view Chinese people as ironclad best friends."

"This is truly two-sided and truthful friendship ... I truly hail this and it really made an extremely deep impression on me," Xi said, according to the state RTS television.

Xi will proceed to Hungary later on Wednesday. Like Serbia, Hungary is seen as one of China's more friendly partners in Europe.

Signs of pro-China sentiments were clearly visible throughout the Serbian capital. A huge Chinese flag was placed on a skyscraper along a roadway leading into the city from the airport. Smaller Chinese and Serbian flags could be seen downtown and along a highway.

China has poured billions of dollars into Serbia in investment and loans, particularly in mining and infrastructure. The two countries signed an agreement on a strategic partnership in 2016 and a free trade agreement last year.

Serbia, a landlocked nation in the heart of the Balkans, has been a key country in China's Belt and Road initiative designed to increase Beijing's influence in Europe through economic investment. Critics say it could serve as a Chinese Trojan horse and gateway to Europe.

Xi also arrived in Serbia on a symbolic date — the 25th anniversary of the bombing of the Chinese Embassy in Belgrade by U.S. jets during NATO’s air war over Kosovo, when three Chinese citizens were killed.

The incident has helped forge close political ties between China and Serbia.

Chinese companies run Serbia’s biggest copper mine and a steel mill, and are also building scores of roads and highways across the country, along with a railway toward northern neighbor Hungary.

"Our bilateral relationship has stood the test of changing international environment and become a fine example of state-to-state relations," Xi said in a statement published by China's Foreign Ministry.

"Standing at a new historical starting point, China will work with Serbia to jointly stay committed to the original aspiration and forge ahead together to open up a new vista dcChina-Serbia cooperation," added Xi. "I am confident that this visit will be a fruitful one and will open up a new chapter in China-Serbia relations."

In 2014, Hungary and Serbia concluded an agreement with Beijing to modernize the railway between their capitals of Budapest and Belgrade, part of a Belt and Road plan to link up with the Chinese-controlled port of Piraeus in Greece to the south, an entry point for Chinese goods to Central and Eastern Europe.

The more than $2 billion project is expected to be completed in 2026, after numerous delays.

In 2022, shortly after the Russian invasion of Ukraine, Serbia took semi-secret delivery of a sophisticated Chinese anti-aircraft system flown in on Chinese Air Force Y-20 transport planes.

The arms delivery over the territory of at least two NATO member states, Turkey and Bulgaria, was seen by experts as a demonstration of China’s growing global reach.