MOSCOW – Russian and Egyptian warships have begun a week of exercises in the Mediterranean. Russian news agencies on Saturday cited the Defense Ministry as saying the exercises were aimed at practicing protection of coastal areas and would last through June 14. The Russian vessels in the exercise include the …

NEW YORK – The Fire Department of New York says a vehicle has struck pedestrians in midtown Manhattan, injuring four people, three of them seriously. The crash occurred just before 3 p.m. Monday near Fifth Avenue and East 59th Street, near Central Park and The Plaza Hotel. Fire officials say …

LONDON – Marguerite Patten, the home economist and chef who helped educate Britons on how to survive on rations during World War II, has died. She was 99. Her family said Wednesday that Patten died on June 4. She suffered a stroke in 2011, and had been living in a …

LONDON – Britain’s terror legislation watchdog says the country needs a new law on monitoring online communications, arguing a fresh approach is necessary to address the concerns of both law enforcement and privacy advocates. The independent reviewer of terror legislation, David Anderson, on Thursday proposed a new blueprint for surveillance …

SKOPJE, Macedonia – Macedonia’s ombudsman has criticized the government over its treatment of migrants, saying they are being held beyond a 30-day legal limit in “degrading and inhumane” conditions. Macedonia has become a major transit route for thousands of migrants, mostly from Syria and Iraq, heading to the European Union. …

A Georgia woman underwent surgery Tuesday to have a beach ball-sized tumor removed from her stomach, The Atlanta Journal-Constitution reported. Dora Lewis initially thought her growing stomach was a sign of weight gain. But when she began experiencing stomach pains, she called 911, and doctors discovered she had a large …

GADSDEN, Ala. – A judge is considering a request for a new trial for an Alabama woman convicted of capital murder in her granddaughter’s running death. Etowah County Circuit Judge Billy Ogletree has scheduled a hearing for Thursday for 50-year-old Joyce Hardin Garrard. The defense says numerous rulings by the …

THE HAGUE, Netherlands – The global chemical weapons watchdog says that waste created on board a U.S. ship that destroyed toxic chemicals from Syria’s stockpile has been successfully disposed of. The Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons announced Wednesday that the disposal of thousands of tons of waste was …

JUBA, South Sudan – At least 129 children were killed, with boys castrated and girls raped, during a government offensive against rebels last month in South Sudan, according to the U.N. children’s agency. South Sudanese military spokesman, Col. Philip Aguer, on Thursday questioned the credibility of the report, saying it …

For the past decade, Cairo attorney Asharf Badawy has been a member of President Hosni Mubarak’s ruling political party. If it were up to him, Badawy said, Mubarak would have been allowed to remain in office until new elections. Sitting behind his desk in his law office cluttered with files, …