CHESTER, England (AP) — Manchester City defender Benjamin Mendy was found not guilty Friday of six counts of rape and one of sexual assault.

Jurors at Chester Crown Court in northwest England could not reach verdicts on two other allegations against Mendy — one of attempted rape and another of rape — and were discharged.

Prosecutors said they will seek a retrial on the counts the jury could not reach verdicts at the end of a months-long trial.

Mendy, 28, covered his face with both hands and was gently rocking back and forth as the jury foreman delivered the verdicts in a hushed courtroom, Britain's Press Association reported. The not-guilty verdicts related to four young women or teenagers.

PARIS (AP) — Paris authorities are investigating the death of a 3-year-old girl who was found in the washing machine of her family's apartment, prosecutors said.

An investigation was opened Friday into the cause of death after the child was discovered in northeast Paris on Thursday night, the Paris prosecutor’s office said. A special unit for the protection of minors is leading the probe.

The prosecutor’s office did not provide further details, or confirm a report in the daily Le Parisien newspaper that she was found alive in the washing machine by her father and another family member and died in emergency care an hour later.

ANKARA, Turkey (AP) — Swedish Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson on Friday denounced a protest by Kurds in central Stockholm where an effigy of Turkey's president was hung from a lamppost as an act of sabotage against Sweden's bid to join NATO.

The protest outside City Hall on Wednesday drew an angry backlash from Turkey, a NATO member which already had held off on approving Sweden's application to become part of the Western military alliance until the government in Stockholm satisfies its demands.

The speaker of Turkey’s parliament, Mustafa Sentop, canceled a visit by Andreas Norlén, the speaker of the Swedish Riksdag, that was scheduled for next Tuesday. Turkish lawmakers need to ratify Sweden’s NATO application for the Nordic nation to become a member.

“I believe it is regrettable that the visit has been canceled,” Norlén told Swedish news agency TT.

WARSAW, Poland (AP) — Poland’s legislators voted Friday to approve a new law on judicial accountability that the government hopes will meet European Union expectations and help unfreeze billions of euros in pandemic recovery funds for the country.

Brussels suspended the aid for Poland, saying the government's policies of exerting control over the judiciary are in violation of democratic principles. The EU has called for essential changes to be made before Poland can be granted access to the money.

The right-wing coalition government says that the provisions of the new law have been agreed on with Brussels and should lead to the release of more than 35 billion euros ($37 billion) of EU grants and loans. Some previous changes made by Poland didn't go far enough for the EU.

But the justice minister, who introduced the measures to wield political control over the judiciary, opposes the changes, threatening the government's future, and President Andrzej Duda says he hasn't been consulted on the new law.

NAIROBI, Kenya (AP) — Ethiopia’s military says members of the Amhara region special forces have started leaving the country’s Tigray region two months after a peace agreement in the Tigray conflict.

The Ethiopian National Defense Force said Thursday that the Amhara forces who fought alongside Ethiopian federal ones had left the Tigray town of Shire, a key humanitarian hub, and surrounding areas.

The Amhara forces, like those from neighboring Eritrea, were not a party to the peace agreement signed in November, and the presence of both has been a major challenge to the deal’s implementation.

The announcement of the Amhara forces’ withdrawal came a day after Tigray forces said they handed over heavy military equipment to the Ethiopian government as part of the peace deal. The Tigray forces have been especially vocal about the need for the Eritreans to leave.