BERLIN A 27-year-old Syrian man who had been denied asylum in Germany a year ago died on Sunday when a bomb he was carrying exploded outside a music festival in Ansbach, Germany, a Bavarian state official told a news conference, according to a website. Interio... More »
SARAJEVO A World Heritage listing for 70,000 medieval tombstones spread across four countries that emerged from Yugoslavia’s bloody break up in the 1990s was praised on Monday as a rare example of successful cooperation between the former foes. Bosnia, Croatia... More »
ISTANBUL/ANKARA Turkey widened a crackdown on suspected supporters of a failed military coup on Sunday, taking the number of people rounded up in the armed forces and judiciary to 6,000, and the government said it was in control of the country and economy. Pre... More »
VIENNA It would be unacceptable for Turkey to reintroduce the death penalty in response to Friday’s attempted coup, Austrian Foreign Minister Sebastian Kurz said in an interview published on Monday ahead of a meeting of his European Union counterparts. Turkish... More »
PARIS A five-day jazz festival in Nice has been canceled following the killing of at least 84 people in the city by a truck driver, organizers said. The festival, which had lined up acts such as Senegalese singer Youssou N’Dour and British trip hop act Massive... More »
FALLUJA, Iraq Iraqi forces recaptured the last district held by Islamic State militants in the city of Falluja on Sunday and the general commanding the operation declared the battle complete after nearly five weeks of fighting. Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi c... More »
JERUSALEM An ultra-Orthodox Jewish man was sentenced to life imprisonment on Sunday for murdering a teenage girl at a Gay Pride parade in Jerusalem last year, an attack he carried out just weeks after serving a jail term for a similar attack a decade earlier. ... More »
BAGHDAD/ERBIL, Iraq About 40,000 residents of Falluja, Islamic State’s besieged stronghold near Baghdad, have fled in the last three weeks, but a similar number are trapped despite the Iraqi army’s attempts to secure escape routes for them, officials said on T... More »
WASHINGTON Donald Trump will speak with House of Representatives Republicans on July 7 in what would be the first meeting of the party’s presumptive presidential nominee with its entire House caucus, Republican aides said on Tuesday. House Republican Conferenc... More »
WASHINGTON Banning Muslims from entering the United States is not in the nation’s interest, U.S. House Speaker Paul Ryan said on Tuesday, standing in stark contrast to Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump’s call to limit Muslim immigration. “I do not... 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 »
WASHINGTON Donald Trump on Monday said the United States needs to increase its military response against Islamic State in the wake of the Orlando nightclub shooting over the weekend, including additional bombings. The presumptive Republican nominee, in an inte... More »
MANCHESTER, N.H./WASHINGTON Republican Donald Trump on Monday placed responsibility for a mass shooting in Florida squarely at the feet of radical Muslims, who he said were entering the country amidst a flood of refugees and “trying to take over our children.”... More »
WASHINGTON Presumptive Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton said on Monday that if elected, she would pressure U.S. technology companies to help intelligence agencies disrupt violent plots after a gunman inspired by radical Islamist groups killed 49... More »
WASHINGTON Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump faulted the Muslim community on Monday for not reporting people like the man who carried out the Orlando gay nightclub attack, killing 49 people and wounding 53 others. Trump, the presumptive Republican... More »
PALM CITY, Fla President Barack Obama paid tribute on Saturday to boxer Muhammad Ali, saying his fight for racial justice and religious tolerance “shook up the world” and was an inspiration. “Muhammad Ali shook up the world. And the world is better for it. We ... More »
TZEELIM VALLEY, Israel The disposable paper face masks offer little protection from the clouds of dust that fill the cliffside cave where Israeli archaeologists are wrapping up the largest excavation in the Judean desert of the past half-century. Clipped into ... More »
BEIJING With drinks served in breast-shaped cups and beers opened with bottle openers shaped like a wooden penis, the father and daughter team behind a Beijing S&M restaurant are encouraging customers to mix food with sex. Owner Lu Lu, a 27-year-old divorcee, ... More »
LONDON British Prime Minister David Cameron stands by his description of Donald Trump’s proposal for a temporary ban on Muslims entering the United States as “divisive, stupid and wrong”, a spokesman said on Monday. Trump, when asked about Cameron’s criticism,... More »
LONDON Donald Trump said he was unlikely to have a good relationship with David Cameron because the British prime minister cast the U.S. presidential candidate as “divisive, stupid and wrong” for proposing a temporary ban on Muslims entering the United States.... More »
