BEIJING – Below are major events in President Xi Jinping's rise as China's potential leader-for-life as the ceremonial legislature prepares to amend the constitution to remove presidential term limits. 1953 — Xi Jinping is born the second son of Xi…
BEIJING – The day China's ruling Communist Party unveiled a proposal to allow President Xi Jinping to rule indefinitely as Mao Zedong did a generation ago, Ma Bo was so shaken he couldn't sleep. So Ma, a renowned writer, wrote…
UNITED NATIONS – The U.N. envoy for sexual violence in conflict who just returned from Iraq says she found "a gross lack" of support for women and girls who were raped and forced into sexual slavery by Islamic State extremists,…
SAO PAULO – Brazilian labor prosecutors have filed suit to shut down a church and school with ties to the U.S.-based Word of Faith Fellowship, saying the church and its leaders "reduced people to a condition analogous to slavery." Brazilian…
Sergei Skripal speaks to his lawyer from behind bars seen on a screen of a monitor outside a courtroom in Moscow on Wednesday, Aug. 9, 2006. Skripal a retired Russian colonel recruited by British intelligence in the mid-1990s was sentenced…
CRANBROOK, British Columbia – A judge has rejected a challenge of Canada's polygamy laws that was launched after two men were found guilty. Winston Blackmore and James Oler were found guilty in British Columbia Supreme Court last July of having…
ANKARA, Turkey – Turkey's state-run news agency says a court in Istanbul has ordered two journalists for the opposition Cumhuriyet newspaper released from prison pending the conclusion of their trial on terror charges. Anadolu Agency reported that the court ruled…
LIMA, Peru – U.S. President Donald Trump will attend the Summit of the Americas regional meeting of Western Hemisphere leaders in Peru. A high-ranking Peruvian government official with direct knowledge of the upcoming event confirmed to The Associated Press on…
A reporter for Russia’s main state-controlled media television channels warned so-called traitors Wednesday not to move to the United Kingdom following the assassination attempt on ex-Russian spy Sergei Skripal. Kirill Kleimenov of Channel One was reporting on the alleged assassination…
PRISTINA, Kosovo – Kosovo's deputy prime minister has been acquitted of charges that resulted from two slayings during the 1998-99 Kosovo War. Fatmir Limaj was accused in 2016 of failing to prevent the killings of two Albanians in 1998, when…
PANAMA CITY – Lawyers for the Trump Organization in Panama say they will take legal action to restore the Trump name to the Panama City hotel where workers pried off metal letters bearing the brand. On Friday, Britton and Iglesias…
VATICAN CITY – The retired archbishop of Santiago is trying to deflect criticism for Pope Francis' troubled visit to Chile, blaming everything from the summer weather to an "absentee" spokesman for the lower-than-expected turnout and negative press coverage. Cardinal Javier…
JOHANNESBURG – A plastic surgeon in South Africa says he doubts that a triathlete who suffered severe leg injuries after men attacked him with a saw will be able to compete "in the near future." Dr. O'Sharran Singh told journalists…
The Trump administration is moving to get much tougher on the issue of sexual abuse committed by humanitarian aid workers, and joining an international bandwagon that could cut off funding for international agencies who can’t—or don’t-- address the problem. The…
Authorities investigating the mysterious poisoning of an ex-Russian spy living in the United Kingdom are probing the possibility the would-be assassins used the man's unwitting daughter to slip the extremely rare toxic nerve agent inside his home. Former London police chief…
JERUSALEM – The Palestinian Health Ministry says a 24-year-old man has been killed in clashes with Israeli forces in the West Bank. It said he was shot in the chest Friday and declared dead at a Hebron hospital. Israel's military…
BERLIN – Prosecutors are demanding a life sentence for an Afghan migrant on trial in Germany for the rape and killing of a 19-year-old medical student in October 2016. Chief prosecutor Eckart Berger told Freiburg's regional court Friday that the…
PARIS – The sole surviving suspect from the November 2015 Paris extremist attacks has agreed for the first time to answer questions about others accused of involvement. A source close to the case told The Associated Press that Salah Abdeslam…
JUBA, South Sudan – South Sudan has suspended a United Nations radio station for allegedly refusing to comply with the country's media laws, although the station has not yet been taken off the air. On Friday, the Media Authority, an…
DERA ISMAIL KHAN, Pakistan – The spokesman for the Pakistani Taliban says the son of their chief, Mullah Fazlullah, was among 21 "holy warriors" killed this week when missiles fired by a U.S. drone struck a seminary in Afghanistan. Mohammad…
MADRID – Spain's Supreme Court has turned down a request from a jailed Catalan separatist leader to attend the northeastern region's parliament, where lawmakers are due to vote on whether to make him president of Catalonia. Judge Pablo LLarena wrote…
The British government deployed the military Friday to help with its probe of the mysterious nerve-agent poisoning of a former Russian spy and his daughter -- an apparent assassination attempt that also left 19 others seeking medical treatment. The Metropolitan…
MANILA, Philippines – A Philippine police official says an alleged former commander of the Islamic State group in Syria who was arrested recently in Manila will not be freed even after a prosecutor dropped criminal complaints of illegal possession of…
BEIRUT – The Latest on the conflict in Syria (all times local): 3:20 p.m. Turkey's president says Turkish troops and Ankara-backed opposition fighters have encircled the main city in a Syrian Kurdish-held enclave in northwest Syria and are on the…
BENGHAZI, Libya – A military spokesman says a car bomb explosion has killed at least three security personnel at a checkpoint south of the northeastern Libyan town of Ajdabiya. Faisal Ahbale said Friday's attack took place at the town's southern…
