The U.N.'s top human rights body is poised to hold a special session on Iran in the wake of the government's deadly crackdowns on protesters, threats against journalists and other alleged human rights violations in the Islamic republic.

Bahrain voted Saturday in a parliamentary and local election just hours after hackers targeted government websites in the island kingdom.

The European Union's executive commission slashed its forecast for economic growth next year, saying the 19 countries that use the euro currency will slide into recession over the winter as peak inflation hangs on for longer than expected and high fuel and heating costs erode consumer purchasing power.

The European Commission's autumn forecast released Friday predicts falling economic output in the last three months of this year and the first months of 2023.

A lone assailant killed one police officer and wounded another Thursday in a stabbing attack that two Belgian judicial officials said was suspected to be terrorism-linked. The suspect was shot and taken to a hospital.

Eric Van der Sypt, from the federal prosecutor's office, told The Associated Press the suspect was wounded by another police officers after the stabbing.

The Russian Defense Ministry said Friday that it finished pulling out its troops from the western bank of the river that divide's Ukraine's southern Kherson region, including the only provincial capital that Moscow had captured since invading the neighboring country.

In a statement carried by Russian state news agencies, the ministry said the withdrawal was completed at 5 a.m. on Friday, and not a single unit of military equipment was left behind. The retreat nonetheless marks another huge setback for Russia in its 8 1/2-month war in Ukraine.

Saudi Arabia has released an American woman it took into custody early this week after she tweeted and otherwise spoke out about her efforts to leave the country with her young Saudi-American daughter, according to a U.S. official and a U.S.-based advocacy group.

Carly Morris was released early Wednesday, after being summoned and taken into custody by Saudi authorities in the north-central city of Buraidah on Monday, according to the Freedom Initiative. The Washington-based group advocates for prisoners it deems wrongfully detained in the Middle East.

The morning after the midterm election, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi slipped on a sterling silver whistle given to her by her husband, who was attacked last month by an intruder at their San Francisco home.

The whistle was similar to those worn by coaches or drill sergeants, and she wore it at her office after a long night of watching election returns. Staff members were assembled for a pizza party lunch in the same conference room where she has led her party through some of the most tumultuous times at the U.S. Capitol.

U.S. President Joe Biden has left Washington for a global climate meeting with a giant domestic investment in tow — and likely to face questions about how far the U.S. will go to pull other large greenhouse gas emitters along.

His attendance Friday at the U.N. climate conference, known as COP27, in the resort town of Sharm el-Sheikh, Egypt, is the first stop on an around-the-world trip that will also take him to a meeting of Southeast Asian leaders in Cambodia and a Group of 20 summit meeting for leaders of the world's largest economies in Bali, Indonesia.

Qatar may hope soccer fans ignore politics at the first World Cup in the Middle East. But Israel and Iran, foes locked in conflicts across the region, are bringing sensitive flashpoints to the tournament's doorstep.

Israel is not competing, but it sees the massive spectacle as a way to further integrate into the Middle East after establishing ties with two of Qatar's Gulf Arab neighbors. Thousands of Israeli tourists, long shunned, are expected to fly to the Qatari capital of Doha on unprecedented direct flights.

The prosecutor of the International Criminal Court announced Wednesday that he has submitted new applications for arrest warrants stemming from his investigations of alleged war crimes and crimes against humanity in Libya.

Karim Khan told the U.N. Security Council in the first briefing by an ICC prosecutor from Libyan soil that the applications were submitted confidentially to the court's independent judges, who will determine whether to issue arrest warrants. Therefore, he said, he couldn't provide further details.