Appeals for the Taliban to extend a ceasefire with Afghan forces went unanswered Wednesday, but there were no reports of major violence and the militants said they would release some government prisoners. A three-day pause in fighting which ended on Tuesday provided a rare respite from the...

Hong Kong police placed a dragnet around the financial hub's legislature Wednesday and fired pepper-ball rounds in the commercial district as they tried to stamp out protests against a bill banning insults to China's national anthem. The latest unrest comes days after China announced...

Iran convened its newly elected parliament Wednesday, dominated by conservative lawmakers and under strict social distancing regulations, as the country struggles to curb the spread of the coronavirus that has hit the nation hard. Iran is grappling with one of the deadliest outbreaks in the...

The U.N. patent agency has hailed the push to create a coronavirus vaccine and make it globally available, but warned against allowing copyright rows to overshadow and delay the process. "What we need in the first place here is innovation," Francis Gurry, the head of the U.N.'s World...