Voting began in a controversial presidential election in the Maldives Sunday, amid fears that the process has been rigged in China-friendly strongman Abdulla Yameen's favour.

The landmark deal between China and the Vatican is a win for Beijing, giving official recognition to bishops appointed by the government despite a crackdown on religion, and potentially softening the ground for full diplomatic relations after 67 years of estrangement, analysts said.

America's ports are fearful that they will be big losers as the escalating trade fight between Washington and Beijing bites into business.

Campaigning for Indonesia's presidential election in April kicked off Sunday, pitting incumbent Joko Widodo against a former military general in the race to lead the world's third-biggest democracy.

Britain's Labour Party kicks off its annual conference on Sunday hoping to prove it is ready to unseat the embattled Conservative government despite its own splits on Brexit and rows over anti-Semitism.

A new high-speed rail link between Hong Kong and mainland China launched Sunday, a multi-billion-dollar project that critics say gives away part of the city's territory to an increasingly assertive Beijing.

People in the Maldives vote Sunday in elections that international monitors and the opposition fear will be rigged to ensure that China-friendly strongman Abdulla Yameen remains in power.

James and Candace Butcher were ready to finalize the purchase of their dream retirement home, and at closing time wired $272,000 from their bank following instructions they received by email.

Iranian President Hassan Rouhani vowed a "crushing" response after assailants sprayed a crowd with gunfire, shooting dead at least 29 people including women and children Saturday at a military parade near the Iraqi border.

The woman whose sexual assault allegation threatens to bring down President Donald Trump's Supreme Court nominee has agreed to testify in the Senate, her lawyers said Saturday, setting up a dramatic showdown next week.

Six siblings of a Republican congressman from Arizona seeking re-election in November's midterms have publicly endorsed his Democratic opponent -- all but ensuring an awkward Thanksgiving family dinner this year.

Tiger Woods is one round away from ending his five-year victory drought after storming into a three-shot lead on day three of the Tour Championship here Saturday.

US cable giant Comcast outbid Rupert Murdoch's 21st Century Fox in a blind auction for the European TV operator Sky on Saturday that all but settled a titanic battle between the two media empires.

US President Donald Trump's former strategist Steve Bannon on Saturday said he would set up "war rooms" across Europe to help form a pan-continental right-wing movement ahead of European Parliament elections in 2019.

The death toll from a crowded capsized ferry in Lake Victoria rose to more than 200 Saturday, with scores of victims identified by grieving relatives, as rescuers found one lucky survivor from the disaster.

Britain's Anthony Joshua retained his world heavyweight titles by inflicting the first stoppage defeat of Alexander Povetkin's professional career with a ruthless seventh-round finish at Wembley Stadium on Saturday.

Liverpool and Manchester City's shootout for the Premier League title intensified on Saturday with comfortable wins over Southampton and Cardiff, while Manchester United were held 1-1 by Wolves on the day Alex Ferguson returned to Old Trafford.

The Vatican on Saturday announced an historic accord with China on who appoints bishops in the Communist country, paving the way for rapprochement between the Catholic Church and the world's most populous country.

China summoned the US ambassador on Saturday to lodge an official protest over sanctions imposed by the United States against a Chinese military organisation for buying Russian fighter jets and missiles, state media said.

Pope Francis began a Baltic tour in Catholic Lithuania on Saturday, honouring victims of the region's Nazi and Soviet occupations as the Church scrambles to contain the fallout from fresh clerical abuse scandals.

An Indian bishop accused of raping a nun was refused bail Saturday, and ordered to remain in police custody to face questioning in a case that has triggered outrage among clergy.

The Vatican announced Saturday it had reached an historic accord with China on the appointment of bishops in the Communist country which has so far named its own officials to a sole Beijing-recognised Catholic church.

Pope Francis kicks off a Baltic tour in Catholic Lithuania on Saturday where he will honour victims of the region's Nazi and Soviet occupations as the Church reels from fresh clerical abuse scandals.

Facebook said Friday a dating service it teased early this year is being rolled out in Colombia.

Dozens of people from across Mexico who are searching for missing relatives this week journeyed to the city of Guadalajara, where a scandal has erupted over a truck full of unidentified bodies that overflowed local morgues.