PARIS Three French anti-racism associations said on Sunday they would file legal complaints against social networks Facebook (FB.O), Twitter (TWTR.N) and Google’s Youtube (GOOGL.O) for failing to remove “hateful” content posted on their platforms. French law r... More »
ANKARA Tayyip Erdogan’s ambitions for a swift move to strong presidential rule could suffer if dissidents in Turkey’s nationalist opposition succeed in a party leadership challenge that could bolster their party’s electoral support. A bid by several hundred me... More »
BANGKOK The owners of English soccer champions Leicester City say they will resist attempts by more glamorous rivals to lure away their title-winning players, after an unlikely triumph that has captured the imagination of fans worldwide. Duty-free magnate Vich... More »
MAKHMOUR, Iraq Towering over his Kurdish partner at a checkpoint in northern Iraq, U.S. volunteer John Cole cuts an unusual figure on the road to the newest front in the war against Islamic State. Seven feet (2.1 meters) tall and holding his assault rifle upsi... More »
OKLAHOMA CITY An Oklahoma bill that could revoke the license of any doctor who performs an abortion has headed to the governor, with opponents saying the measure in unconstitutional and promising a legal battle against the cash-strapped state if it is approved... More »
MILAN Three late 15th century paintings missing since they were looted by Nazi troops from a Tuscan villa over 70 years ago have been recovered and two people have been accused of receiving stolen goods, police announced on Monday. The works, of religious them... More »
ABOARD THE PAPAL PLANE Pope Francis said on Saturday that his meeting with Bernie Sanders, contesting the Democratic candidacy for the U.S. Presidency, was not meddling in politics and that anyone who thought otherwise should “look for a psychiatrist”. Sanders... More »
Headlines screaming “Deportations to begin” and “Markets sink as trade war looms” top a parody newspaper front page the Boston Globe posted on Saturday, with a scathing editorial denouncing Republican presidential frontrunner Donald Trump’s candidacy. The mock... More »
WASHINGTON U.S. Democratic presidential candidate Bernie Sanders will speak at an event in the Vatican next week, likely broadening his appeal to Catholic voters ahead of crucial nominating contests in a series of Northeastern states. Like Pope Francis, Sander... 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 »
BOSTON For days after the 2013 Boston Marathon bombing, Americans were glued to the news, eager to know who had planted the homemade devices that ripped through the crowd at the finish line, killing three people. The world got its first look at the suspects th... More »
LISBON Portuguese Culture Minister Joao Soares resigned on Friday, a day after threatening to slap critics who had called him incompetent and rude. A post on his Facebook page saying he wanted to slap two newspaper columnists, followed by what was seen as a ha... More »
VIENNA Vienna’s Leopold Museum said on Thursday it had reached a settlement over five Nazi-looted works of art in its collection that will return two of them to the heir of their original Jewish owner, a victim of the Holocaust. The five pieces, all by Austria... More »
BAKU Three Azeri servicemen were killed in fresh fighting with Armenian-backed separatists over the breakaway Nagorno-Karabakh region on Monday, Azerbaijan’s Defence Ministry said. Azerbaijan had halted its attacks but Armenia was still “aggravating the situat... More »
BEIRUT The Saudi-owned television news channel Al Arabiya shut its offices in Lebanon and dismissed 27 employees, two of its journalists said on Friday, in a sudden move that comes amid political tensions between Riyadh and Beirut. Protesters also attacked the... 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 »
MEXICO CITY Mexicans celebrating an Easter ritual late on Saturday burnt effigies of U.S. Republican presidential hopeful Donald Trump, whose anti-immigrant views have sparked outrage south of the American border. In Mexico City’s poor La Merced neighborhood, ... More »
LOS ANGELES Microsoft is “deeply sorry” for the racist and sexist Twitter messages generated by the so-called chatbot it launched this week, a company official wrote on Friday, after the artificial intelligence program went on an embarrassing tirade. The bot, ... More »
WASHINGTON Shortly after last November’s attacks on Paris by a Brussels-based Islamic State cell, a top U.S. counter-terrorism official traveling in Europe wanted to visit Brussels to learn more about the investigation. When the official tried to arrange meeti... 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 »
ROME A sixth-century church boasting a rare collection of early Christian art is reopening to the public in Rome after a restoration that took more than 30 years. Nestling at the foot of the hill where Rome’s emperors once lived, Santa Maria Antiqua was buried... 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 »
KANSAS CITY, Mo./BLOOMINGTON, Ill. Donald Trump has called them thugs, professional organizers and supporters of Democratic presidential contender Bernie Sanders. But the protesters who have stepped up their actions against the Republican presidential front-ru... 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 »
