The U.N. special envoy to Yemen sought to downplay the significance of the failure of peace talks to start, saying on Saturday that he would head back to Yemen 'within days' to try and agree on a new date.

The Maldives has hit out at the United States after the U.S. warned of possible sanctions against key officials of the island nation if upcoming elections are not free and fair.

A helicopter with seven people on board was reported missing Saturday in Nepal.

Here’s your look at highlights from the weekly AP photo report, a gallery featuring a mix of front-page photography, the odd image you might have missed and lasting moments our editors think you should see.

President Hassan Rouhani says Iran routinely receives invitations from the U.S. for talks even as the country is pressured by the U.S. in the form of sanctions.

An Afghan official says at least 16 people, including women and children, have been killed in a traffic accident in the country’s southern Kandahar province.

Unknown assailants fired three Katyusha rockets at Iraq’s Basra airport Saturday, an airport official said, after a chaotic and violent night that saw hundreds of protesters burning tires on main streets and highways and setting ablaze the Iranian consulate in the city.

A 19th-century fountain in Manhattan’s Central Park provided a majestic backdrop for Ralph Lauren’s star-studded 50th anniversary blowout on Friday, a festive celebration of his past and present that included a runway show and a black-tie dinner.

A look at what’s happening around the majors today:

The way things have been going for the Arizona Diamondbacks, being 1 1/2 games out of first place in the NL West seems almost unimaginable.

A spokeswoman for the Russian Foreign Ministry says Moscow wants to identify and find the suspects in the poisoning of a former Russian spy in Britain.

Donald Trump had to be tricked out of killing a U.S.-South Korean trade deal? He threatened to move a U.S. missile defense system from South Korea to Oregon? He ordered a plan for a pre-emptive attack on North Korea?

Austria’s chancellor is urging Macedonians to vote, in a forthcoming referendum, for a deal with neighboring Greece to change their country’s name to 'North Macedonia.'

The Iraqi government says security forces have launched a search operation to determine the source of three mortar shells that landed inside Baghdad’s heavily fortified Green Zone, the first such attack in several years.

East African neighbors Eritrea and Djibouti have agreed to normalize relations after years of diplomatic stalemate.

Belgium’s media and political class are demanding change as two high-profile cases of racism rock the kingdom, raising troubling questions about white attitudes a few weeks before local elections.

Longtime U.S Sen. Tom Carper of Delaware easily fended off a Democratic primary challenge Thursday from a political newcomer who was part of an antiestablishment wave that hoped to move the party farther to the left.

Thanks to his star power and a government keen to keep its most valuable international asset happy, Mohamed Salah has won his latest tussle with Egypt’s soccer federation after his demands for better security and improved discipline at the Pharaohs’ camps have been met.

When 52-year old accountant Marina Grigoryeva was laid off this year, she figured that at least she would be eligible for a state pension in three years’ time. But measures announced by President Vladimir Putin last week mean that Grigoryeva, who has been looking for a job for over six months, will have to wait eight years instead.

Former British Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson and his wife have announced that they are divorcing.

The Latest on Europe’s migrant crisis (all times local):

The British luxury fashion brand Burberry will stop using real fur in its products.

Lithuania has lashed out at retailing giant Walmart for using the letters USSR as well as Soviet Union emblems on T-shirts and other products for sale in the country, and is demanding that the products be removed.

Spanish authorities say rescuers have found five dead migrants and 53 survivors in a boat partially sunk in waters east of the Strait of Gibraltar.

A Philippine senator who took refuge in the legislature to avoid an arrest order by President Rodrigo Duterte has asked the Supreme Court to declare the move illegal.

Saudi Arabia says 26 civilians were wounded by shrapnel when it shot down a missile fired across the border by Yemen’s Houthi rebels.

Britain’s security minister says Russian President Vladimir Putin bears ultimate responsibility for the Novichok nerve agent attack carried out in England.

China is ready to retaliate if U.S. President Donald Trump goes ahead with a tariff hike on Chinese goods and is confident it can maintain 'steady and healthy' economic growth, a government spokesman said Thursday.

It’s show time for the 12 boys and their 25-year old soccer coach whose ordeal of being trapped for almost three weeks in a flooded cave in northern Thailand riveted the world.

Australian prosecutors said on Thursday they will appeal for a tougher sentence for the most senior Roman Catholic cleric convicted of covering up child sex abuse.

A man is accused of brutally attacking a transgender woman and her sister as the two women left a bar and restaurant district in South Carolina.

The Iranian rial has fallen to its lowest rate on record, with the currency now trading at over 150,000 to the U.S. dollar.

A rocket developed by Chinese company iSpace is carrying three miniature satellites into space in another milestone for the country’s budding private spaceflight industry.

The leader of the European Parliament’s biggest party grouping, Germany’s Manfred Weber, says he wants to become the next head of the EU’s executive.

