VATICAN CITY (AP) — The new president of the Italian Conference of Bishops on Friday said he would launch an independent inquiry on sex abuse by Catholic clergy in Italy, but the announcement disappointed victims advocates because it will only go back 20 years. The Italian church is coming ...

MEXICO CITY (AP) — Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador said Friday he wants to change the name of a notorious drug-producing area known as "the Golden Triangle" to "The Triangle of Good, Hard-Working People." The remote, mountainous area in northern Mexico is where the borders of ...

BEIJING (AP) — On a balmy Sunday night, residents of an upscale Shanghai compound took to the streets to decry lockdown restrictions imposed by their community. By the following morning, they were free to leave. The triumphant story quickly spread on chat groups across the Chinese city this ...

UNITED NATIONS (AP) — China and Russia blocked the U.N. Security Council from issuing a statement Friday expressing concern at the violence and serious humanitarian situation in Myanmar and the "limited progress" on implementing a regional plan to restore peace to the strife-torn Southeast ...

LONDON (AP) — When Mick North's 5-year-old daughter was gunned down at her school, he vowed through his grief that it must never happen again. And it hasn't — in Britain, at least. The 1996 massacre of 16 elementary school students in Dunblane, Scotland led to a ban on owning handguns in ...

LONDON (AP) — The World Health Organization says nearly 200 cases of monkeypox have been reported in more than 20 countries not usually known to have outbreaks of the unusual disease, but described the epidemic as "containable" and proposed creating a stockpile to equitably share the limited ...

ISLAMABAD (AP) — A Pakistani women's rights activist was granted preemptive bail Friday in a move that protects her from arrest after the army accused her of slandering the country's military chief, a lawyer said. The order by the Islamabad High Court came a day after the military made an ...

WELLINGTON, New Zealand (AP) — When China signed a security pact with the Solomon Islands in April it raised concerns from the U.S. and its allies that Beijing may be seeking a military outpost in the South Pacific, an area of traditional American naval dominance. But China upped the ante ...

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) — Iran's paramilitary Revolutionary Guard seized two Greek oil tankers Friday in helicopter-launched raids in the Persian Gulf, officials said. The action appeared to be retaliation for Athens' assistance in the U.S. seizure of crude oil from an ...

KRAMATORSK, Ukraine (AP) — Moscow-backed separatists pounded eastern Ukraine's industrial Donbas region Friday, claiming to capture a railway hub, as Ukrainian officials pleaded for the sophisticated Western weapons they say they need to stop the onslaught. The advance of Russian forces ...

UMM AL-QUWAIN, United Arab Emirates (AP) — The hulking, Soviet-era cargo plane has sat for decades under the blazing sun in a remote corner of the United Arab Emirates, its four jet engines silent after years in the employ of a Russian gunrunner known as the "Merchant of Death." But instead ...

TOKYO (AP) — Former Malaysian Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad criticized a new U.S.-led economic grouping on Friday, saying it is intended to isolate China, and won't benefit regional economic growth without Beijing. U.S. President Joe Biden launched the 13-nation Indo-Pacific Economic ...

DJIBO, Burkina Faso (AP) — African leaders gathered for a summit Friday in Malabo, Equatorial Guinea, to address growing humanitarian needs on the continent, which is also facing increased violent extremism, climate change challenges and a run of military coups. Leaders called for increased ...

BEIRUT (AP) — A leading international credit ratings agency warned Friday that the results of this month's parliamentary elections in Lebanon make it difficult for any coalition to have a governing majority, potentially complicating implementation of reforms. Shortly after the warning from ...

BERLIN (AP) — Two climbers were killed Friday and nine others injured by falling blocks of ice in the Alps in southern Switzerland, police said. Police in Valais canton (state) were alerted shortly after 6 a.m. to the emergency in the Grand-Combin massif. Seven rescue helicopters were ...

TEHRAN, Iran (AP) — Rescue teams at the site of a 10-story collapsed building in southwestern Iran pulled seven more bodies from the rubble on Friday, bringing the death toll in the disaster to 26, Iranian state TV reported Friday. A tower at the Metropol Building that was under-construction ...

SEOUL, South Korea (AP) — According to North Korea, its fight against COVID-19 has been impressive: About 3.3 million people have been reported sick with fevers, but only 69 have died. If all are coronavirus cases, that's a fatality rate of 0.002%, something no other country, including the ...

LONDON (AP) — The number of new coronavirus cases and deaths are still falling globally after peaking in January, the World Health Organization said. In its latest weekly assessment of the pandemic, the U.N. health agency said there were more than 3.7 million new infections and 9,000 deaths ...

ISLAMABAD (AP) — Pakistan's defiant former Prime Minister Imran Khan called off a planned, open-ended sit-in in Islamabad on Thursday, temporarily assuaging fears of a protracted civil conflict after he led thousands on a march toward Parliament and demanded the government's ...

SIRTE, Libya (AP) — One of Libya's rival prime ministers told The Associated Press that he has no immediate plans to rule from the capital of Tripoli, after his attempted move there last week sparked clashes and fears of a return to widespread civil strife. In an interview late Wednesday, ...