BRUSSELS Europe’s emerging migration policy is looking increasingly like Donald Trump without the hair. Except that, unlike the Republican presidential frontrunner, who wants to make Mexico pay for a wall to keep migrants out of the United States, the European... More »
A man suspected of shooting an Idaho pastor who led a prayer at a rally for U.S. Republican presidential candidate Ted Cruz was arrested on Tuesday and was facing attempted murder charges, police said. Kyle Odom, 30, was taken into custody in Washington D.C. i... 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 »
LUCEDALE, Miss Mississippi’s vast flatlands, laced with the remains of a fading industrial base, are fertile ground for the incendiary populism of Donald Trump. For the insurgent presidential candidate, there’s plenty of voter outrage to tap into here and in a... More »
ROME Italian author Umberto Eco, who became famous for the 1980 international blockbuster “The Name of the Rose”, died on Friday, Italian media reported. He was 84. La Repubblica newspaper said it had been informed by the family that Eco died late on Friday ni... More »
ANKARA Iranian state-run media outlets have added $600,000 to a bounty for the killing of British author Salman Rushdie imposed in 1989 over the publishing of his book “The Satanic Verses”. The leader of Iran’s 1979 Islamic revolution, the late Ayatollah Ruhol... More »
NEW YORK A British cathedral sought to reassure visitors on Monday that they could still view a massive sculpture following a Facebook post by the statue’s creator saying the church had moved it because people kept bumping into it while texting. The Salisbury ... More »
JERUSALEM Israeli soldiers shot dead a Palestinian who tried to stab them in the occupied West Bank on Monday, the military said, the latest in a months-long wave of Palestinian attacks that shows little sign of abating. The Palestinian had infiltrated a secur... More »
NAYPYITAW Hundreds of lawmakers from Aung San Suu Kyi’s National League of Democracy were sworn into Myanmar’s parliament on Monday, with enough seats to choose the country’s first democratically elected government since the military took power in 1962. The NL... 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 »
LOS ANGELES – “Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to diverse TV,” Idris Elba joked on stage after winning twice at Saturday’s Screen Actors Guild Awards, where actors of color claimed a slew of wins amid a furor in Hollywood over the lack of on-screen diversity. Le... More »
ROME Italian fashion designers Domenico Dolce and Stefano Gabbana have appeared to weigh in to an impassioned debate about gay people’s rights in their home country with cozy designs showing same-sex couples with children. Last year, Dolce angered many when he... More »
BANGKOK A craze for lifelike dolls thought to bring good luck is sweeping Thailand, reflecting widespread anxiety as the economy struggles and political uncertainty persists nearly two years after a coup. Thailand is predominantly Buddhist and has been moderni... More »
WASHINGTON The leader of an influential Christian conservative lobbying group said on Tuesday he backs Senator Ted Cruz for the U.S. Republican presidential nomination. Tony Perkins, president of the Family Research Council, said on Fox News: “I believe the on... 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 »
ROME Italy evacuated 15 Libyans on Monday for medical treatment after they were wounded in last week’s truck bomb attack against a police training center, the Italian government said. At dawn, Italy sent a C-130 transport plane to the port city of Misrata to t... More »
DUBAI Iran took steps on Monday to try to limit the diplomatic damage from an attack on Saudi Arabia’s embassy in Tehran by an angry mob, laying blame on a top security official and saying some of those who carried out the attack were being interrogated. Irani... More »
VATICAN CITY Pope Francis warned on Monday that the recent influx of migrants risked overwhelming European values and traditions, but said he was confident the continent could successfully integrate the newcomers. In an annual address to diplomats at the Vatic... More »
WASHINGTON As Barack Obama prepares to deliver his final State of the Union address on Tuesday night, the U.S. president and his aides have insisted he will not be content simply to run out the clock on foreign policy and is acting decisively to tackle crises ... More »
BERLIN Children carried toy lightsabers to a church in Berlin and some of the congregation dressed up as Darth Vader on Sunday to mark the release of the new Star Wars movie with a service on Sunday. At the terracotta-brick Zion Church, an organist played the ... More »
MANCHESTER, N.H. U.S. Democratic presidential front-runner Hillary Clinton backed elements of President Barack Obama’s strategy to fight Islamic State militants in a debate on Saturday, drawing criticism from all sides for saying “we now finally are where we n... More »
DUBAI U.N.-sponsored Yemeni peace talks in Switzerland appeared to be struggling amid differences over government demands for the release of senior officials held by the Iran-allied Houthis, sources close to the talks said on Thursday. The dispute comes amid f... 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 »
