The judge investigating Beirut’s massive 2020 port blast, Tarek Bitar, decided to release five people who had been detained for more than two years. They include former customs chief Shafeek Merhi; Sami Hussein, the head of port’s operations at the time of the blast, and a Syrian worker. Twelve people will remain in custody, including the head of the port authority and the head of the Lebanese customs at the time of the blast.

The move by Bitar to order the release of some of the 17 people who have been held since shortly after the blast came days after protests by family members in Beirut demanding all 17 be set free.

President Joe Biden's decision allowing the FBI to search his home in Delaware last week is laying him open to fresh negative attention and embarrassment following the earlier discoveries of classified documents at that home and a former office. But it's a legal and political calculation that aides hope will pay off in the long run as he prepares to seek reelection.

The remarkable, nearly 13-hour search by FBI agents of the sitting president's Wilmington home is the latest political black eye for Biden, who promised to restore propriety to the office after the tumultuous tenure of his predecessor, Donald Trump.

Jacinda Ardern made her final public appearance as New Zealand's prime minister Tuesday, saying the thing she would miss most was the people, because they had been the "joy of the job."

Ardern, who has been a global icon of the left, shocked the nation Thursday when she said she was resigning as leader after more than five years because she had nothing left in the tank. Labour Party lawmakers voted unanimously Sunday for Chris Hipkins to take over as prime minister, and he will be sworn in Wednesday.

An Israeli group raising funds for Jewish extremists convicted in some of the country's most notorious hate crimes is collecting tax-exempt donations from Americans, according to findings by The Associated Press and the Israeli investigative platform Shomrim.

The records in the case suggest that Israel's far right is gaining a new foothold in the United States.

Turkey's president has cast serious doubt on NATO's expansion after warning Sweden not to expect support for its bid for membership into the military alliance following weekend protests in Stockholm by an anti-Islam activist and pro-Kurdish groups.

President Recep Tayyip Erdogan slammed Rasmus Paludan's Quran-burning protest on Saturday, saying it was an insult to everyone, especially to Muslims. He was particularly incensed at Swedish authorities for allowing the demonstration to take place outside the Turkish Embassy in Stockholm under "the protection" of security forces.

Kuwait's government has resigned amid a power struggle with the Arab Gulf country's assembly less than four months after parliamentary elections delivered a mandate for change.

The state-run KUNA news agency confirmed the resignation, which had earlier been reported by local media, without providing further details. It's the fifth time a Kuwaiti government has resigned in just over two years.

Seven people were killed in two related shootings Monday at agricultural businesses in a Northern California community, marking the state's third mass killing in eight days, including an attack at a dance hall that killed 11 during Lunar New Year celebrations.

Officers arrested a suspect in Monday's shootings, 67-year-old Chunli Zhao, after they found him in his car in the parking lot of a sheriff's substation, San Mateo County Sheriff Christina Corpus said.

Schiaparelli kicked off haute couture season Monday with plenty of glamorous frivolity and exaggerated silhouettes ahead of the highly anticipated show by powerhouse Christian Dior.

SCHIAPARELLI

Eileen, the title character of Ottessa Moshfegh's debut novel, is a strange young woman with a vivid, sensual, and sometimes dangerous imagination.

Her actual life, however, is anything but: She works a mind-numbing desk job as a secretary at a boy's prison in Massachusetts in 1964 and goes home to a depressed, cruel father who seems content to drink himself to death. She is hopelessly lonely and a little bitter — that is until the arrival of a glamourous new employee, Rebecca Saint John, a Hitchcock blonde with a doctorate from Harvard, a taste for martinis and a breezy Mae West confidence.

A penalty kick converted. A backheel flick to set up another goal. And an expert touch to start off a successful free kick scheme.

Argentina's World Cup final standout Ángel Di Maria showed off his talents for Juventus in Serie A on Sunday. Still, it wasn't enough to prevent the Bianconeri from being held to a 3-3 draw at home by Atalanta in their first match since being penalized 15 points for false accounting.