Israel’s Supreme Court on Wednesday rejected an appeal against the demolition of a Bedouin village in the West Bank, ruling that its stay would expire in a week and the spartan encampment could then legally be torn down.

Germany’s foreign minister says Berlin wants to continue 'to work hard' to improve relations with Turkey.

Police in Denmark say they fined a Turkish tourist 1,000 kroner ($155) after she entered a police station to renew her visa wearing a full-face covering.

U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo arrived in Pakistan on Wednesday at a time when relations between the two countries have sunk to a new low.

Malaysia and Singapore agreed on Wednesday to delay, not cancel, a planned high-speed railway that would cut travel time between their capitals to just 90 minutes.

Three of five judges considering the appeal of Ratko Mladic against his convictions for crimes including genocide are being replaced because they have an 'appearance of bias' against the former Bosnian Serb military chief.

Greek island ferries are tied up in port for a second day because of a strike by crews, whose main union is debating whether to extend the walkout for another day in pursuit of salary increases.

The banking group TSB says its chief executive, Paul Pester, has quit after a string of huge IT failures.

Amnesty International says hundreds of people detained in South Sudan have faced abusive treatment, torture and even death at the hands of authorities since the country’s civil war began in late 2013.

South African authorities say about 100 people were injured, none of them seriously, when two trains collided in a Johannesburg suburb.

Prosecutors say that Dutch bank ING has paid 775 million euros ($897 million) to settle a huge money laundering case in the Netherlands.

Lego said Tuesday its revenue dipped in the first half of 2018, with business in North America hurt by changes in the retail industry such as the bankruptcy of store chain Toys R Us.

All summer, the small boat drifted steadily eastward across the churning North Atlantic until it neared the Irish coast, where it made history by becoming the first unmanned sailboat to cross the Atlantic.

A conservation group says elephant poaching has increased in Botswana, which has long been viewed as a rare refuge for elephants in Africa.

A police officer in Louisiana is accused of attacking an umpire at a University of Louisiana at Monroe softball game.

Authorities say employees at a Florida thrift store found 5 pounds of marijuana while sorting clothing donations.

The ruler of Dubai has announced the names of two astronauts from the United Arab Emirates who will be heading to the International Space Station, a first for the Gulf nation.

Iraq’s newly-elected parliament is meeting for the first time as rival factions compete over the right to name a new government.

Libya’s police say some 400 prisoners have escaped from a jail in the capital amid fighting between rival militias.

British ex-Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson has slammed Prime Minister Theresa May’s Brexit policy, a move likely to fuel speculation that he is seeking to oust her.

Iranian state media says Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif has arrived in Syria to meet with President Bashar Assad as Syrian forces and their allies prepare for an assault on the last opposition stronghold in the country.

Yemen’s official news agency says President Abed Rabbo Mansour Hadi has travelled to the United States for regular medical tests.

Thousands of travelers have been stranded on Greece’s islands due to a strike by ferry crews seeking higher pay and tax breaks.

Turkey’s central bank said it would re-adjust its monetary policy at its next meeting, after Turkey’s annual inflation rate increased to nearly 18 percent in August.

Judges at the United Nations’ highest court are listening to arguments in a case focused on the legality of British sovereignty over the Chagos Islands in the Indian Ocean, including Diego Garcia, where the U.S. has a major military base.

A migrant was convicted Monday of murdering his 15-year-old German ex-girlfriend and sentenced to 8.5 years in prison, the German news agency dpa reported.

Russians are holding rallies throughout the country to protest a government plan to raise the age for receiving state pensions.

The Irish rock bank U2 has cancelled a concert in Berlin after singer Bono lost his voice during the performance.

The Ukrainian city of Lviv, once a major center of Jewish life in Eastern Europe, is commemorating the 75th anniversary of the annihilation of the city’s Jewish population by Nazi Germany and honoring those working today to remember and preserve what they can of that vanished world.

Leoni Kahumbu remembers the night her 15-year-old daughter, Pascaline, first showed signs of Ebola. She found her fainted on the bathroom floor, blood everywhere.

At least three people were killed, including a child, after a suicide bomber detonated an explosives-laden vehicle outside a district headquarters in Somalia’s capital, police said Sunday.

Police in central China have detained 46 people who were part of a protest against a government plan to address overcrowded classrooms that escalated into violence.

An international rights group says an airstrike by a Saudi-led coalition that killed dozens of people in Yemen last month is an apparent war crime.

Two recreational boats collided head-on Saturday in a stretch of the Colorado River marking the California border with Arizona that was crowded with people enjoying the Labor Day weekend, sinking one boat and leaving 13 people injured, authorities said. Another two people were missing and 'presumed submerged.'

U.S. Army Gen. Austin Scott Miller assumed command of the 41-nation NATO mission in Afghanistan in a handover ceremony on Sunday.

