TAIPEI, Taiwan – The death toll in a blaze at a Taiwan water park party over the weekend has risen to two with 200 still in intensive care. Taiwan’s Central News Agency says 19-year-old college student Liu Chih-wei died early Thursday after suffering burns over 90 percent of his body. …

MAPUTO, Mozambique – Mozambicans reacted cautiously to the government’s decision to do away with a colonial-era anti-gay law. In a statement on Friday LAMBDA, a Mozambican LGBT rights group, said the southern African nation was now “on the right side of the history of humanity.” Earlier this week, Mozambique scrapped …

COPENHAGEN, Denmark – Nobel Peace Prize winner Malala Yousafzai wants world leaders to spend more money, on top of their earlier promises, to secure 12 years of free primary and secondary education for all children across the world. The Pakistani teenager who was shot by the Taliban in October 2012 …

KABUL, Afghanistan – The first-ever female nominee for the supreme court in Afghanistan has failed to garner enough votes of approval from the parliament. Anisa Rasoli received 88 votes on Wednesday, nine short of the 97 needed for her nomination to pass. Zahir Qadir, the deputy parliament speaker who was …

PONTIAC, Mich. – A Michigan judge has sent three children to juvenile detention for refusing to have lunch or talk to their father as required under a court-ordered custody agreement. Oakland County Judge Lisa Gorcyca (GOHR’-sih-uh) says the children, aged 15, 10 and 9 years, can see their father but …

BEIJING – China’s official news agency said that 109 ethnic Uighurs who Thailand deported to China amid international criticism that the refugees could face persecution had been on their way to Turkey, Syria or Iraq to take part in holy war. On Thursday, Thai authorities sent back the Uighurs, who …

BEIJING – Police in northeastern China said they fatally shot three minority Muslim Uighurs, calling them terrorists who were using knives to resist arrest. Police also injured a fourth suspect during the incident Monday in Shenyang, the city police said in a statement on their microblog. A man who refused …

BRIDGETOWN, Barbados – Seismologists say a strong earthquake has struck in the ocean off the coasts of Barbados. The U.S. Geological Survey says the magnitude-6.4 quake was centered 81 miles (132 kilometers) northeast of Bridgetown at a shallow depth of about 3 miles (5 kilometers). It hit at 11:16 a.m. …

I like Mike Huckabee. I covered his bid for the Republican nomination in 2008, and found him to be smart, charming and exceptionally decent. Back then, Huckabee and I spoke a fair amount about Israel and the strategic threats it faces. He left no doubt that he stood with the …

A bombshell Vatican report released Monday that gives a green light to the social activism of left-wing U.S. nuns is the latest example of how the more liberal papacy of Pope Francis could affect the outcome of the 2016 US elections. The report forms the conclusion of an investigation, known …