Gunmen on Friday killed a Mexican journalist who had received threats after reporting on corruption in the southern state of Chiapas, his newspaper said, in what was at least the ninth murder of a reporter in the country this year.

Kevin Anderson and Jack Sock spoiled the doubles debut of Roger Federer and Novak Djokovic but Team Europe still led Team World 3-1 after the first day of the 2018 Laver Cup.

The landmark deal between China and the Vatican is a win for Beijing, giving official recognition to bishops appointed by the government despite a crackdown on religion, and potentially softening the ground for full diplomatic relations after 67 years of estrangement, analysts said.

Artists melted a ton of ice spelling out the word "truth" in the shadow of the US Capitol on Saturday, in a poetic protest at the caustic state of politics in the era of "fake news" under President Donald Trump.

When US President Donald Trump demanded to know why his Supreme Court nominee's sexual assault accuser did not come forward sooner, he sought to cast doubt over her claims.

Some 20,000 people marched in Bern Saturday demanding wage equality between the genders, organisers said, warning that women are prepared to go on strike if Swiss parliamentarians do not fix the pay gap.

Facebook said Friday a dating service it teased early this year is being rolled out in Colombia.

New York's Metropolitan Museum of Art made a surprise announcement Friday it would reboot stalled renovations of its modern and contemporary wing, and temporarily turn over the building housing the works to the nearby Frick Collection.

Italian designer Antonio Marras unleashed a procession of fauvist travellers on the catwalk Friday in a collection dedicated to "those who have still not left and those who are forced to leave".

President Donald Trump's outburst demanding to know why a university academic accusing his Supreme Court nominee of sexual assault in the 1980s failed to come forward sooner, saw a new #MeToo era hashtag storm the internet Friday.

Alcohol kills three million people worldwide each year -- more than AIDS, violence and road accidents combined, the World Health Organization said Friday, adding that men are particularly at risk.

Italy's fashion industry responded Friday to accusations of widespread underpaid and undeclared subcontracted work in a New York Times article, saying that the problem is limited and already being dealt with.

Ireland will hold a referendum on October 26 to repeal its constitutional law forbidding blasphemy, Dublin announced on Friday.

German authorities said Friday they were blocking a plan to rebuild part of the Berlin Wall for a massive film-art project in the German capital.

Few places are more peaceful than the gentle slopes of France's Alsace wine region -- but should any heinous crimes like grape theft occur, Jason the horse is on hand to catch the perpetrators.

The mighty Heera marched through a crowded slum chewing bamboo, oblivious that freedom from life as one of Delhi's last six elephants at work in the polluted city could be just around the corner.

Jose Augustin Hernandez is a 53-year-old local government official in Cuba -- who is transgender, sports a flamboyant pink wig and goes by the name Adela.

More than half of all countries will likely fail to hit the UN target of reducing premature deaths from a quartet of chronic diseases by a third before 2030, researchers said Friday.

Financial giant John Hancock is converting all its life insurance policies to an incentive-based system using activity tracking, a move aimed at promoting healthier lifestyles but which also raises privacy questions.

One of the largest swinging bells in the world, weighing 55 tons (7,850 stone), was unveiled in the Polish city of Krakow on Thursday ahead of being installed at a major pilgrimage site in Brazil.

Indiana Jones's signature fedora fetched more than half a million dollars at a blockbuster London auction of rare memorabilia from some of the most iconic movies of the past 40 years.

A local canoeing association filed a lawsuit on Thursday to ensure access to a section of the Potomac River that abuts a Trump golf course where the president plays frequently.

The decision by a fiercely pro-Western region of Ukraine to ban Russian-language arts, from songs to books and films, prompted widespread condemnation on Thursday even as it remained unclear how it would be implemented.

A cockpit mix-up left more than 30 passengers on an Indian plane bleeding from their ears and noses Thursday after the crew reportedly forgot to flick a switch regulating cabin air pressure.

Three years ago, asphyxiated by Venezuela's economic meltdown, Francisco Rojas and his wife Elena packed up four suitcases with the barest of essentials and walked out of their Caracas apartment.

A Toronto marketing company is looking to recruit six "cannabis enthusiasts" to test strains of pot and report back on their characteristics.

Madagascar's seasonal outbreak of plague, which has so far killed two people, is "under control", Health Minister Yoel Rantomalala said Thursday.

