International News

An explosion has struck an Israeli-owned cargo ship sailing out of the Middle East, an unexplained blast renewing concerns about ship security amid escalating tensions between the U.S. and Iran

An Amnesty International report says soldiers from Eritrea systematically killed “many hundreds” of people, the large majority men, in a massacre in late November in the Ethiopian city of Axum

German automaker Volkswagen made 8.8 billion euros, or $10.7 billion, last year despite the pandemic

A German court has sent a man who attacked a Jewish student in Hamburg in October to a psychiatric hospital

Two U.S. Navy warships operating in the Mideast have been struck by coronavirus outbreaks

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A U.S. airstrike targeting facilities used by Iran-backed militias in Syria appears to be a message to Tehran delivered by a new American administration still figuring out its approach to the Middle East

India’s economy expanded by a weaker-than-expected 0.4% in the October-December quarter, which still allowed it to escape recession following large contractions in the two previous quarters during the pandemic

A Dutch appeals court has ruled that the government was entitled to use an emergency law to underpin its coronavirus curfew

A group of Russian diplomats and their family members have returned to Russia from North Korea on a hand-pushed rail trolley because because the coronavirus pandemic has halted all passenger traffic between the countries

A large group of gunmen raided a school in northern Nigeria early Friday.

The parent company of British Airways and Iberia says it lost 6.9 billion euros ($8.3 billion) last year as the pandemic caused a near-total collapse in international air traffic

Russian media report that a Boeing 777 made an emergency landing in Moscow in the early hours on Friday after a pilot reported a problem with the engine

Authorities say explosion strikes ship in Gulf of Oman; crew safe and heading to nearby port

A woman who as a teenager ran away from London to join the Islamic State group has lost her bid to return to the U.K. to fight for the restoration of her citizenship, which was revoked on national security grounds

Germany’s Birkenstock, known for its upmarket sandals, says it is selling a majority stake to private equity firm L Catteron and affiliates including Financière Agache, the family investment company of French billionaire Bernard Arnault

An explosion has destroyed a café building and injured three people in a Russian city 400 kilometers (248 miles) east of Moscow

A local official in western Afghanistan says that gunmen have killed at least three family members of an assassinated journalist

A judge has ruled that the terrorism trial of the man who inspired the film “Hotel Rwanda” can be held in Rwanda

Myanmar security forces have cracked down on anti-coup protesters in the country’s second-largest city, injuring at least three people, two of whom were shot in the chest by rubber bullets and another who suffered a flesh wound on his leg

Tribal and security officials in Yemen say that heavy fighting between rebels and government forces has killed at least 27 people in the oil-rich province of Marib

Protesters in Bangladesh have blocked a busy intersection in the capital to protest the death in prison of a writer and commentator who was arrested on charges of violating the sweeping digital security law, which critics say stifles freedom of expression

Authorities detained eight suspects in connection with a far-right network.

The Czech government is planning to further tighten its lockdown to slow down a surge of a highly contagious coronavirus variant

Hundreds of schoolgirls missing in northern Nigeria after attack on their school in Zamfara state, residents say

Authorities in Spain’s northern Cantabria region are investigating how an elephant killed a worker at a local zoo

The foreign ministers of China and India are urging further steps to stabilize tensions along their disputed border following the pullback of forces from an area where a deadly clash broke out last summer

Opposition presidential candidates in Somalia have delayed a planned protest on Friday over the country’s election delay after the government apologized for its actions during last week’s protest and affirmed the right to peacefully demonstrate

The German defense minister has arrived in Afghanistan for an unannounced visit to the country’s troops there

An Iraqi militia official says a U.S. airstrike in Syria has killed one militiaman and wounded a number of others with a powerful Iranian-backed Iraqi group

Structures were targeted in Al Bukamal, Syria.

Libya’s newly-elected prime minister has failed to name members of a much-anticipated Cabinet ahead of an expected deadline

Michael Somare, a pivotal figure in Papua New Guinea’s independence and the South Pacific island nation’s first prime minister, has died

Millions of people have joined a 45-day Hindu bathing festival in the northern Indian city of Prayagraj, where devotees take a dip at Sangam, the sacred confluence of several rivers. There, they bathe on certain days considered to be auspicious in the belief they will be cleansed of all sins. Rows and rows of colorful tents, in which the devotees stay, line the sprawling festival site. Millions of Hindus travel every year to the event, called Magh Mela, where pilgrims offer prayers and enter the holy waters where the Ganga, Yamuna and mythical Saraswati rivers meet. In Hinduism, this period is called Kalpvas and the devotees who choose to stay for the entire time are known as Kalpvasis. They give up their daily routine and instead camp at the site, living on frugal meals and performing rituals. Virender Kumar Shukla, a Kalpvasi devotee, is attending for the fifth time. He said he hopes by offering prayers to “find a place in heaven” and earn “a better rebirth.” Authorities took...

Feb. 19-25, 2021 This photo gallery highlights some of the most compelling images made or published by Associated Press photographers in Asia and Pacific. The gallery was curated by AP photo editor Shuji Kajiyama in Tokyo. Follow AP visual journalism: Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/apnews AP Images on Twitter: http://twitter.com/AP—Images AP Images blog: http://apimagesblog.com

The number of monarch butterflies that showed up at their winter resting grounds in central Mexico decreased by about 26% this year, and four times as many trees were lost to illegal logging, drought and other causes

A woman in Australia chased down and tackled a man to the ground after he allegedly snatched her handbag from a bar.

A prison director was among at least eight people killed after several inmates tried to escape from a prison in Haiti’s capital, a police officer and witnesses said

Four children who were dropped from the window of a burning building in Istanbul are doing fine, according to Turkish media

A lawyer for Russia's opposition leader says Alexei Navalny has been sent to serve his sentence to a prison outside Moscow

Italy has paid tribute to its ambassador to Congo and his bodyguard who were killed in an attack on a U.N. convoy

Albania’s interior minister has gone to Lebanon looking to repatriate more Albanians related to other nationals who had joined Islamic extremist groups in Syria and Iraq

Authorities in Ecuador say law enforcement officers responding to the country’s deadliest prison riots have seized firearms, cellphones, handmade weapons and other banned objects

An international agency that monitors terrorism funding has kept North Korea and Iran as the only two countries on its black list but added four new places to its watch list for increased monitoring

A cross-border investigation led to Europe's largest drug haul on record.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's controversial plan to ship surplus coronavirus vaccines to diplomatic allies has been frozen

Qatar has pledged $60 million on to help construct a natural gas pipeline running from Israel into the Gaza Strip

The Greek Cypriot president of ethnically divided Cyprus says he'll attend a United Nations-hosted meeting with the leader of the breakaway Turkish Cypriots in April with “full political will” to get dormant peace talks up and running again

Environmental activists in Bosnia are warning that tons of garbage floating down the Balkan country’s rivers are endangering the local ecosystem and people’s health

A look at the top photos from around the globe.