Marin Cilic, the 2014 U.S. Open champion, needed eight match points to recover from a two-set deficit and eventually edge 19-year-old Alex de Minaur 4-6, 3-6, 6-3, 6-4, 7-5 at 2:22 a.m. on Sunday, four minutes shy of the latest finish in the tournament’s history.

Eight people have been injured in a blaze at an oil refinery in Bavaria, and another 1,800 people living close by were temporarily evacuated.

Pakistan has temporarily closed its consulate in the eastern Afghan city of Jalalabad over 'intervention' by the provincial governor and a lack of security.

Here’s your look at highlights from the weekly AP photo report, a gallery featuring a mix of front-page photography, the odd image you might have missed and lasting moments our editors think you should see.

Indonesia will bid to host the 2032 Olympics following the success of the Asian Games held in Jakarta and Palembang over the past two weeks, President Joko 'Jokowi' Widodo said Saturday.

The California Legislature voted Friday to allow power companies to raise electric bills to cover the cost of lawsuits from last year’s deadly wildfires amid fears that Pacific Gas & Electric Co., would otherwise face financial ruin.

Each Friday, volunteer medic Asmaa Qudih goes through a tense ritual: She prays, kisses her mother’s hand and packs a bag with medical supplies as she heads off to work at the weekly mass protests along Gaza’s border fence with Israel.

A Ugandan pop star-turned-opposition lawmaker flew out of the country for medical treatment after alleged torture while in detention, his lawyer said, a day after security forces blocked him from boarding a flight to the U.S. and set off a new round of protests.

Tierna Davidson scored her first career goal, Christen Press added a second-half goal and the U.S. women’s national team extended its unbeaten streak to 20 games with a 3-0 victory over Chile in an exhibition match Friday night.

The Oakland Athletics blew a big early lead and recovered to pull out a big win.

A look at what’s happening around the majors today:

A Pakistani court has convicted and sentenced two men to death over the 2013 murder of a politician from Prime Minister Imran Khan’s ruling Tehrik-e-Insaf party in the southern city of Karachi.

It could be summer time all year long for countries in the European Union.

A Spanish sex workers’ union will hold a news conference Friday to react to the government’s decision to overturn its registration, a move that has reignited a debate among feminists over the legal status of prostitution.

London’s new east-west railway, Crossrail, says it will miss its scheduled December opening by almost a year, with passenger services not starting until late 2019.

A 69-year-old American has pleaded not guilty to assault in Uganda after widely circulated video footage showed him punching a hotel worker, using racial insults and threatening to kill him.

For over a year, French President Emmanuel Macron has cajoled his counterpart Donald Trump, convinced he could make him change his thinking on climate change, the Iran nuclear deal and world trade. But the 40-year-old leader acknowledged this week it didn’t work, and instead said he was focusing his efforts on European partners.

German Chancellor Angela Merkel is wrapping up a three-day Africa visit in Nigeria with a meeting between the leaders of Europe’s and Africa’s largest economies that is likely to focus on migration.

Official figures show that inflation across the 19-country eurozone eased back during August but remains just above the European Central Bank’s target rate.

Russia has given its former top military policeman the task of reforming its tarnished anti-doping system.

Almost unthinkable to some a decade ago, sprinters from China and Japan are running sub-10 seconds for the 100 meters.

Police say they have arrested a monk suspected of sexually abusing children at a Buddhist shelter and meditation center in eastern India.

A senior Russian diplomat says Moscow is working on a meeting between Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov and U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo.

Emboldened by a new peace deal, civil war-torn South Sudan says it will resume oil production in a key region next month to make up for more than $4 billion of revenue lost during years of fighting.

Hard-line Islamists who started a march toward Pakistan’s capital to protest a far-right Dutch lawmaker’s plans to hold a Prophet Muhammad cartoon contest have been stopped by police.

Scotland’s governing Scottish National Party was reeling Thursday after the resignation of Alex Salmond, the former leader who built the separatist party into a major political force and took the country to the brink of independence from the United Kingdom.

A former Virginia police chief is accused of holding a woman against her will and sexually assaulting her.

A Swedish government study says there’s been a recent surge in the number of automated Twitter accounts ahead of the Sept. 9 election, noting that 40 percent of them are more likely to support the anti-immigration Sweden Democrats party, expected to make gains.

Myanmar has deliberately obstructed aid deliveries to civilians in war-torn Kachin and northern Shan states, actions that may amount to war crimes, a human rights groups said Thursday.

No games in the opening week of the 2018 college football season have quite the pizazz of last year’s meeting between No. 1 Alabama and No. 3 Florida State.

Nearly all of the currency removed from circulation in a surprise 2016 attempt to root out illegal hoards of cash came back into the financial system, India’s reserve bank has announced, indicating the move did little to slow the underground economy.