Republicans have nominated Rep. Steve Scalise to be the next House speaker.

Pope Francis has arrived in Mongolia to encourage one of the world’s smallest and newest Catholic communities.

Pope Francis is travelling to Mongolia this week to minister to one of the world's tiniest and newest Catholic communities, the first-ever visit by a Roman pontiff to the East Asian country.

Nicaragua ’s government says it has proposed suspending relations with the Vatican days after Pope Francis compared President Daniel Ortega’s administration to a communist or Nazi dictatorship amid a crackdown on the Catholic Church in the country.

Dozens of priests, nuns, seminarians and church workers have fled Nicaragua in recent years, or been exiled by President Daniel Ortega’s government, which considers them a threat.

Angry and filled with hate for Muslims, Richard McKinney once wanted to plant an explosive device outside the Islamic Center of Muncie in Indiana.

Pope Francis says the Vatican is in contact with the Nicaraguan government about its crackdown on the Catholic Church and hoped that “at the very least” nuns from Mother Teresa’s Sisters of Charity religious order would be allowed to return to the country.

Nicaragua President Daniel Ortega’s government has closed seven radio stations this week owned by the Roman Catholic church, as well as two other outlets serving the largely rural northern area with a history of opposition.

The wife of Nicaraguan political activist Félix Maradiaga told journalists her husband had lost more than 65 pounds during his year in prison and she feared for his health.

An international music festival founded by the father of singer-songwriter Dua Lipa to promote his native Kosovo has led to recriminations for the small European country after it lost the event to neighboring Albania.

Nobel Prize-winning theoretical physicist and author Frank Wilczek has been honored with this year's prestigious Templeton Prize, recognizing individuals whose life’s work embodies a fusion of science and spirituality.

Minnesota’s Congressional delegation on Monday is introducing a resolution to posthumously award the Congressional Gold Medal to pop superstar Prince, citing his “indelible mark on Minnesota and American culture,” The Associated Press has learned.

Renowned conservationist Jane Goodall has been named as this year’s winner of the prestigious Templeton Prize, honoring individuals whose life’s work embodies a fusion of science and spirituality.

Churches in Britain have held services to remember Prince Philip as people of many religions reflected on a man whose gruff exterior hid a personal faith and deep curiosity about others’ beliefs.

The military detained Suu Kyi and other senior politicians on Monday and said it would rule under a one-year state of emergency. Her homeland, meanwhile, was under the control of a military leader, Ne Win, a former comrade of her father who had seized power in 1962. Protests against the military government had been growing before Suu Kyi returned to Myanmar in 1988 to nurse her dying mother. Placed under house arrest in 1989, Suu Kyi was detained for 15 of the next 22 years, mostly at her dilapidated lakeside home in Yangon. Asked once in a BBC interview about her once-saintly reputation, Suu Kyi replied: “I am just a politician.

In Georgia's second runoff election, Republican U.S. Sen David Perdue started with an even wider lead, having won 88,000 more votes in November than Democrat Jon Ossoff. Through Wednesday, nearly 2.1 million voters had cast ballots, roughly on pace with the Nov. 3 general election. Miles Coleman of the University of Virginia Center for Politics said the joint effort has helped Warnock wrap up Democratic voters. Henderson also frets that Loeffler has never been to his county, so far from Atlanta that many watch out-of-state television. “The Democrats have really struggled to turn out Black voters in rural parts of the state," Coleman said.

Kosovo president Hashim Thaci speaks during a televised address to the nation, in Pristina, Kosovo, Monday, June 29, 2020. Kosovos president on Monday denied committing war crimes during and after a 1998-1999 armed conflict between ethnic Albanian separatists and Serbia and said he would resign if the indictment is confirmed by an international war crimes court. (AP Photo/Astrit Ibrahimi)

Israeli Ambassador in Albania Noah Gal Gendler speaks during the inauguration of a memorial in Tirana , on Thursday, July 9, 2020. A memorial to the six million Jews murdered during the World War II and for the Albanians who protected them from the Nazis was inaugurated Thursday in the capital. (Xhulio Hajdari /Tirana City Hall via AP)

Israeli Ambassador in Albania Noah Gal Gendler speaks during the inauguration of a memorial in Tirana , on Thursday, July 9, 2020. A memorial to the six million Jews murdered during the World War II and for the Albanians who protected them from the Nazis was inaugurated Thursday in the capital. (Xhulio Hajdari /Tirana City Hall via AP)TIRANA Albania unveiled a Holocaust memorial in the capital on Thursday to honor the dead and the Albanians who protected Jews from the Nazis. Albanians protected their few hundred Jewish friends, and helped other Jews who fled from Germany and Austria by either smuggling them abroad or hiding them at home. A small Jewish community living in Albania left the ex-communist country for Israel just after the fall of the regime in 1991.

Barbershops and beauty salons are now allowed to operate under strict health measures as the lockdown continues to ease in the capital. (AP Photo/Aaron Favila)BANGKOK A Philippine peace award has been canceled this year due to the coronavirus pandemic, marking only the third disruption in six decades for the annual prize regarded as an Asian Nobel. The Philippines is a coronavirus hotspot in Southeast Asia, with about 22,400 infections, including more than 1,000 deaths. In other developments in the Asia-Pacific region: WHO FINDS PANDEMIC WORSENING: The head of the World Health Organization warned that the coronavirus pandemic is worsening. But Tijjani Muhammad-Bande hopes to announce an alternative for leaders to deliver their usual speeches during the assemblys so-called General Debate.

The government ordered all restaurants closed in March to combat the spread of the coronavirus, and Wannapa hasn't worked since. (AP Photo/Sakchai Lalit)BANGKOK BANGKOK (AP) Factories and stores are reopening, economies are reawakening but many jobs just arent coming back. She said if she cant find work, shell have to return to her familys rubber plantation to start life all over again. Awino has no choice but to take the risk, and shes not alone: Hundreds of thousands of Kenyans have also lost their jobs because of the pandemic. Countries like the United Arab Emirates are home to millions of foreigners who far outnumber the local population many of whom have lost their jobs.