WORLD

Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates | AFP | Pope Francis and a top Muslim cleric Monday issued a joint call for freedom of belief during the first visit by the head of the Catholic church to the birthplace of Islam — the Arabian Peninsula. Francis, who has made outreach to Muslim communities a cornerstone of …

London, United Kingdom | AFP | The pound dropped Monday following weak UK construction data and as Prime Minister Theresa May seeks to try and finally unlock the Brexit stalemate. London’s benchmark FTSE 100 index, featuring large multinationals earning in dollars and euros, climbed to a two-month high above 7,000 points thanks to the weaker …

Paris, France | AFP | A sharp increase in the rate of obesity-linked cancers among young adults in the United States could foreshadow a reversal in the overall decline in cancer mortality, researchers warned Monday. In a sweeping study covering two-thirds of the US population, they showed that half a dozen …

Paris, France | AFP | “Unfounded rumours” causing people to spurn the human papillomavirus (HPV) vaccine was preventing the elimination of cervical cancer, which kills more than 300,000 women every year, health authorities said Monday. To mark World Cancer Day 2019, the International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC) issued a …

  United Nations, United States | AFP | There’s Ojibwe in Canada, Ami in Australia and Ayapanec in Mexico: these are among the world’s nearly 2,700 indigenous languages at risk of disappearing unless new initiatives are taken to revive them, UN officials say. The United Nations is hoping to raise awareness …

Washington, United States | AFP | Forty years ago, hip-hop was little known outside its birthplace, New York — until the Sugarhill Gang decided to record their rhymes, launching the genre’s rise as a dominant cultural and commercial force. The result was the group’s 1979 smash “Rapper’s Delight” — which is …

Washington, United States | AFP | The crowded field of Democrats vying to challenge Donald Trump in 2020 — already shaping up to be one of the largest and diverse ever — has added one more potential candidate — Senator Cory Booker, an African-American steeped in issues facing urban America. Booker …

Washington, United States | AFP | In a move that could harden Washington’s posture toward Beijing for years, the US intelligence community has characterized relations with China as a global ideological showdown that will not be doused by trade deals or commercial theft crackdowns. US spy chiefs abruptly shifted their view …

London, United Kingdom | AFP | Premier League clubs were reluctant to plunge into the inflated January marketplace this season — in stark contrast to last year, when they splashed out a record £430 million on transfer fees. Just £180 million ($235 million) was spent last month, according to finance experts …

Berlin, Germany | AFP | German Chancellor Angela Merkel announced Friday she would close her Facebook account, taking another step in a long farewell from politics in her final term in office. In a short video, Merkel thanked her more than 2.5 million followers on the social media site and asked …