WASHINGTON The U.S. Congress is headed for a seven-week recess without addressing gun violence, the Zika virus outbreak and other pressing issues, amid persistent election-year bickering. Despite recent gun violence, the House of Representatives will not vote ... More »
WASHINGTON The top U.S. law enforcement official, under questioning from Republicans at a congressional hearing on Tuesday, shed no new light on the Justice Department’s decision not to prosecute Hillary Clinton over her handling of sensitive emails. Attorney ... More »
Roger Ailes, chairman and CEO of Fox News and Fox Television Stations, answers questions during a panel discussion at the Television Critics Association summer press tour in Pasadena, California July 24, 2006. Picture taken July 24, 2006. REUTERS/Fred Prouser/... More »
LONDON/BERLIN German Chancellor Angela Merkel sought on Saturday to temper pressure from Paris, Brussels and her own government to force Britain into negotiating a quick divorce from the EU, despite warnings that hesitation will let populism take hold. Eurosce... More »
LONDON Britain’s opposition Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn sacked his foreign policy chief on Sunday, a spokesman said, plunging the party into open conflict after Britain voted to leave the European Union. The EU referendum, which saw 52 percent of Britons votin... More »
WASHINGTON U.S. President Barack Obama on Friday said the United States remains committed to bringing home Americans held captive overseas and helping their families, a year after the administration promised to overhaul its handling of hostage situations. “We ... More »
ISLAMABAD The plight of a lonely elephant in a Pakistani zoo has inspired help from pop icon Cher, who has sent a representative to oversee improvements in his living conditions. Cher first became aware of 29-year-old Kavaan’s plight when pictures of the eleph... More »
ORLANDO, Fla. Orlando nightclub killer Omar Mateen had expressed sympathy for a variety of Islamist extremists, including groups in the Middle East that are sworn enemies, the FBI said on Monday, as a picture began to emerge of the angry, violent man who carri... More »
FORT PIERCE, Fla. The photo from Omar Mateen’s high school yearbook is hardly remarkable – a toothy, dimpled smile with a peach-fuzz mustache below a mop of black hair. His transformation from high school football player to perpetrator of America’s worst mass ... More »
Former world heavyweight boxing champion Muhammad Ali died on Friday, aged 74. Following are some of the reactions to his death: U.S. PRESIDENT BARACK OBAMA “A man who fought for us. He stood with King and Mandela- stood up when it was hard- spoke out when oth... More »
For Bob Arum, the famed promoter who befriended Muhammad Ali some 50 years ago, the former heavyweight champion’s legacy in the boxing ring pales in comparison to his impact on America and the world. Arum told Reuters on Saturday, the day after Ali died in a P... More »
BEIJING China hopes to establish counter-terrorism intelligence sharing with France as the Asian giant seeks greater international support for its anti-terror fight, China’s state-run Xinhua news agency reported citing an exchange between officials of the two ... More »
ULAANBAATAR U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry hailed Mongolia as an “oasis of democracy” sitting in a tough location between Russia and China as he made a rare visit by a cabinet-level U.S. official on Sunday. Arriving from Paris, Kerry made the visit to Mong... More »
KABUL Thousands of demonstrators from Afghanistan’s Hazara minority marched in protest through Kabul on Monday saying that they are missing out on a multi-million dollar power transmission line, posing a major challenge to the government of President Ashraf Gh... More »
KIEV/MOSCOW Ukrainian politicians hailed their country’s surprise weekend victory in the European Song Contest as a continent-wide endorsement in their smoldering conflict with Russia, while Moscow said the competition had been hijacked by politics. Ukrainian ... More »
WASHINGTON/WINSTON-SALEM, N.C. A fight between the Obama administration and North Carolina over a state law limiting public bathroom access for transgender people escalated on Monday as both sides sued each other, trading accusations of civil rights violations... More »
LOS ANGELES Even as a Los Angeles judge dismissed one case brought by a former girlfriend of media mogul Sumner Redstone, she filed a new lawsuit that threatens to keep salacious allegations about the 92-year-old’s lifestyle alive. The new complaint, filed by ... More »
SACRAMENTO, Calif. A bill requiring all single-occupancy public restrooms to be open to anyone regardless of gender or gender identity passed the California Assembly on Monday, and will proceed to the state Senate. The most populous U.S. state already bars dis... More »
LOS ANGELES Media mogul Sumner Redstone never set foot in the Los Angeles courtroom where his mental competency was on trial in recent days. But the 92-year-old billionaire had the final word on Monday when Judge David Cowan, citing blunt videotaped testimony ... More »
TOKYO A Japanese court found on Monday an artist not guilty of obscenity for displaying figurines modeled on her vagina, signaling a step towards freedom of expression, although the court fined her for distributing digital data of her genitals. The Tokyo court... More »
