DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) — The United Arab Emirates announced on Saturday a major overhaul of the country's Islamic personal laws, allowing unmarried couples to cohabitate, loosening alcohol restrictions and criminalizing so-called "honor killings." The broadening of personal ...

CAIRO (AP) — Egyptians began voting Saturday in the second and final stage of the country's parliamentary elections, after a relatively low turnout in the first stage that embarrassed the government of President Abdel-Fattah el-Sissi. Polling centers opened at 9 a.m. in 13 of Egypt's 27 ...

TEHRAN, Iran (AP) — A leading Iranian human rights lawyer has been released from prison, Iran's state-run news agency reported Saturday, after she was earlier hospitalized amid a hunger-strike conducted from her cell. Nasrin Sotoudeh was taken to hospital in mid-September, a month after ...

KABUL, Afghanistan (AP) — A bomb attached to the vehicle of a former presenter on Afghanistan's TOLO TV exploded early Saturday, killing the journalist and two other civilians, Kabul police said. The death of Yama Siawash is being investigated, said police spokesman Ferdaws Faramarz. No one ...

LYON, France (AP) — A Paris criminal court sentenced a 29-year-old Algerian man Thursday to life in prison for killing a woman and trying to bomb a church near the French capital in a failed 2015 attack that investigators said was plotted by Islamic State group extremists in Syria. The court ...

KYIV, Ukraine (AP) — More than 200 disabled people rallied in Belarus' capital Thursday, continuing a nearly three-month wave of protests triggered by the disputed reelection of the country's authoritarian leader. They demonstrated in Minsk's central avenue chanting "Go away!" and "Your time ...

ADDIS ABABA, Ethiopia (AP) — Ethiopia's army said Thursday the country has been forced into an "unexpected and aimless war" with its well-armed Tigray region, while Tigray asserted that fighter jets had bombed areas around its capital — a marked escalation with little sign of the two sides ...

MOSCOW (AP) — A Russian activist was detained by police Thursday after posing half-naked on a large wooden cross near Moscow's headquarters of the top national security agency, mimicking Christ's crucifixion. Pavel Krisevich was detained after fellow activists attached him to the cross and ...

WELLINGTON, New Zealand (AP) — New Zealand won't be legalizing marijuana after the final votes counted Friday in a referendum failed to overturn the result from election night — although it got close. The referendum to legalize the drug ended up with 48% in support and 51% opposed, a ...

BANGKOK (AP) — Myanmar's citizens go to the polls Sunday in an effort to sustain the fledgling democracy they helped install just five years ago. There are about 37 million registered voters, though turnout is expected to suffer because of a recent surge in coronavirus cases. In 2015, ...

LONDON (AP) — Prime Minister Boris Johnson on Monday defended his decision to impose a second national lockdown, brushing aside criticism that weeks of delay have meant thousands more infections and hundreds of needless deaths. The comments came as Johnson gave the House of Commons details ...

WARSAW, Poland (AP) — Poland's prime minister appealed Monday for talks with the leaders of massive protests that were triggered by the tightening last month of the nation's strict abortion law and are continuing despite a resurgence of COVID-19. Just hours before the latest round of ...

ABIDJAN, Ivory Coast (AP) — Ivory Coast's major opposition parties vowed Monday to create their own transitional government, insisting that President Alassane Ouattara's mandate to lead the country is now over even as partial results from the election showed him headed toward a controversial ...

The prosecution of Venezuela's Oil Minister Tareck El Aissami for violating U.S. sanctions has run into another snag after a federal judge allowed one of his co-defendants to withdraw a guilty plea over allegations that U.S. attorneys withheld evidence in the case. Federal prosecutors in ...

YANGON, Myanmar (AP) — A nationalist Buddhist monk in Myanmar noted for inflammatory rhetoric surrendered on Monday to police, who have been seeking his arrest for over a year for insulting comments he made about the country's leader, State Counsellor Aung San Suu Kyi. The surrender of the ...

MANAGUA, Nicaragua (AP) — Dangerously powerful Hurricane Eta churned toward Nicaragua's Caribbean coast with potentially devastating winds, while heavy rains thrown off by its storm bands already were causing rivers to overflow across Central America. The Category 4 hurricane had sustained ...

ABIDJAN, Ivory Coast (AP) — Opposition activists are threatening to block access to polling stations Saturday in an effort to disrupt the presidential election in Ivory Coast, where incumbent Alassane Ouattara is seeking a controversial third term after nearly a decade in power. An alliance ...

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) — The number of reported coronavirus cases has gone over 3 million in the Middle East, an Associated Press count showed Friday, with the true number likely even higher. Across the Mideast, there have been over 75,000 deaths attributed to the virus by health ...

LONDON (AP) — European countries are calling for the World Health Organization to be given greater powers to independently investigate outbreaks and compel countries to provide more data, after the devastating coronavirus pandemic highlighted the agency's numerous shortcomings. After a ...

TORONTO (AP) — Donald Trump called Prime Minister Justin Trudeau "weak" and "dishonest" and attacked Canada's vital trade. He threatened tariffs on cars and imposed them on steel. The unprecedented tone of attacks on America's closest ally the last four years left a bitter taste, and most ...