BEIJING – A U.S.-based Uighur journalist is accusing the Chinese authorities of seizing about 20 of her relatives in Xinjiang, apparently to pressure her to cease her critical reporting on the turbulent northwestern region. The report comes amid rising concerns…
KABUL, Afghanistan – An Afghan official says special forces have captured a foreign fighter claiming to be German during a raid on the Taliban in southern Helmand province. The Defense Ministry's spokesman, Dawlat Waziri, said on Thursday that the Afghan…
CAIRO – Egypt's president has warned the media that he considers any defamation of the country's security forces to be "high treason." Abdel-Fattah el-Sissi's warning Thursday came as security forces enter the fourth week of a campaign against Islamic militants…
MOSCOW – President Vladimir Putin says Russia has tested new nuclear weapons, including a nuclear-powered cruise missile and a nuclear-powered underwater drone, that would be immune to enemy intercept. Speaking in a state-of-the-nation speech Thursday, Putin said that the nuclear-powered…
BRATISLAVA, Slovakia – Police are conducting raids in eastern Slovakia in houses linked to members of Italian mafia, about whom an investigative journalist was writing before he was shot dead last week. The country's police chief, Tibor Gaspar, told reporters…
GENEVA – The Latest on the wintry weather hitting Europe (all times local): 11:15 a.m. Roads and airports across large chunks of Britain are closed as snow and wind wreak havoc with travel plans. Hundreds of drivers were trapped in…
VATICAN CITY – A Vatican magazine is denouncing how nuns are often treated like indentured servants by cardinals and bishops, for whom they cook and clean for next to no pay. The March edition of "Women Church World," the monthly…
WELLINGTON, New Zealand – A troubled teenager who wanted to assassinate Queen Elizabeth II during her 1981 visit to New Zealand fired a shot near her motorcade, newly released documents show. New Zealand's internal spy agency the Security Intelligence Service…
BERLIN – A 27-year-old Palestinian man has been convicted of murder and attempted murder for killing one person and wounding six others in a stabbing spree at a German supermarket last summer. The dpa news agency reported Thursday that Ahmad…
BEIJING – Media reports say China is planning to build a nuclear-powered aircraft carrier capable of remaining at sea for long durations. The Hong Kong newspaper South China Morning Post said Thursday the China Shipbuilding Industry Corp. issued a statement…
KAMPALA, Uganda – Mysterious deaths of foreigners and locals are stoking fears in Uganda about crime amid an ongoing feud among the country's security agencies, and now the president is weighing in. In the past month four Europeans have been…
SEOUL, South Korea – South Korea's president has criticized Japan's insistence that the issue of women forced to provide sex for Japanese troops in World War II has been settled. President Moon Jae-in said Thursday that Japan "should not say…
MOSCOW – The Russian military is accusing Syria's rebels of shelling a humanitarian corridor that Moscow set up with the Syrian government, offering residents of Damascus' besieged eastern suburbs a way out of the embattled enclave. Maj. Gen. Vladimir Zolotukhin…
BAKU, Azerbaijan – The U.S. Agency for International Development says the government in the former Soviet republic of Azerbaijan is putting up obstacles to its operations in the country. Brock Bierman, USAID's Assistant Administrator in Europe and Eurasia, told reporters…
GENEVA – Geneva's airport has been closed "until further notice" after the Swiss city was blanketed by snowfall overnight. The airport's website says passengers should stay away for the time being and recommends they check with their airlines to see…
MEXICO CITY – Each month brings a bigger stage and a new level of pedigree for Shubhankar Sharma. He arrived in Mexico City for his first World Golf Championship at No. 75 in the world, making Sharma, at age 21,…
SARAJEVO, Bosnia-Herzegovina – Veterans of Bosnia's 1992-95 war are blocking main highways in various parts of the country to draw attention to their frustration with the authorities. The protest that began Wednesday in the Muslim-Croat federation — one of the…
WARSAW, Poland – A Polish law that criminalizes accusing the Polish nation of crimes that were committed by Nazi Germany has taken effect. The law has sparked a crisis with Israel, where officials fear its true aim is to repress…
CANBERRA, Australia – A top Australian diplomat has told a Senate committee that the bilateral relationship with China is going through "complex and difficult issues," but rejects a media report of a diplomatic deep freeze. Frances Adamson, secretary of the…
JAKARTA, Indonesia – A radical Islamic cleric who was the spiritual leader of the Bali bombers and a force behind a jihadist training camp raided in 2010 has been transferred from prison to a Jakarta hospital. Guarded by four paramilitary…
ISLAMABAD – Pakistan's military says Indian troops have killed two Pakistani soldiers in the latest "unprovoked" fire in the disputed Himalayan region of Kashmir. The gunfire from Indian troops on Wednesday struck Pakistani posts near Bhimber village in Pakistan's part…
A Slovakian journalist and his girlfriend were found dead Sunday mysteriously while he was working on a story about possible links between the Italian mafia and people close to Prime Minister Robert Fico. Ján Kuciak, 27 and his girlfriend, Martina…
CANBERRA, Australia – An Australian government report says more than 57,000 illegal firearms including a rocket launcher and machine guns were handed in during a recent amnesty in which gun owners could surrender such weapons without penalty. The government and…
Bruce McArthur and Sasha Reid (Reuters/Twitter) A criminal profiler said she tried to warn Toronto cops about a serial killer terrorizing the city’s “Gay Village” almost a year before they nabbed a landscaper accused of slaying at least six men…
Several members of the Oxfam aid operation in Haiti have been accused in a prostitution and sex abuse scandal. Outraged developed nations that largely fund the world’s humanitarian aid and peacekeeping efforts, fed up with sexual exploitation and abuse by…