(Note language in third paragraph. Rewrites with further quotes from court, background on Viacom) By Lisa Richwine LOS ANGELES A judge called Sumner Redstone’s deposition “strong evidence” that the media mogul knew what he was doing when he ejected an ex-girlf... More »
ABIDJAN Congolese rumba music legend Papa Wemba died after collapsing on stage in the Ivory Coast in the early hours of Sunday morning, according to the private morgue where his body was taken. Wemba, born in 1949, was performing at the FEMUA 2016 festival whe... More »
LONDON Britain’s Supreme Court was urged on Thursday to maintain a ban on the English press naming a celebrity who was involved in an extra-marital threesome, even though the details are easy to find online. The case has stirred debate in Britain about whether... More »
PRETORIA Disgraced Olympic and Paralympic gold medalist Oscar Pistorius will face sentencing in June following his conviction for murdering his girlfriend Reeva Steenkamp on Valentine’s Day in 2013. “The matter is postponed to the 13th of June 2016, and it wil... More »
JAGODINA, Serbia Ultra-nationalists are set to return to Serbia’s parliament in an April 24 election after an absence of several years, boosted by growing discontent with Prime Minister Aleksandar Vucic’s pro-European Union stance and austerity policies. They ... More »
WINSTON-SALEM, N.C. Cirque du Soleil said on Friday it was canceling shows in North Carolina over a new state law that it called discriminatory, the performance group said on Friday, becoming the latest entertainment act to take a stance against the measure. “... More »
BERLIN Chancellor Angela Merkel said on Tuesday Germany wanted to find a solution to the migrant crisis but this was separate to artistic freedom after the Turkish leader filed a complaint against a comedian for insulting him with a satirical poem. “I want to ... More »
SINGAPORE A spat between Singapore Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong and his younger sister has blown into the open, one year after the death of their iron-handed father Lee Kuan Yew, who brooked no discord within the city-state’s political world. Lee’s sister ac... More »
LIMA Keiko Fujimori, the daughter of a jailed former president, led Peru’s election on Sunday but she likely faces a tight run-off against centrist economist Pedro Pablo Kuczynski in a vote that would protect the country’s free-market economic model. Fujimori,... More »
BEIJING China’s online censorship system protects national security and does not discriminate against foreign companies, the country’s internet regulator said, after the United States labeled the blocking of websites by Beijing a trade barrier. The U.S. Trade ... More »
Rock star Bruce Springsteen on Friday canceled a weekend concert in North Carolina to protest a new state law barring transgender people from choosing bathrooms consistent with their gender identity, as country music stars decried similar legislation proposed ... More »
DIKILI, Turkey/LESBOS, Greece Migrants sent back from the Greek island of Lesbos began arriving in Turkey on Monday under a disputed European Union scheme aimed at closing the main route by which a million people poured across the Aegean Sea to Greece in the l... More »
HONG KONG A Hong Kong film portraying a dystopian future under Chinese Communist Party rule won one of Asia’s top film awards on Sunday at a time when Beijing’s attempts to rein in the city’s democratic development have stoked growing political tensions. “Ten ... More »
BEIJING Exiled Tibetan spiritual leader the Dalai Lama is “making a fool” of Tibetan Buddhism with suggestions he may not reincarnate, or reincarnate as something inappropriate, and the faithful are not buying it, a Chinese official wrote on Monday. China says... More »
HAVANA The Rolling Stones rocked a massive crowd at a free, outdoor concert in Havana on Friday, capping a week of engagement with the West for the Communist-led country that once censored the veteran British band’s music. The Stones started their first-ever s... More »
HONG KONG U.S. Republican presidential frontrunner Donald Trump has been pilloried in many ways, over his bouffant hair, orange skin and supposedly small hands, but a British artist has now used raw pig and sheep parts to sculpt him for a Hong Kong art show. T... More »
WINSTON-SALEM, N.C. North Carolina’s governor on Wednesday signed into law a measure that blocks local governments in the state from enacting ordinances to allow transgender people to use public bathrooms that match their gender identities. The legislation cam... More »
PHOENIX Phoenix’s mayor on Wednesday urged a federal probe into the local county’s handling of voting in Arizona’s presidential nominating contest, questioning whether minority voters were granted a fair chance to cast their ballots. Greg Stanton asked the U.S... More »
WASHINGTON The Supreme Court on Wednesday headed toward a possible 4-4 split over a legal challenge by Christian nonprofit employers who object to providing female workers insurance covering birth control as required by President Barack Obama’s healthcare law.... More »
