INDIANAPOLIS (AP) — An Indiana judge on Friday rejected an attempt to block the state’s Republican attorney general from continuing his office’s investigation of an Indianapolis doctor who has spoken publicly about providing an abortion to a 10-year-old rape victim who traveled from Ohio after its more-restrictive abortion law took effect.
HONOLULU (AP) — When Willette Kalaokahaku Akima-Akau looks out at the the lava flowing from Mauna Loa volcano and makes an offering of gin, tobacco and coins, she will be taking part in a tradition passed down from her grandfather and other Native Hawaiians as a way to honor both the natural and spiritual worlds.
COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. (AP) — Below the vaulted dome and dark wood beams of a church in Colorado Springs, a gay men's choir rehearsed for a concert that's taken on new meaning after an LGBTQ night club became the site of a shooting that killed five and wounded 17.
JERUSALEM (AP) — Israel’s paramilitary border police said an officer killed a Palestinian assailant in the occupied West Bank on Friday after they wrestled over a weapon. Dramatic amateur video captured the moments the officer fired the fatal shots, and the Palestinian dropped to the ground.
An influential Iraqi cleric who announced his withdrawal from politics four months ago has broken a period of relative silence to launch an anti-LGBTQ campaign.
WASHINGTON (AP) — The Biden administration on Friday placed a well-known Russian paramilitary organization on a list of religious freedom violators alongside a number of notorious terrorist organizations.
NEW DELHI (AP) — About 150 Tibetan exiles held up blank pieces of paper as they rallied in India's capital on Friday to express solidarity with people in China protesting its “zero COVID” policy.
The blank paper is a symbol of defiance used by some protesters in China against the ruling Communist Party’s widespread censorship.
KYIV, Ukraine (AP) — Ukraine on Friday banned the activities of religious organizations “affiliated with centers of influence” in Russia and said it would examine the links between the Ukrainian and Russian Orthodox churches.
ATLANTA (AP) — Former President Barack Obama and Sen. Raphael Warnock on Thursday urged Democratic voters to keep pushing an apparent head start in early voting in the Georgia Senate runoff against Republican Herschel Walker, ahead of Friday's last day of early in-person voting and Tuesday's election day.
JERUSALEM (AP) — Israel's designated prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Thursday announced a coalition deal that will give a hardline, pro-settler party control over a number of key government ministries and a senior role in overseeing the construction of Jewish settlements in the occupied West Bank.
VATICAN CITY (AP) — Pope Francis has rescheduled his delayed trip to Congo and South Sudan for Jan. 31-Feb. 5, cutting out a stop in Congo’s conflict-ravaged east but fulfilling a years-long wish to accompany other Christian leaders to the young nation of South Sudan.
LOS ANGELES (AP) — A judge declared a mistrial Wednesday at the rape trial of “That ’70s Show” actor Danny Masterson after jurors, who were leaning strongly toward acquitting him, deadlocked following the monthlong trial in which the Church of Scientology played a supporting role.
NEW YORK (AP) — For decades, Jackie Young had been searching.
Orphaned as an infant, he spent the first few years of his life in a Nazi internment camp in what is now the Czech Republic. After World War II he was taken to England, adopted and given a new name.
HUDSON, Wis. (AP) — A word -- “Hope” -- is stitched onto a throw pillow in the little hilltop farmhouse. Photographs of children and grandchildren speckle the walls. In the kitchen, an envelope is decorated with a hand-drawn heart.
ISLAMABAD (AP) — A bomb blast hit a religious school in northern Afghanistan on Wednesday, killing at least 10 students, a Taliban official said.
The explosion went off at around the time of afternoon prayers at the Al Jihad Madrassa in Aybak, capital of Samangan province, a resident of the city who heard the explosion told The Associated Press.
WASHINGTON (AP) — The Senate passed bipartisan legislation Tuesday to protect same-sex marriages, an extraordinary sign of shifting national politics on the issue and a measure of relief for the hundreds of thousands of same-sex couples who have married since the Supreme Court’s 2015 decision that legalized gay marriage nationwide.
HUDSON, Wis. (AP) — In a picturesque corner of western Wisconsin, a growing right-wing conservative movement has rocketed to prominence.
They see the broader America as a dark place, dangerous, where democracy is under attack by a tyrannical government, few officials can be trusted and neighbors might have to someday band together to protect one another.
DOHA, Qatar (AP) — Christian Pulisic kicked the ball, scored the goal and crashed into the goalkeeper, a collision that sent the American star to a hospital and the United States into the second round of the World Cup.
ROME (AP) — The mother of a Swiss Guard member accused of committing one of the most sensational crimes in recent Vatican history – fatally shooting his commander and the senior officer's wife before killing himself -- is turning to the United Nations and Pope Francis in hopes of getting some closure nearly a quarter-century after the slayings.
LONDON (AP) — Fewer than half the people in England and Wales consider themselves Christian, according to the most recent census — the first time a minority of the population has followed the country's official religion.
DOHA, Qatar (AP) — Rabbi Eli Chitrik’s phone buzzes. A woman is about to show up at his Doha hotel to pick up her lunch: two bagel sandwiches.