JERUSALEM Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Friday his family had put its dog in quarantine after she made headlines by biting two guests at a Jewish religious event they had hosted. “We were compelled, with sorrow, to put Kaiya into quarantine... More »
MANCHESTER, N.H./WATERLOO, Iowa – To Barb Stensland, who works at a soda counter in Grundy County, Iowa, Donald Trump was just telling it “the way it is” when he called this week for a ban on Muslims entering the United States. Though the Republican presidenti... More »
DETROIT When David Bullock, a minister at Greater St. Matthew Church in Detroit, watches Ben Carson center stage at Republican presidential debates, he shakes his head. “He seems like a completely different Ben Carson,” Bullock said. Carson “was a superstar” w... 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 »
NEW YORK Republican presidential front runner Donald Trump has canceled a public event set for Monday where he had planned to announce endorsements from black pastors, after a group of African-American academics and clergy members urged them to reconsider, cit... More »
WASHINGTON Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump on Saturday reframed his claim that he saw Muslims in Jersey City, New Jersey, cheering the attacks on the Twin Towers of the World Trade Center in Manhattan on Sept. 11, 2001 by asserting the sentiment... 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 »
BERLIN Germany withdrew its contender for next year’s Eurovision song contest on Saturday following a backlash from critics who accuse the R&B artist of using anti-Semitic and homophobic slurs in his songs. Xavier Naidoo, a singer of Indian and African heritag... More »
(Corrects headline and first paragraph. Study said the law may lead more women to self-induce abortion, not that this has already occurred. Corrects fourth paragraph to drop erroneous time frame) By Jon Herskovitz AUSTIN, Texas A Texas law aimed at restricting... More »
SINGAPORE The co-founder of a Singapore church and five other leaders were sentenced to jail terms of up to eight years on Friday, for fraudulently diverting millions of dollars to support his wife’s pop singing career. The mix of faith and fraud has fascinate... 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 »
SYDNEY/TOKYO/PARIS/NEW YORK Stocks in major markets are set for a short-term sell-off on Monday after suspected Islamist militants launched coordinated attacks across Paris that killed more than 130 people, but few strategists expect a prolonged economic impac... 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 »
WASHINGTON/DES MOINES, Iowa The lethal attacks in Paris have the potential to reshape the U.S. presidential race, placing a new emphasis on issues of national security, border control, and counterterrorism, while perhaps bolstering candidates who talk toughest... More »
NEW DELHIIndian Prime Minister Narendra Modi will meet leaders of his party on Monday to discuss whether to overhaul policies and priorities in the wake of a humiliating defeat in elections in the eastern state of Bihar. Modi was due to huddle with a dozen sen... 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 »
BOSTON Survivors of clergy sex abuse said they hope the upcoming film “Spotlight,” about the Boston Globe’s groundbreaking report that Roman Catholic officials routinely covered up abuse by priests, prompts more victims to publicly confront their abusers. The ... More »
ISTANBUL Disparate ideas like a sea-borne zoo, an Aboriginal peace treaty and the lost birdsong of a ruined Armenian capital form a cohesive body of work at this year’s Istanbul Biennial, a top international art show taking place in turbulent times. “Saltwater... More »
KARACHI The lean days appear to be over for Mor Sahib, an 87-year-old crocodile venerated by Pakistan’s tiny Sheedi community, as pilgrims once again flock to a shrine in Karachi that has been shunned for years amid fears of Taliban attacks. The aging reptile,... More »
KABUL Police and residents said Afghan government forces had regained control of most of the besieged city of Kunduz on Monday, and some shops in the center of the provincial capital opened for the first time since it fell to Taliban fighters a week ago.Reside... More »
BANGKOK Thailand’s military government, which took power in May last year, appointed a committee to draft the country’s 20th constitution on Monday after a previous draft was rejected, delaying promised elections until at least 2017. The junta-appointed legisl... More »
WASHINGTON U.S. Republican presidential front-runner Donald Trump said on Sunday the Middle East would be more stable if Muammar Gaddafi and Saddam Hussein were still in power in Libya and Iraq, saying it’s “not even a contest”. Trump mentioned the countries i... More »
UNITED NATIONS Russia appeared to seize the initiative in international efforts to end the conflict in Syria on Sunday as Washington scrambled to devise a new strategy for the war-ravaged country and France sent warplanes to bomb Islamic State targets. As lead... More »
BEIJING/WASHINGTON On Friday morning, Chinese President Xi Jinping enjoyed the symbolic high point of his first state visit to the United States – a 21-gun salute as he stood with President Barack Obama outside the White House. For most Americans, it was a sid... More »