ROME Fried cow’s brains might not be to everyone’s taste, but more people may sample the Florentine specialty now that Italy’s art capital has ordered food outlets in the city center to sell mostly local produce. Florence is the latest Italian tourist destinat... More »
WASHINGTON In April 2014, the administration of President Barack Obama announced the most ambitious clemency program in 40 years, inviting thousands of jailed drug offenders and other convicts to seek early release and urging lawyers across the country to take... More »
WASHINGTON/BLOOMINGTON, Ill. Republican presidential front-runner Donald Trump refused to take responsibility on Sunday for clashes at his campaign events and criticized protesters who have dogged his rallies and forced him to cancel one in Chicago last week. ... More »
DAYTON, Ohio Secret Service officers rushed on stage to protect U.S. Republican presidential front-runner Donald Trump during a disturbance at a rally on Saturday, a day after rowdy protests shut down his event in Chicago. Trump briefly ducked at the podium an... More »
A spokeswoman for U.S. Republican presidential front-runner Donald Trump on Saturday denied a media report that he had canceled an Ohio rally because of security concerns. The Cincinnati.com news website had quoted Eric Deters, a local spokesman for Trump’s ca... More »
ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. Attorneys for wrestling celebrity Hulk Hogan rested their $100 million privacy invasion case against the Gawker news outlet on Friday, wrapping up a lively week of testimony in a Florida lawsuit examining the posting of a sex tape in moder... More »
BEIJING China is taking a “distinctly Chinese approach” to national security with a raft of new laws, including one on counterterrorism, the third-ranked leader said on Wednesday, offering a strong rebuttal to Western criticism. The U.S., Canadian, German and ... More »
Amid Yemen’s misery, two young women living in the war-damaged cities of Aden and Sanaa know they are among the relatively fortunate. They are not starving, their homes have not been destroyed and they have survived bombs and bullets unscathed. But both long t... More »
ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. As a larger-than-life celebrity, Hulk Hogan considered it entertainment when he embellished his sex life but the Gawker news website crossed a line by posting a video of him having sex with a friend’s wife, the former professional wrestler... More »
Bernie Sanders’ Democratic presidential campaign has sued Ohio’s secretary of state in federal court over what it calls an unconstitutional attempt to prevent young people from voting in the state’s March 15 primary election. “It is an outrage that the secreta... More »
BANGKOK On a wall in a northern suburb of Bangkok “Asin Acid” puts the finishing touches to a spray-painted picture of a colorful giant chicken holding a broken loudspeaker. “The loudspeaker represents the media. The media is trying to say something but is bei... More »
TEL AVIV Israel’s culture minister had a blunt message on Sunday for liberals worried about what they consider efforts by the government to stifle dissent in the arts: “Cut the bullshit.” Free-speech debate in Israel has grown fierce under conservative Prime M... More »
ISTANBUL A day after Turkey’s top-selling newspaper Zaman was taken over by the state, it dropped its criticisms of the government on Sunday and published flattering stories on President Tayyip Erdogan. The episode is the latest twist in a long-running conflic... More »
WASHINGTON One of Donald Trump’s sons appeared along with a white supremacist while giving an interview on a conservative radio show, adding to concerns that the front-runner in the battle to be the Republican candidate in November’s presidential election is w... More »
HONG KONG Four of the five Hong Kong booksellers who went missing in October appeared on Chinese television confirming for the first time they’d been detained for “illegal book trading” in mainland China. The five booksellers – including a British and Swedish ... More »
BRUSSELS The United States has set out limits to its use of data collected in bulk about European citizens after a new information-sharing pact was agreed this month, according to documents seen by Reuters. A clear explanation of what information could be used... More »
BANGKOK Sitting in her busy Bangkok noodle shop, Bunruen Klinnak professes “love” for Thailand’s former prime minister Thaksin Shinawatra, who was toppled in a 2006 military coup and later fled abroad. But Klinnak, 55, also fears Thaksin’s return to politics c... More »
BEIRUT The Syrian army advanced toward the Turkish border on Monday in a major offensive backed by Russia and Iran that rebels say now threatens the future of their nearly five-year-old insurrection against President Bashar al-Assad. Iranian backed-militias pl... More »
WASHINGTON U.S. and UK spy agencies and police may soon be allowed to directly ask media companies in each others’ countries for email and online chat data for people being investigated, under a tentative bilateral deal, officials said on Friday. As government... More »
GENEVA Syria’s main opposition group is considering a proposal by U.N. special envoy Staffan de Mistura that could pave the way to the delegation pressing ahead with talks after holding their first meeting with him on Sunday, a Western diplomatic source said. ... More »
