MILAN (AP) – Umberto Eco started working a novel that set the world’s imagination on fire “prodded by a seminal idea: I felt like poisoning a monk.” The Italian author/academic who intrigued, puzzled and delighted readers worldwide with his best-selling historical novel “The Name of the Rose” died at home …

KAMPALA, Uganda (AP) – Uganda’s election commission has declared long-time leader Yoweri Museveni the winner of presidential elections, with more than 60 percent of the votes. Badru Kiggundu, the head of the election commission, said Museveni’s nearest rival, opposition leader Kizza Besigye of the Forum for Democratic Change, got 35 …

BRUSSELS (AP) – Britain is thinking of leaving. Greece feels isolated. Austria and Denmark are pushing controversial measures for coping with asylum-seekers despite what their neighbors think. Tensions between European Union leaders at this week’s summit in Brussels have highlighted a gnawing lack of confidence that the bloc of 28 …

Demonstrators on Saturday threw rocks through windows at the offices of Alfa Bank and Sberbank and damaged furniture and equipment inside. Protesters also vandalized the offices of the holding company of Ukraine’s richest man, Rinat Akhmetov. Tens of thousands of people in the Ukrainian capital came to various observances of …

WASHINGTON (AP) – Battling in intense public broadsides, Apple Inc. and the government are making their cases before anyone steps into a courtroom over a judge’s order forcing Apple to help the FBI hack into an iPhone in a sensational terrorism case. Both sides are framing their statements in ways …

BRUSSELS (AP) – The Latest on talks on a deal for Britain at the European Union summit (all times local): 11:25 a.m. British Prime Minister David Cameron has arrived for more EU talks saying he’ll do everything he can to secure a deal on the U.K.’s relationship with the bloc. …

PYONGYANG, North Korea (AP) – As the U.S. Congress passed a new set of sanctions on North Korea this week, South Korea shut down the last symbol of inter-Korean economic cooperation and the United Nations Security Council discussed its own measures to punish the North for what it claimed was …

ANKARA, Turkey (AP) – The Latest on the civil war in Syria (all times local): 12:45 p.m. An official with a predominantly Kurdish coalition in northern Syria says Turkish troops are bombing their positions in border areas and inflicting casualties among civilians. Ahmad al-Omar of the Syria Democratic Forces said …

MAFRAQ, Jordan (AP) – In a Jordanian border district packed with Syrian war refugees, anger is festering: many complain the mass influx has pushed down wages and driven up food and housing prices. The resentment is still tempered by empathy for the Syrians, who share religious and cultural beliefs with …