A women's association in the city of Marseille, which has a large Muslim population, has triggered irate reactions in secular France with its plans to rent a swimming park for a day only for women, and saying they must be covered up chest to knees.
Spanish police say they have arrested a German man suspected of starting a forest fire on the Canary island of La Palma that has claimed the life of a park ranger and forced the evacuation of some 700 people.
The United Nations human rights chief says officials have documented 217 cases of sexual violence in South Sudan's capital during last month's outbreak of fighting, most of them committed by government security forces.
A minister for migration in Greece says European Union countries would not be ready to deal with another surge in migration if a deal with Turkey to limit migrant and refugee arrivals collapses.
The Bank of England has cut its key interest rate for the first time since the global financial crisis, to a new record low of 0.25 percent, as it tries to jumpstart an economy languishing since Britain's vote to leave the European Union.
Austria's chancellor has warned that Turkey is heading toward a dictatorship and is questioning the sense of continuing negotiations with it over EU membership.
President Recep Tayyip Erdogan is vowing to go after businesses linked to a US-based Muslim cleric he accuses of having been behind Turkey's failed July 15 coup.
Kenyan police have charged a British national with trafficking nearly 100 kilograms (220 pounds) of cocaine that was impounded last week at the country's main seaport.
South African media say early results from municipal elections show the country's ruling party in the lead nationally, but trailing in several key metropolitan areas where the opposition has mounted a strong challenge.
Another coalition government has taken over in Nepal, where Parliament elected former communist rebel leader Pushpa Kamal Dahal as prime minister on Wednesday.
Jordan's state news agency says a gunman who killed five people in a shooting attack on a branch of the national intelligence agency has been sentenced to death.
A man has admitted to his role in a conspiracy to illegally purchase guns in New Hampshire and Maine and smuggle them out of the country for use by the Indonesian Presidential Guard.
From a small office in Jordan's capital, two dozen Syrians and Americans talk daily by Skype with activists and civilians on both sides of the conflict in neighboring Syria to get a unique perspective on the civil war and the scope of the suffering.
Toyota Motor Corp. is reporting a 14.5 percent drop in profit for the fiscal first quarter as sales fell and a strong yen slashed earnings for the Japanese automaker.