BEIJING The different ethnic groups who live in China’s violence-prone far western region of Xinjiang should make friends with each other to improve trust between them, the Chinese government’s top official there was quoted as saying on Monday. Hundreds of peo... More »
LONDON Prime Minister David Cameron and European Council President Donald Tusk failed on Sunday to reach a deal on Britain’s EU renegotiation after talks in London, but agreed to another 24 hours of “crucial” discussions. The meeting was seen as vital to findi... More »
WASHINGTON U.S. Defense Secretary Ashton Carter has decided not to impose further punishment on David Petraeus, a former U.S. military commander and CIA director who admitted sharing classified information with his mistress, according to a letter seen by Reute... More »
MANITOWOC, Wis. The television documentary “Making a Murderer,” a gripping series about two Wisconsin men convicted of murder, has put this blue-collar city of 35,000 on the map, to the dismay of many residents. The wildly popular Netflix series, spread out ov... More »
PARIS Syrian Kurdish officials will not be invited to peace talks in Geneva, where negotiations for the opposition will be led by a Saudi-backed opposition group, France’s foreign minister said on Wednesday. Laurent Fabius said United Nations special envoy Sta... More »
LAUSANNE, Switzerland The co-leader of the Syrian Democratic Council, Haytham Manna, on Wednesday he would not take part in peace talks in Geneva unless two Kurdish leaders, Saleh Muslim and Ilham Ahmed, were also invited to participate. “I’ll go with my frien... More »
HONG KONG One of Hong Kong’s staunchest pro-Beijing lawmakers said a bookseller’s tearful confession on state television to a hit-and-run accident more than a decade ago in China is unlikely to appease public concerns that he may have been abducted. The Sunday... More »
YANGON Myanmar army chief Min Aung Hlaing nominated military officers, who hold a quarter of seats in parliament, to their posts, state media said on Tuesday, another step by the army in what has so far surprised many as a remarkably peaceful transition. Aung ... More »
LONDON British lawmakers on Monday debated a petition to ban U.S. Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump from Britain over remarks on Muslims, but while describing his comments as “crazy” and “offensive”, most said the ban would go against free speech.... More »
BRUSSELS The European Union wants guarantees of effective limits on U.S. authorities’ power to request people’s personal information from companies to conclude a new EU-U.S. data transfer pact, a top EU official said on Monday, as a deadline from EU privacy re... More »
Gifts of sex toys, glitter and nail polish are not what the armed protesters who seized a U.S. wildlife refuge in Oregon were expecting when they put out a public call for supplies to help get them through the winter. The occupiers, who took over buildings at ... More »
BEIRUT Aid convoys headed for a besieged Syrian town where thousands are trapped and the United Nations says people are reported to have died of starvation. Trucks headed for Madaya, near the Lebanese border, and two villages in the northwest of the country on... More »
BERLIN Two Pakistanis and a Syrian man were injured in attacks by gangs of people in Cologne, German police said late on Sunday, the city where the vast majority of dozens of New Year Eve assaults on women took place. Local newspaper Express reported that the ... More »
WARSAW Poland dismissed European Commission concern on Friday that a new law on state-run media threatened media freedom, warning Brussels not to interfere in its affairs on the basis of “biased and politically-engaged” reports. Simultaneously, the government,... More »
FORT LAUDERDALE/NEW YORK/SEATTLE/VANCOUVERU.S. and Canadian officials have pledged to work with China to track down and repatriate Chinese fugitives living abroad. But that cooperation is proving to have clear limits. So far, only one person on China’s Operati... More »
MINNEAPOLIS The St. Paul City Council on Wednesday approved a resolution condemning Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump’s call for a ban on Muslims entering the United States. The council voted 6-1 for the resolution which said the city “condemns an... More »
SAN SALVADOR El Salvador’s former soccer federation president, Reynaldo Vasquez, who is wanted in the United States in connection with a probe targeting alleged corruption in the sport, has been detained, police said on Wednesday. Earlier this month El Salvado... More »
TOKYO Instead of spending the days before her wedding happily planning for the big day, Kaori Oguni was agonizing over the prospect of losing her maiden name and with it, she felt, part of her identity. Oguni is one of five people suing the government of Japan... More »
WASHINGTON President Barack Obama on Sunday laid out the most sweeping defense yet of his strategy to defeat Islamic State, but he offered no U.S. policy shift to confront what he called a “new phase” in the terrorist threat after a mass shooting in California... More »