It's one of many calls and messages Chitrik is receiving these days for bagel sandwiches, freshly made in a designated kosher kitchen set up for Jewish World Cup fans who want to comply with Judaism’s set of dietary regulations during the tournament in Qatar.
TEL AVIV, Israel (AP) — Former Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is set to return to office, from where he could try to make his yearslong legal troubles disappear through new legislation advanced by his far-right and ultra-Orthodox allies.
ROME (AP) — Russia has lodged a formal protest with the Vatican over Pope Francis’ latest condemnation of atrocities in Ukraine, in which the pontiff blamed most of the cruelty on Chechens and other minorities in an apparent effort to spare ethnic Russian troops from criticism.
NEW DELHI (AP) — Israel’s envoy to India on Tuesday denounced a filmmaker from his country after he called a blockbuster Bollywood film on disputed Kashmir a “propaganda” and “vulgar movie” at a film festival, stoking a debate about recent history that fuels the ongoing conflict.
WASHINGTON (AP) — The Senate is set to vote Tuesday on legislation to protect same-sex and interracial marriages, putting Congress one step closer to passing the landmark bill and ensuring that such unions are enshrined in federal law.
ATLANTA (AP) — In-person early voting for the last U.S. Senate seat is underway statewide in Georgia's runoff, with Democratic Sen. Raphael Warnock working to get the jump on Republican challenger Herschel Walker who is putting less emphasis on advance balloting.
WASHINGTON (AP) — “We the People” is Jill Biden's holiday theme with White House decorations designed for “the people” to see themselves in the tree ornaments, mantel displays, mirrors and do-it-yourself creations that have turned the mansion's public spaces into a winter wonderland.
BEIJING (AP) — Beijing and the Vatican are once again tangling over the prickly issue of appointing Chinese bishops.
After complaints from the Vatican that Beijing was violating a 2018 interim accord, China’s Foreign Ministry spokesperson Zhao Lijian on Monday said the country is willing to expand the “friendly consensus” achieved with the Vatican over bishop nominations.
PIDIE, Indonesia (AP) — Children in school uniforms and toddlers with their parents lined up Monday for polio vaccinations in the Sigli town square on the northern tip of the Indonesian island of Sumatra, after four children were found infected with the highly contagious disease that was declared eliminated in the country less than a decade ago.
JERUSALEM (AP) — Former Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu has struck a coalition deal with a small ultranationalist faction leader known for homophobic rhetoric and disparaging remarks about non-Orthodox Jews, a sign of the prospective government's hardline makeup.
WARNER ROBINS, Ga. (AP) — Ads with the candidates’ ex-wives. Cries of “liar” flying in both directions. Stories of a squalid apartment building and abortions under pressure.
Sheetal Deo was shocked when she got a letter from her Queens apartment building’s co-op board calling her Diwali decoration “offensive” and demanding she take it down.
“My decoration said ‘Happy Diwali’ and had a swastika on it,” said Deo, a physician, who was celebrating the Hindu festival of lights.
Sheetal Deo was shocked when she got a letter from her Queens apartment building’s co-op board calling her Diwali decoration “offensive” and demanding she take it down.
“My decoration said ‘Happy Diwali’ and had a swastika on it,” said Deo, a physician, who was celebrating the Hindu festival of lights.
NASHVILLE, Tenn. (AP) — A drive-by shooting in Nashville on Saturday injured two people as they and others were walking out of church from the funeral of a woman who was fatally shot earlier this month, according to police.
DOHA, Qatar (AP) — For a brief moment after Saudi Arabia's Salem Aldawsari fired a ball from just inside the penalty box into the back of the net to seal a World Cup win against Argentina, Arabs across the divided Middle East found something to celebrate.
JERUSALEM (AP) — Extremist politician Itamar Ben-Gvir, who has a long record of anti-Arab rhetoric and stunts, will become Israel's next minister of national security, according to the first of what are expected to be several coalition deals struck by former Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's Likud party.
COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. (AP) — When officials unfurled a 25-foot rainbow flag in front of Colorado Springs City Hall this week, people gathered to mourn the victims of a mass shooting at a popular gay club couldn't help but reflect on how such a display of support would have been unthinkable just days earlier.
DOHA, Qatar (AP) — Aside from the competition for the World Cup title, one of the most hotly contested issues in the tournament in Qatar is over rainbow colors.
In the first week of the tournament, seven European teams lost the battle to wear multi-colored “One Love” armbands during World Cup matches and some fans complained they weren't allowed to bring items with rainbow colors, a symbol of LGBTQ rights, into the stadiums of the conservative Islamic emirate.
KUALA LUMPUR, Malaysia (AP) — Reformist leader Anwar Ibrahim has won a hard-fought battle to become Malaysia’s new prime minister.
HONG KONG (AP) — A 90-year-old Roman Catholic cardinal and five others in Hong Kong were fined after being found guilty Friday of failing to register a now-defunct fund that aimed to help people arrested in the widespread protests three years ago.
KUALA LUMPUR, Malaysia (AP) — Long-time reformist leader Anwar Ibrahim was sworn in as Malaysia's prime minister Thursday and vowed to heal a racially divided nation, fight corruption and revive an economy struggling with the rising cost of living.