RIYADH, Saudi Arabia (AP) — Saudi Arabia's crown prince traveled Monday to Oman, the first stop of a tour of Gulf Arab states that will see him meet neighboring rulers and allies as the kingdom closely watches negotiations in Europe to revive Iran's nuclear deal with world powers. Crown ...

BERLIN (AP) — Angela Merkel was assured of a place in the history books as soon as she became Germany's first female chancellor on Nov. 22, 2005. Over the next 16 years, she was credited with raising Germany's profile and influence, working to hold a fractious European Union together, ...

BEIJING (AP) — China on Tuesday accused the United States of violating the Olympic spirit by announcing an American diplomatic boycott of February's Beijing Winter Games, amid an increasingly bitter feud over the Biden administration's decision not to send officials over human rights ...

MOSCOW (AP) — The developer of Russia's Sputnik V vaccine said Monday that it will immediately start working on adapting that COVID-19 vaccine to counter the omicron variant. The Gamaleya Institute and the Russian Direct Investment Fund that bankrolled Sputnik V and its one-shot version ...

ISTANBUL (AP) — A powerful storm pounded Istanbul and other parts of Turkey on Monday, killing at least four people and causing havoc in the city of 15 million people, reports said. The victims included a woman who died in Istanbul's Esenyurt district, where strong gusts tore off part of a ...

MOSCOW (AP) — Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko on Monday accused Lithuanian authorities of dumping the bodies of migrants on the border between the two countries — a claim rejected by Lithuania amid soaring border tensions between Belarus and its European Union ...

PARIS (AP) — France will double the staff of the agency in charge of fighting smugglers after 27 people died trying to reach Britain in an overcrowded boat last week and will talk with Britain about how best to stop migrants from undertaking such dangerous Channel crossings, a French official ...

TEGUCIGALPA, Honduras (AP) — Xiomara Castro de Zelaya, the wife of ousted former president Mel Zelaya, has taken a commanding lead in Honduras' elections, capping a 12-year effort. If preliminary tallies from the election Sunday are confirmed, Castro de Zelaya would become the Central ...

BERLIN (AP) — Chancellor Angela Merkel will hold talks Tuesday with the governors of Germany's 16 states amid growing concerns about the steep rise in new coronavirus cases in the country. Merkel's office confirmed Monday that the outgoing chancellor would have a video call with governors to ...

CAIRO (AP) — The United Nations expressed concerns Monday over the forced closure of a Libya appeals court that is meant to decide whether the son of the late dictator Moammar Gadhafi can run for president. The UN mission to Libya said in a statement that it is following reports that an ...

BANGKOK (AP) — A court in Myanmar prepared to deliver its verdict Tuesday in the trial of ousted leader Aung San Suu Kyi on charges of spreading information that could disturb public order and violating coronavirus restrictions. It is the first court verdict for the 76-year-old Nobel ...

WELLINGTON, New Zealand (AP) — New Zealand's conservative opposition party chose former businessman and political novice Christopher Luxon as its new leader on Tuesday, as it tries to rebuild from a huge election loss last year and continued infighting. Luxon is a close friend of former ...

LONDON (AP) — WHAT IS THIS NEW COVID-19 VARIANT? South African scientists identified a new version of the coronavirus this week that they say is behind a recent spike in COVID-19 infections in Gauteng, the country's most populous province. It's unclear where the new variant first emerged, ...

TOKYO (AP) — Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida, at his first troop review Saturday, renewed his pledge to consider "all options," including acquiring enemy base strike capability, and vowed to create a stronger Self-Defense Force to protect the country amid growing threats from China and ...

PRAGUE (AP) — Czech President Miloš Zeman was discharged Saturday from the capital's military hospital after testing positive for the coronavirus. The 77-year-old Zeman had already been discharged following more than a month's treatment for an unspecified illness on Thursday, but was ...

JOHANNESBURG (AP) — Worried scientists in South Africa are scrambling to combat the lightning spread across the country of the new and highly transmissible omicron COVID-19 variant as the world grapples with its emergence. In the space of two weeks, the omicron variant has sent South Africa ...

MOSCOW (AP) — A Russian court on Saturday ordered five people to remain in pre-trial detention for two months pending an investigation into a devastating blast in a coal mine in Siberia that resulted in dozens of deaths. Russian authorities reported 51 deaths after a methane explosion rocked ...

BELGRADE, Serbia (AP) — Skirmishes on Saturday erupted in Serbia between police and anti-government demonstrators who blocked roads and bridges in the Balkan country in protest against new laws they say favor interests of foreign investors devastating the environment. Hundreds of people on ...

LE GOSIER, Guadeloupe (AP) — France's government is offering to discuss some autonomy for the French Caribbean island of Guadeloupe, which has been wracked by virus-related rioting and strikes that reflect long-running frustrations over inequality with the French mainland. The overnight ...

LONDON (AP) — The new potentially more contagious omicron variant of the coronavirus popped up in more European countries on Saturday, just days after being identified in South Africa, leaving governments around the world scrambling to stop the spread. The U.K. on Saturday tightened its ...