PERTH, Australia (AP) — It can seem like Australia's west coast has almost entirely avoided COVID-19. A mask-free nightlife is thriving and huge crowds are turning out for sporting events, including 53,000 rugby fans who crammed into a Perth stadium to watch New Zealand's All Blacks defeat ...

SEOUL, South Korea (AP) — Civil defense forces carrying rifles and personnel wearing gas masks and red hazmat suits paraded in North Korea's capital in a celebration of the nation's 73rd anniversary that was a marked departure from past militaristic displays. The parade late Wednesday — ...

SKOPJE, North Macedonia (AP) — North Macedonia's government was holding an emergency meeting Thursday over an overnight fire that ripped through a field hospital set up to treat COVID-19 patients, leaving 14 people dead. The blaze broke out late Wednesday in the western city of Tetovo, where ...

LONDON (AP) — Facebook has criticized the U.K. competition watchdog's provisional decision ordering that it sell off Giphy because it said the acquisition of the company stifles competition for animated images. The social network's strongly worded response to the Competition and Markets ...

LONDON (AP) — British Prime Minister Boris Johnson won Parliament's support on Wednesday for a big tax hike to pay for short-term health requirements arising from the coronavirus pandemic, as well as for long-term care needed by Britain's growing older population. Lawmakers voted by 319 to ...

TOKYO (AP) — Japan announced Thursday it is extending a coronavirus state of emergency in Tokyo and 18 other areas until the end of September as health care systems remain under severe strain, although new infections have slowed slightly. Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga said serious cases ...

SU'AO, Taiwan (AP) — Taiwan's president oversaw the commissioning of a new domestically made navy warship Thursday as part of the island's plan to boost indigenous defense capacity amid heightened tensions with China. President Tsai Ing-wen spoke at a naval base in Su'ao, on the island's ...

SAINT-PAUL-LES-DURANCE, France (AP) — Teams working on two continents have marked similar milestones in their respective efforts to tap an energy source key to the fight against climate change: They've each produced very impressive magnets. On Thursday, scientists at the International ...

BERLIN (AP) — Germany's foreign minister arrived in Libya on Thursday to reopen the country's embassy in Tripoli. "Today, we want to show with the reopening that Germany is and will remain a committed partner of Libya," Heiko Maas said upon his arrival in Tripoli. "We want to have a voice in ...

CANBERRA, Australia (AP) — Australia's government confirmed Thursday that it refused to allow climate change goals to be written into a proposed free trade deal with Britain, as pressure mounts on it to make more ambitious commitments to cut carbon emissions. Prime Minister Scott Morrison ...

NAIROBI, Kenya (AP) — A least 150 people starved to death last month in Ethiopia's embattled Tigray region amid a near-complete blockade of food aid by federal and allied authorities, the Tigray forces say, while close to half a million people face famine conditions. The starvation deaths ...

LONDON (AP) — Kermit the Frog. Miss Piggy. Animal. Statler and Waldorf. The Swedish Chef. The list goes on and on. Everyone has their favorite Muppet. And everyone owes a debt of gratitude to one man for bringing them to life: Jim Henson. The American creator of The Muppets was honored ...

ROME (AP) — Vatican officials declined on Tuesday to say if women would be able to vote on concrete proposals about the future of the Catholic Church at the end of a two-year process of consultation of ordinary faithful that Pope Francis kicks off next month. For years, women activists and ...

HONG KONG (AP) — The Hong Kong government is arbitrarily labeling pro-democracy organizations as foreign agents, making them subject to prosecution under a tough national security law, a leader of the group that has organized the city's annual Tiananmen candlelight vigils said Tuesday. Chow ...

BERLIN (AP) — Dozens of people evacuated from Afghanistan by the United States military have applied for asylum in Germany during their layovers at the Ramstein U.S. Air Base, officials said Tuesday. So far about 90 people, a fraction of the roughly 34,000 flown to Ramstein to date, have ...

TORONTO (AP) — Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said Tuesday he won't alter how he campaigns after he and others were hit by gravel thrown by an anti-vaccine protester during the campaign this week. Trudeau has faced increasingly hostile protests by what he calls "anti-Vax mobs" ahead ...

PARIS (AP) — For the music lover, it was nearly three hours at gunpoint, wondering if he would become yet another body on the floor of the Bataclan concert hall in Paris. For the grieving mother, the night of carnage robbed her of her son and tarnished her view of the vibrant neighborhood ...

BRASILIA, Brazil (AP) — Tens of thousands of supporters of embattled right-wing President Jair Bolsonaro heeded his call and turned out at rallies Tuesday as he stepped up his attacks on Brazil's Supreme Court and threatened to plunge the country into a constitutional crisis. Bolsonaro has ...

TULA, Mexico (AP) — Torrential rains in central Mexico suddenly flooded a hospital early Tuesday, killing 16 patients, possibly due to the loss of oxygen equipment as the power went out, the national Social Security Institute said. A video posted on the agency's social media feed said about ...

MEXICO CITY (AP) — Mexico's Supreme Court ruled Tuesday that it is unconstitutional to punish abortion, unanimously annulling several provisions of a law from Coahuila — a state on the Texas border — that had made abortion a criminal act. The decision will immediately affect only the ...