Some 15,000 residents in the northern German city of Hannover had to evacuate their homes after a 250 kilogram (550 pound) World War II-era bomb was found during construction work.

The dpa news agency says the bomb was found during digging Thursday afternoon but disposal experts couldn't begin work until the early morning hours Friday as some recalcitrant residents refused to evacuate their homes.

Putting aside a rift over a U.S. anti-missile system, top officials from China and South Korea are attending a meeting of a China-backed Asian lending bank on the South Korean island of Jeju.

Chinese finance minister Xiao Jie and his Indian counterpart Arun Jaitley are among those attending the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank's annual meeting, which started Friday in Jeju.

The Pentagon will send almost 4,000 additional American forces to Afghanistan, a Trump administration official said Thursday, hoping to break a stalemate in a war that has now passed to a third U.S. commander in chief. The deployment will be the largest of American manpower under Donald Trump's young presidency.

The decision by Defense Secretary Jim Mattis could be announced as early as next week, the official said. It follows Trump's move to give Mattis the authority to set troop levels and seeks to address assertions by the top U.S. commander in Afghanistan that he doesn't have enough forces to help Afghanistan's army against a resurgent Taliban insurgency. The rising threat posed by Islamic State extremists, evidenced in a rash of deadly attacks in the capital city of Kabul, has only fueled calls for a stronger U.S. presence, as have several recent American combat deaths.

A popular Lebanese rock band has been banned from performing in Jordan for the second year in a row, amid allegations that the musicians violate the kingdom's traditions.

Dennis Rodman, the former NBA bad boy who has palled around with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, flew to Pyongyang on Tuesday on a trip he says he hopes will "open a door" for his former "Celebrity Apprentice" boss — U.S. President Donald Trump.

Hours after his arrival, U.S. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson announced that North Korea had released an American student serving a 15-year prison term with hard labor for alleged anti-state acts. The family of Otto Warmbier said he was in a coma and was on a Medivac flight home. It wasn't immediately clear whether his release was connected to Rodman's visit.

As a fresh NBA champions cap sat a tad off-kilter on his head, Kevin Durant embraced mother Wanda. Then he moved across the podium and hugged Stephen Curry before accepting his shiny MVP trophy, holding out his arms and hoisting it for everyone to see.

From the Bay all the way to OKC.

A human rights watchdog has urged the U.S.-led coalition battling to capture the Islamic State group's de facto capital of Raqqa to make the protection of civilians its priority in the campaign.

The New York-based Human Rights Watch says in a statement released on Tuesday that the United States and the local partner forces on the ground must respect human rights and rights of everyone caught up in the battle.

A British spokesman in Cyprus says an explosion at the police headquarters of a U.K. military base has slightly injured one policeman and caused minor structural damage.

Kristian Gray said Tuesday that authorities are treating the pre-dawn explosion at Dhekelia Garrison near Cyprus' southeastern coast as a criminal matter.

After nearly five months of living apart, President Donald Trump's wife, Melania, announced Sunday that she and the couple's young son have finally moved into the executive mansion at 1600 Pennsylvania Ave.

Mother and son broke with tradition by living at Trump Tower in New York since the inauguration so that Barron, now 11, could finish the school year uninterrupted; the president lived and worked at the White House.

Qatar said Monday it had begun shipping cargo through Oman to bypass Gulf countries that have cut off sea routes to the tiny, energy-rich nation, the latest move by Doha to show it can survive a diplomatic dispute with its neighbors.

Qatar's port authority published video showing a container ship loaded down with cargo arriving at Doha's Hamad Port from Oman's port of Sohar to a water-cannon welcome.