LIMA, Peru – Accusations of corruption are again enveloping Peruvian President Pedro Pablo Kuczynski after a high-ranking executive from scandal-plagued Brazilian builder Odebrecht allegedly said he contributed money to the leader's 2011 campaign. The allegations against Kuczynski were made Wednesday…
RIO DE JANEIRO – Brazil's state-run postal service says it will start charging extra to deliver letters and packages in Rio de Janeiro due to a wave of wave of violence in the state. Correios said in a statement on…
Maulana Mohammad Abdul Aziz is considered one of the most dangerous, yet influential, men in Pakistan. And while his movements in the country are restricted by the government, the 57-year-old former head cleric of Islamabad’s oldest mosque – Lal Masjid,…
SANTIAGO, Chile – The Vatican's sex crimes investigator has ended his mission in Chile, and Roman Catholic officials say he plans to deliver a report to the pope on a Chilean bishop who has been accused of ignoring sex abuse…
PATTAYA, Thailand – A Belarusian woman jailed in Thailand for offering sex lessons without a work permit says she has a story to tell involving the Kremlin, Russian billionaires and even the president of the United States. Anastasia Vashukevich, whose…
Tunisians check voter IDs in a polling station in Tunis, Tunisia, back in 2014. (AP Photo/Ilyess Osmane) The Tunisian Ennahda Party has made history in this northernmost African country by nominating its first Jewish candidate for public office. But in…
DAKAR, Senegal – The U.N. mission in Mali says four of its peacekeepers have been killed after their vehicle hit an explosive device in the central Mopti region. Mali mission chief Mahamat Saleh Annadif said the four were killed Wednesday…
LONDON – British police say they have arrested three men in connection with an explosion over the weekend in the English city of Leicester that killed five people. Sunday's blast caused the collapse of a building which housed a shop…
JERUSALEM – Israel's army says military police have opened an investigation into a raid in which a Palestinian was killed. It made the announcement Wednesday after new footage emerged showing the 33-year-old running down an alley with a long object…
SOFIA, Bulgaria – The foreign ministers of Bulgaria and Iran have discussed the state of affairs in the Middle East and bilateral economic relations. Bulgarian Foreign Minister Ekaterina Zaharieva and her Iranian counterpart, Mohammad Javad Zarif, said they talked about…
VERACRUZ, Mexico – Prosecutors in the corruption-plagued Mexican state of Veracruz say police set up units that used dirty-war, death-squad style tactics to abduct, kill and dispose of at least 15 people suspected of being drug cartel informers and drug…
BERLIN – Bavarian authorities say about one in four known members of an anti-government extremist group live in the southern state and they're investigating whether there are even more. Bavarian Interior Minister Joachim Herrmann said Wednesday that 3,850 members of…
UNITED NATIONS – The U.N. humanitarian chief says convoys with food and other aid are ready to go to 10 besieged and hard-to-reach locations in Syria, including the Damascus suburbs of eastern Ghouta — but there is no cease-fire as…
ROME – The man tapped by Silvio Berlusconi as his choice for Italy's next premier has met with laid off Italian union workers and vowed to pull strings to intervene in the politically clamorous closure of their Turin refrigerator factory.…
PARIS – Paris Fashion Week is continuing in the French capital. Themes from the natural world, to the Roaring Twenties to the era of Glam Rock have been channeled on Day 2 of the shows. Here are some of the…
ATHENS, Greece – Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras has appointed deputy premier Yannis Dragasakis as the country's economy and development minister in a limited cabinet reshuffle triggered by a rent allowance scandal. In a statement Wednesday, the government said Dragasakis will…
BERLIN – German officials have been left speechless by Chancellor Angela Merkel's comment that there are "no-go areas" in the country. The notion there are places in Germany outsiders — including police — can't visit has previously been dismissed by…
Sherine Abdel-Wahab was sentenced to six months in prison for a joke she made suggesting the Nile River was polluted. (YouTube) Sherine Abdel-Wahab, one of Egypt’s most famous singers and the star of the Arabic version of “The Voice,” was…
PRISTINA, Kosovo – European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker has called on Kosovo to ratify a border demarcation deal with Montenegro and improve ties with Serbia. Juncker continued his Balkan tour in Kosovo on Wednesday, the first visit by an EU…
TEGUCIGALPA, Honduras – Authorities say military police have arrested the wife of former Honduran President Porfirio Lobo as part of a corruption case. Police arrived at the Lobo home in six vehicles and searched the residence before leaving with former…
PARIS – A man suspected of sexually assaulting dozens of women over more than 20 years has been arrested in northern France. A prosecutor in Valenciennes, some 210 kilometers (130.5 miles) north of Paris, said that the suspect, whose identity…
LAGOS, Nigeria – The office of Nigeria's president says police and civil defense forces are ordered to defend all schools in "liberated areas" of the northeast to avoid further attacks on schools by Boko Haram extremists. Many in Africa's most…
DAKAR, Senegal – The United Nations children's agency says one of its workers and five other education workers have been killed in an attack in Central African Republic. UNICEF's West and Central Africa Regional Director Marie-Pierre Poirier says the team…
WARSAW, Poland – Polish media are reporting that Jaroslaw Kaczynski, the head of Poland's conservative ruling party, has been reprimanded by a parliamentary ethics committee. The development Wednesday comes in response to an emotional outburst Kaczynski made in parliament last…
WARSAW, Poland – The head of a Polish Himalaya climbers' team says that a prominent member, Denis Urubko, who recently rescued a French climber, has split up with the team and left its base camp in Pakistan. The team is…
