BEIRUT (AP) — When Lebanon’s financial meltdown began in late 2019, Hassan Shoumar was locked out of his dollar savings like everyone else in the country as banks clamped down with capital controls. But the young engineer had an alternative. He could still pull out the dollars in his account...

MOSCOW (AP) — Russian lawmakers on Wednesday quickly approved the extension of the last remaining nuclear Russia-U.S. arms control treaty, a fast-track action that comes just days before it’s due to expire. Both houses of parliament voted unanimously to extend the New START treaty for five...

BRUSSELS (AP) — The European Union’s dispute with AstraZeneca intensified Wednesday with the Anglo-Swedish drugmaker denying the EU’s assertion that it had pulled out of talks on vaccine supplies. AstraZeneca said in a statement that it still planned to meet with EU officials in Brussels...

TEHRAN, Iran (AP) — Iranian and Taliban officials met in Tehran on Wednesday and accused the U.S. of provoking the continuation of war in Afghanistan, Iranian State TV reported. Ali Shamkhani, secretary of Iran’s Supreme National Security Council, told visiting Taliban political chief Mullah...

A top Palestinian official welcomed Wednesday plans by the new US administration to restore aid to the Palestinians and reopen diplomatic offices that were closed by former President Donald Trump. "We look forward to reconnecting on the basis of international law and previously past UN...

Answering growing frustration over vaccine shortages, President Joe Biden announced that the U.S. is ramping up deliveries to hard-pressed states over the next three weeks and expects to provide enough doses to vaccinate 300 million Americans by the end of the summer or early fall. Biden,...

The United States said all soldiers from Eritrea should leave Ethiopia’s embattled Tigray region "immediately." A State Department spokesperson in an email to The Associated Press cited "credible reports of looting, sexual violence, assaults in refugee camps and other human rights abuses."...

Economic profiteering is fueling the catastrophe in Yemen, where a six-year war has involved attacks on civilians, forced disappearances and other violations of human rights and international law, U.N. experts said in a new report. The experts estimate Houthi rebels diverted at least $1.8...

Recent military drills by Iran in its southern waters amid heightened tensions with Washington are a message to the new US administration, according to a political expert. Iran has held a series of military drills in recent weeks. The exercises have gained momentum since the US dispatched...

Protesting farmers in India have returned to border areas, a day after the capital witnessed violent clashes, to continue their demonstrations "peacefully." Thousands are encamped on the outskirts of Delhi since November against three new agricultural laws meant to liberalize the...

WASHINGTON (AP) — Senate Democrats are preparing to push ahead quickly on President Joe Biden’s $1.9 trillion COVID-19 relief package even if it means using procedural tools to pass the legislation on their own, leaving Republicans behind. Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer told senators...

WASHINGTON (AP) — President Joe Biden had his first call with Vladimir Putin on Tuesday, the White House and Kremlin said. U.S. officials said Biden raised concerns about the arrest of opposition figure Alexei Navalny while pressing the Russian president on his nation’s involvement in a massive...

Internet users across the northeast U.S. reported widespread outages Tuesday. In an emailed statement 90 minutes after the outage was first reported, Verizon said it was working on the problem hurting Fios service “throughout the Northeast corridor” and that some service had already been...

TOKYO (AP) — With calls for a cancellation mounting, pressure is building on Japanese organizers and the IOC to explain exactly how they plan to hold the Tokyo Olympics in the midst of a pandemic. The International Olympic Committee and the local organizers are expected to roll out...

A decade after the uprising that overturned politics in Egypt, political prisoners are being targeted inside the country’s overcrowded prison system. Egypt’s prisons hold at least twice the number of people they were built for, with prisoners of conscience targeted by security forces and...

The European Union lashed out Monday at pharmaceutical company AstraZeneca, accusing it of failing to guarantee delivery of coronavirus vaccines without valid explanation, and threatened to impose tight export controls within days on COVID-19 vaccines made in the bloc. Health Commissioner...

BEIRUT (AP) — Dozens of Lebanese protesters, enraged at a nearly month-long lockdown to combat the spread of coronavirus, took to the streets of the country's second largest city on Monday and pelted security forces with stones. The security forces responded with tear gas to break up the...

SEOUL, South Korea (AP) — A North Korean diplomat who served as the country’s acting ambassador to Kuwait has defected to South Korea, according to South Korean lawmakers who were briefed by Seoul’s spy agency. Ha Tae-keung, a conservative opposition lawmaker and an executive secretary of...

TEHRAN, Iran (AP) — Iran warned the Biden administration on Tuesday that it will not have an indefinite time period to rejoin the 2015 nuclear deal between Tehran and world powers. Iran also said it expects Washington to swiftly lift crippling economic sanctions that former President Donald...

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) — The U.S. military is exploring the possibility of using a Red Sea port in Saudi Arabia and an additional two airfields in the kingdom amid heightened tensions with Iran, the military said Tuesday. While describing the work as "contingency" planning, the...