PRAGUE – The Latest on the slaying of a journalist and his fiancee in Slovakia (all times local): 1:45 p.m. Slovakia's top three politicians have failed to agree on a common declaration meant to calm the tense situation in the…
GENEVA – The United Nations' human rights chief has suggested that Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte "needs to submit himself to some sort of psychiatric evaluation" over his "unacceptable" remarks about some top human rights defenders. Zeid Ra'ad al-Hussein demanded that…
SEOUL, South Korea – After a year of threats and diatribes, U.S. President Donald Trump and third-generation North Korean dictator Kim Jong Un have agreed to meet face-to-face for talks about the North's nuclear program. It remains to be seen…
VATICAN CITY – The Vatican says Pope Francis will visit Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia on Sept. 22-25 as the three Baltic nations celebrate their 100th anniversaries. The Vatican confirmed the trip Friday, saying Francis would visit Vilnius and Kaunas in…
PESHAWAR, Pakistan – Pakistani police say they have arrested a key suspect sought for inciting the lynching of a university student who was falsely accused of blasphemy in the country's northwest. District police chief Saeed Khan said on Friday that…
NAIROBI, Kenya – Kenya's president and opposition leader say they met for talks, months after the presidential elections sparked turmoil as the opposition charged there was electoral fraud. President Uhuru Kenyatta and former Prime Minister Raila Odinga said Friday they…
DJIBOUTI – U.S. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson drew a distinction Friday between "talks" with North Korea and "negotiations," arguing that President Donald Trump's willingness to chat with Kim Jong Un shouldn't be construed as anything more than that. The…
LONDON – The British official in charge of public safety is visiting the area in the English city of Salisbury where a former Russian spy collapsed after he was targeted with an undisclosed nerve agent. Home Secretary Amber Rudd is…
KANDY, Sri Lanka – Calm is beginning to return to violence-hit Muslim neighborhoods in Sri Lanka's Kandy region, with many shops reopening as army reinforcements put an end to Buddhist mob attacks that hit the area. Army commander Mahesh Senanayake…
BERLIN – Germany's center-left Social Democrats party is proposing a mix of veterans and newcomers for ministerial posts in the country's next government. The party's membership on Sunday approved continuing the current "grand coalition" with Chancellor Angela Merkel's conservative Union…
TOKYO – President Donald Trump could become the first sitting U.S. president to visit North Korea if plans for a summit with Kim Jong Un hold. But other prominent American political figures have visited Pyongyang, North Korea's capital, in the…
TOKYO – Japan's finance ministry has confirmed the death of an official linked to a scandal potentially involving Prime Minister Shinzo Abe's wife. Ministry officials acknowledged the employee's death at a parliamentary hearing Friday, but refused to give details. Local…
TOKYO – A Japanese court on Friday sentenced a Peruvian man to hang for killing six people over several days in 2015 near Tokyo. The Saitama District Court convicted 32-year-old Jonathan Nakada of the murders committed in Kumagaya, north of…
BEIRUT – Amid a lull in Damascus' embattled rebel-held suburbs, the International Committee of the Red Cross says it's delivering the remaining aid to eastern Ghouta. ICRC says a convoy of 13 trucks, including food parcels for 12,000 people, has…
PHNOM PENH, Cambodia – Cambodia's Supreme Court has rejected an application for bail for an opposition leader charged with treason who is seeking to be released for medical treatment abroad. The court ruled Friday that Kem Sokha must be kept…
KABUL, Afghanistan – The Latest on developments in Afghanistan (all times local): 1:15 p.m. An Afghan official says a suicide bomber targeting a gathering of ethnic Hazaras in the capital, Kabul, blew himself up at a police checkpoint outside the…
MANILA, Philippines – Norwegian and U.S. law enforcers have helped the Philippines capture a man they say exploited children by having them join sex videos which he then showed to paying foreign clients online, officials said Friday. National Bureau of…
TOKYO – So President Donald Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un are planning a summit. What could possibly go wrong? The two countries haven't had significant, high-level talks in years and, as White House Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee…
PRAGUE – Slovakia has quickly turned from what seemed to be a stable European Union country into chaos, in the wake of the unprecedented slayings of an investigative journalist and his fiancée. In a speech last month, President Andrej Kiska…
BEIJING – China's central bank governor says the country can be bolder in opening its financial markets following steps to strengthen its regulatory system and encourage use of its currency abroad. Zhou Xiaochuan's comments Friday during the meeting of China's…
SEOUL, South Korea – The Latest on a planned summit between President Donald Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un (all times local): 3:30 p.m. South Korea's foreign minister says her government is consulting with the United States on…
KABUL, Afghanistan – An Afghan official says the Taliban launched a deadly assault on an army outpost in a remote region of northern Takhar province, killing 10 local policemen and wounding nine. Provincial police spokesman Khali Aseir said on Friday…
NEW DELHI – A massive fire that started in a chemical factory in western India and spread to six other factories killed at least three workers and injured 13, police said Friday. Police officer Manjunath Shinge said the bodies were…
JAKARTA, Indonesia – Indonesian authorities foiled the shipment of 21 containers of prized ironwood from Papua, highlighting what environmentalists say is a rampant illegal trade in the country's easternmost region. The Forestry and Environment Ministry's law enforcement agency said the…
BEIRUT – Turkey's war on a Syrian Kurdish militia that is closely aligned with the United States is forcing the group to give up positions against Islamic State militants in the Syrian desert to defend against the advancing Turkish troops.…
