UNITED NATIONS – High-profile whistleblowers have joined forces for the first time in demanding that the United Nations change a global system they say deters its thousands of staffers from exposing crime, corruption and other wrongdoing. In a letter sent to Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon on Wednesday, nine current and former …

JERUSALEM – An Israeli soldier has been indicted on spying charges for relaying classified military information to extremist West Bank settlers suspected of involvement in attacks on Palestinians. The Shin Bet, Israel’s internal intelligence agency, said Monday that the 25-year-old man, a resident of the same hardline West Bank settlement …

PARIS – A Polish man who was supposed to have been expelled from France has admitted to kidnapping and killing a little girl in the northern town of Calais after she shot a water pistol at him. Police were questioning the 38-year-old unidentified suspect on Thursday, a day after the …

PARIS – Syrian President Bashar Assad says the French and Syrian intelligence services have had “some contacts” over the fight against the Islamic State group but denied that there is any cooperation between them. Assad made the remarks in a taped interview with French television station France 2 broadcast Monday. …

MADRID – Greenpeace says fuel oil possibly from a sunken Russian fishing boat has washed up on the southern coast of one of the Spain’s Canary Islands. The environmental group said Thursday the fuel reached Veneguera beach on Gran Canaria island, a top European vacation spot. The Development Ministry said …

CAIRO – Five crew members from a private Libyan TV network were found dead on Monday, eight months after they were abducted in eastern Libya, a government spokesman said. Hatem al-Aribi told The Associated Press that the bodies were found near the eastern city of Bayda — the temporary home …

ISLAMABAD – Pakistani police say they have dropped a case that was recently registered against a former CIA station chief and a former agency lawyer over a 2009 drone strike that killed two people. Police officer Mohammad Nawaz said Thursday that the case against former acting general counsel John A. …

BEIRUT – The U.S. military has denied reports that civilians were killed in a coalition airstrike last week on a town in northern Syria. A spokesman for U.S. Central Command, Maj. Curtis Kellogg, confirmed in a statement late Sunday that coalition forces conducted strikes near Bir Mahli last Thursday. He …

COPENHAGEN, Denmark – Denmark’s prime minister will travel to Wales to support her British husband who is running for a seat in Wales, where Britain’s Labour party has dominated politics since the 1920s. Her office said Wednesday Helle Thorning-Schmidt will be in the South Wales town of Neath with her …

MEXICO CITY – A Mexican lawmaker has launched a contest to find a body double that would allow him to be in two places at once and take care of his “many obligations.” Renato Tronco Gomez, an independent deputy in the eastern state of Veracruz, said Friday his novel idea …