It's a devastating disease driving a dementia epidemic ruining tens of millions of lives, but with no new medical treatment since the turn of the century the fight against Alzheimer's is foundering.

Eliminating dead-but-toxic cells occurring naturally in the brains of mice designed to mimic Alzheimer's slowed neuron damage and memory loss associated with the disease, according to a study published Wednesday that could open a new front in the fight against dementia.

Former world number one Karolina Pliskova stunned Japanese tennis sensation Naomi Osaka in straights sets to capture the Pan Pacific Open on Sunday.

The New York Yankees punched their ticket to the playoffs, clinching a American League wild card berth for the second straight year with a 3-2 victory over the Baltimore Orioles.

Jonathan Ikone's thunderous strike earned Lille a 2-1 victory over Nantes on Saturday that sent them second in Ligue 1 and maintained their strong start to the new season after narrowly avoiding relegation last term.

Tiger Woods is one round away from ending his five-year victory drought after storming into a three-shot lead on day three of the Tour Championship here Saturday.

Tiger Woods is one round away from ending his five-year victory drought after storming into a three-shot lead on day three of the Tour Championship in Atlanta here Saturday.

Britain's Anthony Joshua retained his world heavyweight titles by inflicting the first stoppage defeat of Alexander Povetkin's professional career with a ruthless seventh-round finish at Wembley Stadium on Saturday.

Croatia's Marcelo Brozovic grabbed a late winner as Inter Milan followed their Champions League heroics against Tottenham with a 1-0 Serie A win at Sampdoria on Saturday as tensions ran high during a game in which three goals were disallowed.

Roger Federer and Alexander Zverev powered Europe into a commanding 7-1 lead over the World team at the Laver Cup here Saturday, winning their respective singles matches in contrasting fashion.

Real Madrid moved top of La Liga on Saturday after Marco Asensio's goal proved the difference in a scrappy 1-0 win over Espanyol.

Croatia's Marcelo Brozovic grabbed a late winner as Inter Milan followed their Champions League heroics against Tottenham this week with a 1-0 victory at Sampdoria in a chaotic game on Saturday in which three goals were disallowed.

Zlatan Ibrahimovic plans to discuss his future with Los Angeles Galaxy chiefs after a frustrating first season in Major League Soccer.

Baptiste Serin helped Bordeaux-Begles bring Clermont's four-match winning streak to an end with a nail-biting 23-19 victory in the Top 14 on Saturday.

Western Province and the Sharks cruised to bonus-point victories Saturday and set up a top-of-the-table South African Currie Cup clash next weekend.

Tottenham Hotspur manager Mauricio Pochettino praised the mentality of his side to grind out a much-needed 2-1 win in sodden conditions at Brighton on Saturday to halt a run of three straight defeats.

James Rodriguez shone for Bayern Munich, scoring a goal and winning a penalty, as the German champions made it four wins from their first four Bundesliga games with a 2-0 victory at Schalke to stay top on Saturday.

Liverpool and Manchester City's shootout for the Premier League title intensified on Saturday with comfortable wins over Southampton and Cardiff, while Manchester United were held 1-1 by Wolves on the day Alex Ferguson returned to Old Trafford.

James Rodriguez shone for Bayern Munich with a goal, then won a penalty, as the German champions made it four wins from their first four Bundesliga games with a 2-0 victory at Schalke to stay top on Saturday.

You have one job. And then, suddenly, you don't.

Fiorentina moved second in Serie A on Saturday with a 3-0 win in Tuscany spoiling SPAL's promising start to this season's Italian league campaign.

Jurgen Klopp admitted Liverpool's flying start has surprised him as they won their sixth successive Premier League game to return to the top of the table.

Hearts dropped their first points in the Scottish Premiership this season as the leaders were held to a goalless draw by Livingston on Saturday.

Pep Guardiola insisted it was his players who deserved the spotlight after the Manchester City manager returned to the dug-out to inspire a 5-0 thrashing of Cardiff on Saturday.

German journeyman Matthias Bachinger stunned Japanese top seed Kei Nishikori by fighting back from a set down on Saturday to reach the first ATP Tour final of his career in Metz.

Wasps director of rugby Dai Young saluted his side's high-energy display as won at Sale in a Premiership clash for the first time since 2010.

