CAIRO — Citing recent episodes of violence, the government of Bahrain on Tuesday banned all public rallies and demonstrations, a move that drew swift condemnation from human rights groups and opposition activists who said it was intended solely to stifle criticism of the ruling monarchy in the tiny Persian Gulf nation.

In a statement, Bahrain’s interior minister said protests were banned after “repeated violations” by rally organizers, including riots, attacks on property and calls for the …

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Hurricane Sandy’s tear across the Caribbean left 51 people dead in Haiti, while another 15 people were still missing after the deadly storm, officials said Sunday.

The earlier toll had reached 44 dead in the Americas’ poorest nation, which was socked with heavy rains, driving winds and flooding in areas where thousands are in refugee camps.

The deaths in Haiti, still recovering from a catastrophic 2010 earthquake, drove up the overall death toll from the hurricane to …

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Hurricane Sandy churned relentlessly through the Atlantic Ocean on Monday on the way to carving what forecasters agreed would be a devastating path on land that is expected to paralyze life for millions of people in more than a half-dozen states, with extensive evacuations, once-in-a-generation flooding, widespread power failures and mass transit disruptions.

The huge storm, which picked up speed over the water on Monday morning, was producing sustained winds of 90 miles per …

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Pakistan’s anti-drone politician and former cricket-star, Imran Khan, was taken off an international flight from Toronto to New York for questioning over his political views, and his critical stance on US foreign policy, immigration officials have confirmed.

This file photo shows Pakistani politician Imran Khan addressing a rally in Tank, on October 7. (Agence-France Presse) “I was taken off from plane and interrogated by US Immigration in Canada on my views on drones. My stance is …

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Four new studies on the health crisis in Fallujah have been published in the last three months. Yet, one of the most severe public health crises in history, for which the US military may be to blame, receives no attention in the United States.Mariam Yasir, aged 6 (in 2009), with her mother in Fallujah, Iraq; Mariam suffers from a birth defect. (Photograph: Muhannad Fala’ah/Getty Images)

Ever since two major US-led assaults destroyed the Iraqi city of …

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Former Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi has been sentenced to four years in prison for tax fraud.

The sentence came in a trial that focused on the purchase of rights to show US films on television.

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SACRAMENTO — California’s campaign finance watchdog sued an Arizona nonprofit group Thursday, escalating the battle over a controversial $11-million political donation.

The Fair Political Practices Commission is seeking records, ranging from financial statements to text messages, as part of an effort to unmask the nonprofit’s donors, who have been accused by activists of improperly hiding their identities.

A California regulation says nonprofits cannot conceal a donor’s identity if the contribution was intended for a state campaign. The …

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TOKYO — Japan’s crippled nuclear power plant is struggling to find space to store tens of thousands of tons of highly contaminated water used to cool the broken reactors, the manager of the water treatment team said.

About 200,000 tons of radioactive water – enough to fill more than 50 Olympic-sized swimming pools – are being stored in hundreds of gigantic tanks built around the Fukushima Dai-ichi plant. Operator Tokyo Electric Power Co. has already chopped …

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BRUSSELS — Asserting that it was fed up with a policy of “men only” for top jobs, the European Parliament on Thursday narrowly rejected the nomination of Yves Mersch to the executive board of the European Central Bank.

The parliament does not have the power to require that women be considered, and governments still could approve the nomination of Mr. Mersch to a post that has been vacant for months even as the region’s sovereign debt …

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JULIAN Assange’s WikiLeaks website last night started publishing more than 100 US Department of Defense documents including the first prisoner treatment manual for Guantanamo Bay.

The latest release by the anti-secrecy site comes as Mr Assange, who faces charges of rape and sexual assault in Sweden, remains holed up in the Ecuadoran embassy in London.

Mr Assange said in a statement that the newly released documents exposed military detention policies at camps in Iraq and at the …

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