PARIS – Two French soldiers have been arrested over allegations of child sex abuse in Burkina Faso. It is the second case of alleged sexual abuse of minors by French soldiers in Africa to surface in recent months. French officials have said the Burkina Faso case is unrelated to the …

WINSLOW, Maine – A Miss 4th of July pageant winner who got upset when told there was a miscount and she could share the title has decided to concede her crown. Seventeen-year-old Molly Lybrook was told that votes were miscounted in the Winslow, Maine, pageant last weekend and that 14-year-old …

YEREVAN, Armenia – Police in the Armenian capital have cleared away barricades to unblock a central avenue that demonstrators had occupied for two weeks to protest hikes in electricity prices in the impoverished former Soviet nation. Police on Monday also peacefully detained about 20 demonstrators who refused to disperse, but …

YANGON, Myanmar – An international human rights group has accused Myanmar’s parliament of playing with fire by passing a bill regulating the right of women from the country’s Buddhist majority to marry men from outside their religion. Phil Robertson of New York-based Human Rights Watch said Wednesday the bill was …

UNITED NATIONS – The United Nations has announced an “unconditional humanitarian pause” in the Yemen conflict starting at midnight local time Friday and is seeking commitments from all parties to stop all violence. U.N. spokesman Stephane Dujarric said Thursday that Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon has received assurances from Yemen’s President Abed …

JERUSALEM – Israel’s leader says Western powers are “caving” into Iran even as the Islamic Republic keeps railing against them. Responding to the Iranian supreme leader’s call to continue the struggle against the United States regardless of the outcome of nuclear talks, Benjamin Netanyahu says Sunday his country will not …

BERLIN – Swiss media reports say a large fire has broken out in the northern city of Olten, with witnesses describing several explosions. The Oltener Tagblatt newspaper reported that the fire started on a construction site on Tuesday afternoon. Solothurn cantonal (state) police were unable to immediately provide information about …

LONDON – Bank of England of Gov. Mark Carney is suggesting that interest rates could rise from their record low of 0.5 percent as soon as the end of the year as Britain’s economic recovery continues to gather strength. In a speech Thursday to mark the 800th anniversary of the …

One of the best-loved stories about the squeeze on middle-class incomes in the U.S. concerns the long-term divergence between wages and productivity. This goes as follows: Wages have stagnated for decades even as output and profits kept going up. Owners of capital grabbed all the gains. For those who tell …

While in seminary, I ran across the author Henri Nouwen, who articulated the tension—or paradox—of faith as well as anyone I have read. His answer, unlike most I have heard, does not whitewash the messiness of life or explain away the mystery of God. Rather, Nouwen wrote that an essential …