Mariah Carey, one of the world’s most celebrated artists, is performing in Saudi Arabia on Thursday for the first time, but there’s a growing chorus of Saudi women calling on her to cancel the concert to show support for detained women’s rights activists.

Activists from an anti-globalization group have staged a protest at Google’s Paris headquarters to criticize the company for paying little tax.

The Italian economy slipped into recession in the final three months of the year, weighing on the wider eurozone’s growth, official figures showed Thursday.

A new report estimates that nearly half of all U.S. adults have some form of heart or blood vessel disease, a medical milestone that’s mostly due to recent guidelines that expanded how many people have high blood pressure.

NATO’s chief has called on China to treat detained two Canadian citizens 'fairly and with due process.'

Germany’s unemployment is holding steady at 5 percent in a sign of strength for Europe’s largest economy.

Anglo Dutch energy giant Shell says its fourth-quarter earnings rose 32 percent as the company took advantage of higher oil prices following years of streamlining operations.

Yemeni security officials say seven Houthi rebel prisoners have been released by Saudi Arabia and returned to the capital, Sanaa. It’s the first small prisoner exchange between the two sides, after the rebels released a Saudi a day earlier.

The suspect in a deadly shooting attack at the Brussels Jewish Museum insisted Thursday that he had nothing to do with an apparent attempt to intimidate a lawyer involved in his trial and is demanding that court officials be left alone.

A man accused of killing three people and wounding another in 2017 has been ruled incompetent to stand trial in the slaying of a former Baton Rouge official.

A prominent physicians’ group says Brown University is violating federal law by using live pigs for training in emergency medicine.

Saudi Arabia says 12 people have died and more than 170 have been injured this week due to flooding from heavy rain in the northwest.

Nasdaq has made an offer to acquire the Oslo stock exchange, the last trading place in the Nordic-Baltic region it doesn’t own.

An Egyptian rights lawyer says security forces have arrested at least six activists in a crackdown coinciding with the anniversary of the 2011 uprising.

The Latest on the Federal Reserve’s monetary policy meeting (all times local):

The U.N. migration agency says 28 bodies have been found after some 130 migrants went missing off Djibouti when two boats capsized.

Authorities in India’s most populous state have been ordered to bar code stray cows and use vacant buildings to shelter them in response to farmers’ complaints that the closure of slaughterhouses has created a menace of crop-destroying, free-range cattle.

A sheriff’s office in South Carolina say a Sumter teen faked his own kidnapping and led his mother to believe he’d be killed if she didn’t pay $130.

More than 400 schools in Thailand’s capital, Bangkok, were shut for the rest of the week Wednesday due to increasing concern over dangerously unhealthy air pollution.

A Russian lawmaker suspected of contracting two murders was detained on Wednesday at the Russian parliament in front of stunned deputies after he tried to escape but was stopped by the parliament speaker.

Federal safety inspectors are going to court to remove a roadblock in their investigation of a limousine crash that killed 20 people nearly four months ago.

The Metropolitan Atlanta Rapid Transit Authority in Atlanta says it may seek a court order to stop a sick-out by bus drivers who are upset over a union contract.

Low-cost carrier Norwegian Air Shuttle has lowered its profit outlook again after British Airways’ parent company IAG last week ruled out a bid for the loss-making budget airline.

Retired Israeli military chief Benny Gantz is launching his long-awaited political campaign Tuesday, seeking to position himself as the first serious challenger to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s decade-long rule.

A United Nations human rights expert visited the vicinity of the Saudi consulate in Istanbul Tuesday as part of her investigation into the killing of Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi.

Russia says it expects Venezuela to have problems repaying debt ahead of an upcoming payment on a Russian loan.

From backstop to Brexiteer, Britain’s decision to leave the European Union, now scheduled for March 29, has spawned a baffling array of new terms.

Malaysian Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad says that a multi-billion-dollar rail link project backed by China would 'impoverish' the country, saddling the government with excess debt for the next 30 years.

A Chinese government spokesman has questioned the appropriateness of an email sent by a Duke University medical school administrator warning Chinese students to speak in English.

The Latest on developments in Pakistan surrounding the case of Christian woman acquitted of blasphemy (all times local):

The leader of one of Iraq’s most powerful Iranian-backed Shiite militias says he expects a vote by Iraq’s parliament calling for withdrawal of U.S. troops within the next few months.

Cuba’s president says a tornado in eastern Havana has killed three people and injured 174 others.

Workers in Denmark have begun erecting a 70-kilometer (43.4-mile) fence along the German border to keep out wild boars in the hope of preventing the spread of African swine fever, which could jeopardize Denmark’s valuable pork industry.

Dutch authorities are investigating the cause of a gas explosion that blew the facade off an apartment building, injuring 10 people, including four who were rescued from under the rubble.

A U.N. human rights expert has arrived in Turkey for a weeklong visit over the killing of Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi.

The Council of Europe Commissioner for Human Rights is traveling to Paris to meet with French authorities to discuss human rights issues related to the yellow vests protests.

Separatists opened fire on an aircraft carrying military personnel and local government officials in Indonesia’s easternmost Papua region, killing one soldier, the military said Monday.

A leading Brexit supporter says he will back Prime Minister Theresa May’s Brexit divorce deal with the European Union if she wins concessions on controversial language designed to prevent border checks in Northern Ireland.

The United Nations says shelling of a camp for displaced people in Yemen’s northern Hajjah province has killed eight civilians and wounded 30.

Spanish police on Monday cleared away taxis that blocked a main avenue in the capital of Madrid, the latest action in a weeklong standoff with authorities over the growth of app-based ride-hailing services that cab drivers say threaten their livelihood.

Israel’s Delek Drilling and its U.S. partner, Noble Energy, say the foundation of their rig for the Leviathan gas field has arrived.

As the world commemorates the anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz on International Holocaust Remembrance Day Sunday, death camp survivor Cipora Feivlovich marks her own personal milestone as she turns 92.

Buhle Mathebule, 4 years old, squints against the harsh sunlight outside her family’s one-room shack in Ekangala, South Africa. She is spending rare time with her sister, 11-year-old Perlucia, who is home for the holidays. Buhle was born with albinism. Perlucia was badly burned as a baby. Both children are the source of much worry for their parents, who support the family and its delicate medical needs with part-time construction work. Perlucia receives support from an aid group, Children of Fire, in Johannesburg. Buhle often stays in the shack to protect her skin from the unforgiving sun. Her parents worry she could be targeted by people believing that the body parts of people with albinism have special powers, though that danger is greater in other countries in the region.

A popular Thai music act has set off a scandal after one of its members wore a shirt showing the swastika flag of Nazi Germany during a performance.

The Latest on International Holocaust Remembrance Day (all times local):

The Latest on the deadly mine waste dam collapse in southeastern Brazil (all times local):

Iran says Arab separatists have killed two policemen who were on patrol in the country’s oil-rich south.

Not long after Pierre-Hugues Herbert and Nicolas Mahut completed their career Grand Slam in men’s doubles, the Frenchmen were already turning their attention to the next goal. And that’s gold.

The U.N.’s Mideast envoy is calling the death of a Palestinian in West Bank clashes with Israeli settlers 'shocking and unacceptable.'

French President Emmanuel Macron is headed to Egypt with a large delegation on a three-day trip to reinforce ties with the Arab world’s most populous country.