Messy start: Croatia to elect new leader amid EU presidency
ZAGREB, Croatia — Croatia's bitterly contested presidential race is headed for a runoff this weekend to decide whether a conservative or a liberal wil...
Iran can call on powerful friends if conflict engulfs region
JERUSALEM — If Iran decides to follow through on its vow of harsh retaliation for the killing of its top general, it can call upon heavily armed allie...
Taiwan defense officials meet after crash kills top officer
TAIPEI, Taiwan — Taiwanese President Tsai Ing-wen convened a meeting of top defense officials and urged them Friday to be on a lookout for military de...
Uncharted Brexit waters: UK’s Boris Johnson faces 2020 tests
LONDON — After a remarkable political turnaround, Prime Minister Boris Johnson is on the verge of taking Britain out of the European Union with the en...
Iraqi militant killed by US worked with Iran for decades
BAGHDAD — Abu Mahdi al-Muhandis, a veteran Iraqi militant who was closely allied with Iran and rose to be a senior militia commander during the war ag...
Indonesia capital floods leave 43 dead, 397,000 displaced
JAKARTA, Indonesia — The death toll from floods in Indonesia's capital rose to 43 of Friday as rescuers found more bodies amid receding floodwaters, d...
Castro’s exit is latest blow to diversity of 2020 field
AUSTIN, Texas — The 2020 Democratic presidential primary initially featured the most racially diverse field in history. Now, with one month until voti...
US kills Iran’s most powerful general in Baghdad airstrike
BAGHDAD — The United States killed Iran's top general and the architect of Tehran’s proxy wars in the Middle East in an airstrike at Baghdad's interna...
Lebanon receives Interpol notice for ex-Nissan fugitive
BEIRUT — Interpol issued a wanted notice Thursday for former Nissan chairman Carlos Ghosn, who jumped bail in Japan and fled to Lebanon rather than fa...
Ex-Trump aide Manafort told FBI he had ‘no chance at trial’
WASHINGTON — Former Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort said he knew he “had no chance at trial" when he pleaded guilty in special counsel Robert Mu...
Hanukkah stabbing suspect questioned in prior Monsey attack
NEW YORK — The man charged in the machete attack on a Hanukkah celebration north of New York City had been questioned by local authorities in connecti...
4th death in Mississippi prisons; judge says other prison OK
JACKSON, Miss. — Another Mississippi inmate has died at the hands of a fellow inmate, bringing the death toll to four amid disturbances over the past ...
US starts sending asylum seekers across Arizona border
PHOENIX — The U.S. government on Thursday began sending asylum-seekers back to Nogales, Mexico, to await court hearings that will be scheduled roughly...
Son of television producer dies in ski accident in Utah
SALT LAKE CITY — The son of television producer Jenji Kohan, who created the series “Örange is the New Black," died in a New Year's Eve ski accident i...
As Jewish enclaves spring up around NYC, so does intolerance
MONSEY, N.Y. — For years, ultra-Orthodox Jewish families priced out of increasingly expensive Brooklyn neighborhoods have been turning to the suburbs,...
Marianne Williamson lays off 2020 campaign staff nationwide
CONCORD, N.H. — Bestselling author and spiritual guru Marianne Williamson has laid off her entire 2020 campaign staff but is pushing ahead with her De...
Deal will let more companies make an overdose antidote spray
NEW YORK — More companies could begin making an easy-to-use version of an opioid overdose antidote under a deal announced Thursday by New York's attor...
Attack on US Embassy exposes widening US-Iraq divide on Iran
WASHINGTON — The New Year's Eve attack on the U.S. Embassy compound in Baghdad has exposed a deepening divide between the United States and Iraq over ...
5 crew members feared dead after Alaska fishing boat sinks
JUNEAU, Alaska — Five crew members missing after a crab fishing vessel sank in the frigid waters off Alaska were feared dead after authorities called ...
Bloomberg to skip Nevada Democratic caucuses
LAS VEGAS — Nevada Democrats will not be able to caucus for Michael Bloomberg next month.
Co-creator defends suspected UAE spying app called ToTok
ABU DHABI, United Arab Emirates — The co-creator of a video and voice calling app suspected of being a spying tool of the United Arab Emirates defende...
Investors could be partying like it’s 1997, but many sat out
NEW YORK — Break out the Spice Girls CDs. That was one of the best years in decades for funds.
2020 brings higher labor costs for small businesses
NEW YORK — Small business owners have plenty of changes to deal with as 2020 begins — higher labor costs for many companies, and some owners will disc...
Texas judge: Hospital can remove baby from life support
DALLAS — A Texas judge on Thursday sided with a hospital that plans to remove an 11-month-old girl from life support after her mother disagreed with t...
US long-term mortgage rates ease; 30-year loan at 3.72%
WASHINGTON — U.S. long-term mortgage rates declined slightly this week, remaining close to the historically low levels where they have hovered for the...
Bye-bye buoy: Large beacon removed from Florida beach
NEW SMYRNA BEACH, Fla. — A large red navigation buoy that bobbed around the Atlantic Ocean for two years was removed Thursday from a Florida beach whe...
All bets are on? Virginia weighs legalizing casinos
RICHMOND, Va. — Casinos could be coming soon to Virginia, but a brawl over just how many, where they would go, and who would run them is on tap first.
Turkish lawmakers authorize sending troops to fight in Libya
ANKARA, Turkey — Turkey's parliament on Thursday authorized the deployment of troops to Libya to support the U.N.-backed government in Tripoli that is...
Somali mourners march against extremist blast that killed 79
MOGADISHU, Somalia — Hundreds of mourners and government officials in Mogadishu gathered at the capital's Police School on Thursday to mourn the 79 pe...
Conservatives seek immediate purge of voters in Wisconsin
MADISON, Wis. — A conservative law firm on Thursday asked a judge to find the Wisconsin Elections Commission in contempt and fine its members $2,000 a...