RB Leipzig pair Jean-Kevin Augustin and Nordi Mukiele are set to be dropped for Sunday's Bundesliga game at Eintracht Frankfurt and fined for using their mobile phones before a European match.

Jose Mourinho was highly critical of the attitude of his Manchester United players after they were held to a 1-1 draw by Wolves at Old Trafford.

Leeds saw their unbeaten start to the Championship season come to a shock end as Che Adams' brace gave Birmingham a 2-1 win at Elland Road on Saturday.

Still adored at home despite three separate rape charges in France, Moroccan pop star Saad Lamjarred's latest arrest has reignited a debate on violence against women in the North African kingdom.

US cable giant Comcast outbid Rupert Murdoch's 21st Century Fox in a blind auction for the European TV operator Sky on Saturday that all but settled a titanic battle between the two media empires.

Malaysian badminton star Lee Chong Wei has early-stage nose cancer and is being treated in Taiwan, sports officials said Saturday, after weeks of speculation about his health.

New York's Metropolitan Museum of Art made a surprise announcement Friday it would reboot stalled renovations of its modern and contemporary wing, and temporarily turn over the building housing the works to the nearby Frick Collection.

Rihanna is now Ambassador Rihanna, after her home country tasked her with promoting investment and tourism.

Italian designer Antonio Marras unleashed a procession of fauvist travellers on the catwalk Friday in a collection dedicated to "those who have still not left and those who are forced to leave".

Bianca Jagger once defended the Sandinista revolution of Daniel Ortega. But today, the Nicaraguan rights campaigner wants to see the controversial leader leave office in her homeland.

A museum dedicated to late and notorious Colombian drug baron Pablo Escobar has been shut down in Medellin, according to local authorities.

The Sundance Kid may have a few acting adventures left in him.

Italy's fashion industry responded Friday to accusations of widespread underpaid and undeclared subcontracted work in a New York Times article, saying that the problem is limited and already being dealt with.

Opening his era in charge of the New York Philharmonic, Jaap van Zweden could not have been clearer that he welcomes fresh ideas.

Kenya on Friday overturned a ban on Rafiki, a film about a lesbian love affair and the first ever movie from the country to be shown at the Cannes film festival.

Olympic legend Michael Phelps called for new leadership in the fight against drugs in sport on Friday after the World Anti-Doping Agency controversially reinstated Russia's tainted anti-drugs body.

A 19-year-old singer in Kyrgyzstan has filed a complaint with police after receiving death threats over a music video she released targeting gender discrimination in the ex-Soviet republic.

There is a disturbance in the Force.

Pop-country superstar Carrie Underwood on Thursday got a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame -- the latest honor for the Grammy-winning onetime champion of TV reality show "American Idol."

"Serial," the hit US internet radio sensation and most downloaded podcast in history, is back for season three. This time, focused on explaining to listeners how ordinary American criminal justice functions.

More than 150 works by American artist Alexander Calder, including his famous mobiles, will go on display starting Friday at Montreal's Museum of Fine Arts, Canada's first retrospective dedicated to the influential sculptor.

Fendi presented a jungle-themed collection aimed at the inner Lara Croft, Prada shone with its own impression of strong women and Emporio Armani invaded an airport on the second day of Milan Fashion Week on Thursday.

Former rap mogul Marion "Suge" Knight pleaded no contest to voluntary manslaughter on Thursday and will serve 28 years in prison for running over and killing a man three years ago.

Rockers Wolf Alice defied the odds to win Britain's prestigious Mercury Prize on Thursday for their second album "Visions of a Life", beating off competition from heavyweights Arctic Monkeys and Noel Gallagher.

There is a disturbance in the Force.

Indiana Jones's signature fedora fetched more than half a million dollars at a blockbuster London auction of rare memorabilia from some of the most iconic movies of the past 40 years.

The decision by a fiercely pro-Western region of Ukraine to ban Russian-language arts, from songs to books and films, prompted widespread condemnation on Thursday even as it remained unclear how it would be implemented.

Mexico's President-elect Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador, a stickler for austerity who has vowed to fly only commercial, spent three hours stuck on a grounded plane because of bad weather, Mexican media reported Thursday.

Fendi and Max Mara presented jungle-themed collections aimed at the inner Lara Croft on the second day of Milan Fashion Week on Thursday, with Emporio Armani and Prada to come.