HONG KONG The theft of toy maker VTech Holdings Ltd’s database highlights a growing problem with basic cyber security measures at small, non-financial companies that handle electronic customer data, industry watchers said on Monday. The hacked data at VTech in... More »
BANGUI Pope Francis ventured into one of the world’s most dangerous neighbourhoods on Monday to beg Christians and Muslims to end a spiral of hate, vendetta and bloodshed that has killed thousands over the past three years. Under intense security, Francis pass... More »
HONG KONG/SINGAPORE Almost a year after students ended pro-democracy street protests in Hong Kong, they face an online battle against what Western security experts say are China-sponsored hackers using techniques rarely seen elsewhere. Hackers have expanded th... More »
SINGAPORE Adam Lambert may have been a hit on American Idol but rival petitions in Singapore have gathered thousands of online votes in a lively debate over whether he is too sexy to be allowed to perform at the city-state’s largest New Year’s eve concert. The... More »
NAIROBI “I have lost a lot of people I knew to crime,” says George Kiru, nursing a drink at 2 in the morning in a bar on the edge of Nairobi’s Korogocho slum. Music blares as he lists childhood friends who joined gangs, many of them now dead or in jail. “Perso... More »
BRUSSELS Soldiers patrolled the streets of Brussels on the third day of a security lockdown on Monday and the tenth day of a manhunt for the suspected mastermind of the Nov. 13 attacks in Paris. Belgian national Salah Abdeslam has not been found despite 19 rai... More »
WASHINGTON Several Republican presidential candidates insisted Syrian refugees pose a potential danger to America and should not be allowed into the country, despite growing criticism within and outside their party of some of their statements. Debate over the ... More »
PARIS/BRUSSELS French warplanes pounded Islamic State positions in Syria on Sunday as police in Europe widened their investigations into coordinated attacks in Paris that killed more than 130 people. Islamic State has claimed responsibility for Friday’s suicid... More »
BEIJING China has appealed for international help in the battle it says it is waging against Islamist militants in its far western region of Xinjiang, as Beijing seeks Western support for its own “war on terror” in the wake of the Paris attacks. Hundreds of pe... More »
PARIS French police raided homes of suspected Islamist militants across the country overnight in the aftermath of the Paris shootings, French Prime Minister Manuel Valls said on Monday as he warned of potential further attacks. Valls said that since this summe... More »
BELEK, Turkey Prime Minister David Cameron said on Monday he wanted Britain to carry out air strikes against Islamic State militants (ISIL) in Syria but still needed to convince more lawmakers to back such action. “I have always said I think that it is sensibl... More »
BRUSSELS “A breeding ground for violence” the mayor of Molenbeek called her borough on Sunday, speaking of unemployment and overcrowding among Arab immigrant families, of youthful despair finding refuge in radical Islam. But as the Brussels district on the wro... More »
DES MOINES, Iowa U.S. Democratic presidential front-runner Hillary Clinton played defense over her 2003 vote backing the U.S. invasion of Iraq and inched away from President Barack Obama on Syria and the rise of Islamic State militants during a contentious deb... More »
SHANGHAI Tibet’s exiled spiritual leader, the Dalai Lama, enjoys strong support in the United States, Democratic leader Nancy Pelosi told Chinese officials during a visit this week to the Himalayan region, while expressing concern about human rights there. Pel... More »
BANGKOKA Thai fortune teller arrested as part of a high-profile royal insult investigation has died, the government said on Monday, the second suspect in as many weeks to die in police custody. Suriyan Sucharitpolwong, a well-known soothsayer and former aide t... More »
DUBLINIrish women are tweeting details of their periods to Prime Minister Enda Kenny to help publicise a campaign to repeal restrictive abortion laws. Abortion is a divisive issue in Ireland where, after large street protests from both sides of the debate, a c... More »
KRAKOW, Poland Oscar-winning film-maker Roman Polanski said on Friday he was grateful and relieved after a Polish court rejected a U.S. request for his extradition over a 1977 child sex conviction. The case of the Polish-born Polanski, now 82, remains an inter... More »
COPENHAGEN Ai Weiwei will launch collection points in cities around the world for LEGO bricks after the Danish toy maker declined to fulfill a bulk order due to the Chinese artist and dissident’s political activism, his studio said. LEGO confirmed on Monday th... More »
GUATEMALA CITY Jimmy Morales, a former TV comedian who has never held office, swept to power in Guatemala’s presidential election on Sunday after milking public anger over a corruption scandal that deepened distrust of the country’s political establishment. Th... More »
ZURICH The anti-immigration Swiss People’s Party (SVP) won the biggest share of the vote in Sunday’s national parliamentary election, keeping pressure on Bern to introduce quotas on people moving from the European Union. Success for the SVP, coupled with gains... More »
