Pope Francis delivered the first-ever papal address at a G-7 conference on Friday, warning about the ethical pitfalls of artificial intelligence. The pope told the council of world leaders in Fasano, Italy, that AI offers immense benefit to the human race, but also threatens to dehumanize society. "The question of artificial intelligence, however, is often perceived as ambiguous: on the one hand, it generates excitement for the possibilities it offers, while on the other, it gives rise to fear for the consequences it foreshadows," Pope Francis said in his remarks. POPE FRANCIS WARNS AI EXPLOIT ..read more

Cambodian authorities on Friday destroyed more than seven tons of illicit drugs and the ingredients for them, as a drug-fighting official said educating people about their danger is the best way of combating the illegal trade. Some 4.1 tons of the destroyed items were drugs including heroin, marijuana, methamphetamine, ecstasy and ketamine that had been confiscated from traffickers across the country, the National Authority for Combating Drugs said. The remaining 3.2 tons were various chemicals and other ingredients used to produce illegal drugs, it said. Gen. Meas Virith, secretary general of ..read more

An American tourist who died after being electrocuted in a hot tub while vacationing with his wife in Mexico is now being remembered as a "real big family man" who had a "heart of gold."  Jorge Guillen, a 43-year-old from El Paso, Texas, according to media reports, died June 11 "in the jacuzzi of a complex of private condominiums in Puerto Peñasco, Sonora after an electric discharge," Mexican prosecutors say. His wife, Lizette Zambrano, 35, remains in critical condition after reportedly being transferred to an American hospital.  "Our best friends have experienced a horrible accident ..read more

JERUSALEM - The Islamic Republic of Iran retaliated against the Biden administration’s support of a mild U.N. watchdog agency rebuke of Tehran for its work on its covert illicit nuclear weapons program this week. The U.N.’s International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) said its inspectors had verified Monday that Iran has begun feeding uranium into three cascades of advanced IR-4 and IR-6 centrifuges at its Natanz enrichment facility. Cascades are a group of centrifuges that spin uranium gas together to enrich the uranium more quickly. So far, Iran has been enriching uranium in those cascades ..read more

The U.S. Navy prepared for decades to potentially fight the Soviet Union, then later Russia and China, on the world's waterways. But instead of a global power, the Navy finds itself locked in combat with a shadowy, Iran-backed rebel group based in Yemen. The U.S.-led campaign against the Houthi rebels, overshadowed by the Israel-Hamas war in the Gaza Strip, has turned into the most intense running sea battle the Navy has faced since World War II, its leaders and experts told The Associated Press. The combat pits the Navy's mission to keep international waterways open against a group whose form ..read more

Japan's defense chief said Friday that Japanese and American V-22 Ospreys are being safely operated in his country, and that he has no plans to request a flight suspension despite restrictions in the U.S. where ongoing safety and performance assessments will continue until next year. Defense Minister Minoru Kihara said that Japanese and U.S. military officials have closely communicated over technical issues involving the safety of Ospreys following a fatal November crash off Japan's southern coast. "Japanese and U.S. Ospreys have been operated safely and I believe there is no safety issue invo ..read more

Buddhist monks in Thailand on Friday blessed twin baby elephants, one male and the other female, a week after their rare birth came close to being a tragedy. Their mother, Chamchuri, gave birth to the pair on the night of June 7 at a camp in Thailand’s ancient capital Ayutthaya, a popular tourist destination 50 miles north of Bangkok. Twin elephant births are rare and male-female twins even more so. The Ayutthaya Elephant Palace & Royal Kraal, home to the newborns, says that it was a first for the province, while a statement from the Thai government said they were the third such pair in th ..read more

Swedish accident investigators on Friday said the country's oldest amusement park didn't properly test new parts for a roller coaster that derailed last year and sent some passengers plunging to the ground, killing one and injuring nine others, one seriously. The June 25 derailment at the Grona Lund park in Stockholm "was caused by deficiencies in the ordering, manufacturing and testing of new support arms for the Jetline trains," the Swedish Accident Investigation Authority said. It said the support arms weren't sufficiently strong. The roller coaster was carrying 11 passengers at the time of ..read more

Switzerland will host scores of world leaders this weekend to try to map out first steps toward peace in Ukraine even though Russia, which launched the ongoing war, won’t take part. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy’s government didn’t want Russia involved, and the Swiss — aware of Moscow’s reservations about the talks — didn’t invite Russia. The Swiss insist Russia must be involved at some point, and hope it will join the process one day. Ukrainians, too, are considering that possibility. The conference, underpinned by elements of a 10-point peace formula presented by Zelenskyy in late ..read more

Russia's fleet of warships in Cuba poses a "limited threat" to the U.S. mainland and its Navy, an expert said, but the move by Russian President Vladimir Putin is far from unprecedented. Rear Adm. Mark Montgomery (ret.) told Fox News Digital that U.S. assets in the area are more than capable of outmaneuvering the three warships and lone nuclear submarine that arrived in Cuba on Wednesday.  "There have been three of these incidents in the past 20 years, so it's a traditional, normal-sized deployment despite being infrequent," Montgomery said, though he did note the inclusion of the submari ..read more