BERLIN (AP) — Angela Merkel will leave office as one of modern Germany's longest-serving leaders and a global diplomatic heavyweight, with a legacy defined by her management of a succession of crises that shook a fragile Europe rather than any grand visions for her own country. In 16 years ...

SEOUL, South Korea (AP) — North Korean leader Kim Jong Un ordered officials to wage a tougher epidemic prevention campaign in "our style" after he turned down some foreign COVID-19 vaccines offered via the U.N.-backed immunization program. During a Politburo meeting Thursday, Kim said ...

TOKYO (AP) — Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga said Friday he won't run for leadership of the governing party at the end of this month, paving the way for a new Japanese leader after just a year in office. Suga told reporters he had originally planned to run in the Sept. 29 race to lead his ...

MADRID (AP) — Pope Francis has criticized the West's two-decade-long involvement in Afghanistan as an outsider's attempt to impose democracy — although he did it by citing Russian President Vladimir Putin while thinking he was quoting German Chancellor Angela Merkel. Asked during a radio ...

SAN DIEGO (AP) — More than 30 California children are stuck in Afghanistan after they traveled to the country to see their relatives weeks before the Taliban seized power and were unable to get out before U.S. forces left, according to school districts where the kids are enrolled. Officials ...

KYIV, Ukraine (AP) — The authoritarian leader of Belarus said Wednesday that the country will soon receive a large batch of Russian weapons, including dozens of combat jets, helicopters and top-of-the-line air defense missile systems. President Alexander Lukashenko announced the expected ...

MEXICO CITY (AP) — Israel Buendía sat up in the bed closest to the window, a machine forcing oxygen into his nose. He'd been at the Hospital Ajusco Medio for two weeks and now he was marveling at the sound of his own voice. Just last Friday, Buendía had felt good too. He bathed, walked the ...

WASHINGTON (AP) — It looked like a zombie apocalypse. For the U.S. military pilots and aircrew about to make their final takeoffs out of Afghanistan, the sky was lit up with fireworks and sporadic gunfire and the airfield littered with battered shells of airplanes and destroyed equipment. ...

NEW DELHI (AP) — More students in India will be able to step inside a classroom for the first time in nearly 18 months Wednesday, as authorities gave the green light to partially reopen more schools despite apprehension from some parents and signs that infections are picking up ...

BEIJING (AP) — Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi warned U.S. climate envoy John Kerry on Wednesday that deteriorating U.S.-China relations could undermine cooperation between the two on climate change. Wang told Kerry by video link that such cooperation cannot be separated from the broader ...

SRINAGAR, India (AP) — Syed Ali Geelani, an icon of disputed Kashmir's resistance against Indian rule and a top separatist leader who became the emblem of the region's defiance against New Delhi, died late Wednesday. He was 92. Geelani died surrounded by family members at his home in ...

PARIS (AP) — Google is appealing a 500 million euro ($591 million) fine issued by French regulators over its handling of negotiations with publishers in a dispute over copyright. The dispute is part of a larger battle by authorities in Europe and elsewhere to force Google and other tech ...

FRANKFURT, Germany (AP) — The OPEC oil producers' cartel and allied non-member countries led by Russia signed off Wednesday on gradually increasing production as the global economy and demand for fuel continue to recover from the worst of the coronavirus pandemic. The group fended off ...

KABUL, Afghanistan (AP) — The United Nations' stockpiles of food in Afghanistan could run out this month, a senior official warned Wednesday, threatening to add a hunger crisis to the challenges facing the country's new Taliban rulers as they try to restore stability after decades of ...

JAKARTA, Indonesia (AP) — Indonesia's navy has seized a massive tanker believed to be loaded with thousands of tons of wasted black oil and has brought the ship to shore for further investigation, officials said Thursday. The Panamanian-flagged MT Zodiac Star was located Wednesday after the ...

WELLINGTON, New Zealand (AP) — Micronesia President David Panuelo said Wednesday he'll continue to walk around his island nation without fear, despite an alleged death threat against him over his government's vaccine mandate. A month ago, Micronesia became one of the few countries in the ...

BANGKOK (AP) — Shopping malls, restaurants, parks and schools reopened in Thailand's capital on Wednesday after the government eased restrictions intended to slow the spread of the coronavirus. A surge that began in April sent new cases and deaths soaring, and department stores, restaurants, ...

PARIS (AP) — France on Wednesday started administering booster shots of COVID-19 vaccine to people over 65 and those with underlying health conditions as the delta variant spreads in the country. France is the first big EU country to introduce widespread booster shots, and several other ...

RABAT, Morocco (AP) — Morocco has launched a campaign to administer COVID-19 vaccines to children from 12 to 17, becoming one of the first African countries to inoculate that age group. The World Health Organization says that the North African country has already given around 33 million ...

ROME (AP) — Police outnumbered demonstrators at several of Italy's main train stations as COVID-19 vaccination or tests became mandatory Wednesday for long-distance travel within the country. Threats by some of the rule's opponents to block railroad tracks apparently fizzled. On the eve of ...