From the Vatican’s St. Peter’s Square to the Great Synagogue of Sydney, armed guards provide earthly protection for worshippers as they seek out the divine. And still an unexpected noise can send a spasm of fear through a congregation.

Officials say an apparent gas explosion leveled an empty mansion in an affluent suburb of Philadelphia, reducing the 9,000-sq. foot (836-sq. meter) home to rubble.

A New York federal judge is poised to hear evidence from critics of a Commerce Department decision to put a citizenship question on the 2020 Census.

Myanmar’s ruling party led by Aung San Suu Kyi has won at least six seats in by-elections to fill 13 of the 1,171 seats in national, regional and state parliaments.

The Latest on the Oct. 29 crash of a Lion Air jet in Indonesia (all times local):

A Utah mayor who was also a Utah Army National Guard major training commandos in Afghanistan was fatally shot by one of his Afghan trainees, officials said Sunday.

The Latest on the killing of journalist Jamal Khashoggi (all times local):

Haruki Murakami is planning an archive at his Japanese alma mater that will include drafts of his best-selling novels, his translation work and his massive collection of music. Murakami, 69, began writing after graduating from Waseda University in 1975, and his latest novel, 'Killing Commendatore,' recently hit U.S. bookstores.

A sprawling complex of four theaters billed as the biggest performing arts center in the world has opened in southern Taiwan.

Donald Tusk, the head of the European Council, was being questioned in his native Poland on Monday as part of a parliamentary investigation into a pyramid scheme that cheated thousands of Poles out of their savings during his time as prime minister.