It was a brutal killing that became an international incident: An Italian graduate student disappeared from the streets of the Egyptian capital in January, his body discovered days later dumped by a roadside, tortured to death.

The death of Guilio Regeni quickly poisoned ties between Egypt and Italy, where suspicions were high that Egyptian police — who have long been accused of using torture and secret detentions — snatched the 28-year-old and killed him. Egyptian officials — as high up as the president, Abdel-Fattah el-Sissi, in a national address — have denied any police role, but in the months since the slayings, the Italian government has hiked the pressure for answers.

Seattle police used pepper spray to disperse black-clad anti-capitalist protesters authorities say threw rocks, flares, bricks and Molotov cocktails at officers during a rowdy May Day gathering.

At least nine people were arrested Sunday evening. Authorities said five officers were hurt, none seriously.

Jordan is permitting a popular Lebanese rock band to perform, lifting an earlier ban imposed amid claims the group's songs promoting religious and sexual freedom violate local customs and religious beliefs.

Khalid Abu Zeid, a regional politician who initially announced the ban against "Mashrou Leila," or Leila's Project, said in a new statement that "we don't mind if this concert takes place." He didn't elaborate.

Iranians voted Friday in second round elections for almost a quarter of seats in parliament, the latest political showdown between reformists and conservatives seeking to influence the country's future.

The polls will decide who has the most power when lawmakers are sworn in next month, opening or closing a path to limited social and political change in the Islamic republic.

Central Bank Governor Riad Salameh has said Lebanese banks will not be able to circumvent a U.S. law that imposes sanctions on banks, which knowingly do business with Hizbullah.

Salameh told LBCI’s Kalam al-Nass talk show on Thursday night that the Central Bank will issue two circulars that urge Lebanese banks to implement the law and inform it about the closure and opening of accounts.

Iran asked the United Nations on Thursday to intervene with the U.S. government over a Supreme Court ruling that allows nearly $2 billion in frozen Iranian assets to be paid to victims of terrorist attacks, including the 1983 bombing of the U.S. Marine barracks in Beirut, for which the Middle Eastern country has been blamed.

In a letter to Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon on Thursday, Iran's Foreign Minister Javid Zarif argues that the U.S. court decision will have "catastrophic implications" and "will cause systematic erosion" of the principal of state immunity.

The Syrian army was preparing an offensive on Thursday to retake the whole of Aleppo, as escalating fighting in the divided second city killed dozens of civilians in another blow to a tattered truce.

Nearly 200 people have been killed in Aleppo in the past week as rebels have pounded government-held neighborhoods with rocket and artillery fire and the regime has hit rebel areas with air raids.

A 2-year-old boy fatally shot his mother from the back seat of the car as she drove along a Milwaukee highway, sheriff's officials said Wednesday, less than two months after a Florida mother was shot and wounded in similar circumstances.

The Milwaukee County Sheriff's Office said Patrice Price, 26, of Milwaukee, died at the scene Tuesday morning.

A survey in 10 countries with significant Muslim populations, including Lebanon, found "striking" differences in the extent to which people believe the Quran should influence a nation's laws.

Possible reasons for these differences include a nation's history and religious composition as well as personal factors such as intensity of religious observance, age and level of education, said the Pew Research Center, which conducted the survey among more than 10,000 Muslims and non-Muslims a year ago. Error margins ranged from 3.4 to 4.3 percentage points.

McDonald's is testing Chicken McNuggets with no artificial preservatives as it works to revive its U.S. business.

The world's biggest hamburger chain says it began testing the new recipe in about 140 stores in Oregon and Washington in March.