A pair of debut novels, including one in verse, feature among six "miracles of stylistic invention" shortlisted for the Man Booker Prize, judges of the British award announced on Thursday.

After years watching Tesla's electric cars speed ahead while they have been on the defensive over an industry-wide diesel emissions scandal, German high-end manufacturers have finally unveiled their first challengers to the Californian upstart.

Two large sharks have been killed in Australia after a woman and a girl were attacked at a popular Great Barrier Reef tourist spot.

A pair of robot rovers have landed on an asteroid and begun a survey, Japan's space agency said Saturday, as it conducts a mission aiming to shed light on the origins of the solar system.

Astronauts traveling through space on the long trip to Mars will not have the usual backup from mission control on Earth and will need to think of themselves as Martians to survive, Canada's most famous spaceman half-jokingly said Friday.

The Canadian government on Friday ordered a new review of the Trans Mountain pipeline to the Pacific taking into account the impact of increased tanker traffic on endangered killer whales along the coast.

It has been a question plaguing the museum dedicated to one of America's greatest presidents: Is the hat real?

The number of rhino killed for their horns by poachers in South Africa dipped by 26 percent in the first eight months of the year, officials said on Friday.

The death toll from a landslide in the central Philippines has risen to 29, police said Friday, as rescuers frantically dug for survivors of the latest tragedy in the storm-hit nation.

Indian authorities Friday ordered a probe into the deaths of a dozen endangered wild Asiatic lions, half of them cubs, over the last 10 days, officials said.

A Japanese space probe Friday released a pair of exploring rovers towards an egg-shaped asteroid to collect mineral samples that may shed light on the origin of the solar system.

The mighty Heera marched through a crowded slum chewing bamboo, oblivious that freedom from life as one of Delhi's last six elephants at work in the polluted city could be just around the corner.

Dozens of farmers and local officials stormed out of a meeting with France's new environment minister on Thursday as he confirmed two more bears would soon be released into the Pyrenees mountains.

Singapore Airlines said Friday it has stopped accepting lion bones for cargo after the carrier was singled out in a report for transporting the animal parts from South Africa.

A gadget to "translate" dog barks for humans, a "babypod" that plays music inside the mother's vagina for unborn babies and the world's first self-colonoscopy method were among the whacky inventions on show Friday at a new Tokyo exhibition.

California restaurants will soon stop providing plastic straws unless customers explicitly ask for them, under a new law signed on Thursday by the state's environment-friendly governor.

Coca-Cola, Walmart and other big multinationals pledged on Thursday to help reduce plastic pollution in the world's oceans in support of a campaign by five of the G7 industrialized nations.

At least 34 people have died in northern Ghana during flooding caused by heavy rains and waters spilling from a dam in neighbouring Burkina Faso, relief agency officials said Thursday.

A strange fossil that looks a bit like a giant leaf, or a fingerprint the size of a coffee table, has intrigued scientists for decades.

As global warming outpaces efforts to tame it, scientists have proposed building massive underwater structures to prevent an Antarctic glacier the size of Britain from sliding into the sea and lifting the world's oceans by several metres.

Indonesia's president has signed a moratorium on all new palm oil plantation development, an official said Thursday, in a move hailed by environmentalists.

Dozens of farmers and lawmakers stormed out of a meeting Thursday with France's new environment minister after he confirmed that two more bears would soon be released into the Pyrenees mountains.

There might not be a maniacal cat-killer on the loose in London after all, or at least not a human one.

It's a devastating disease driving a dementia epidemic ruining tens of millions of lives, but with no new medical treatment since the turn of the century the fight against Alzheimer's is foundering.

Eliminating dead-but-toxic cells occurring naturally in the brains of mice designed to mimic Alzheimer's slowed neuron damage and memory loss associated with the disease, according to a study published Wednesday that could open a new front in the fight against dementia.

Qu Jianguo, 64, had a futuristic medical visit in Shanghai as he put his wrist through an automated pulse-taking machine and received the result within two minutes on a mobile phone -- without a doctor present.

US environmental regulators are under increasing pressure over a controversial pesticide known for laying waste to nearby crops as well as the harmful weeds it is meant to control.

Scientists have created a self-flying glider that uses machine learning to navigate rising air currents, in an experiment that could help our understanding of how birds migrate.