The Palestinian prime minister has warned Israel that its refusal to accept a two-state solution to the century-old conflict would perpetuate a system of "apartheid" and eventually result in a one-state reality in which Israel loses its Jewish character.

The Israeli government sworn in last June consists of parties from across the political spectrum, including supporters and opponents of Palestinian statehood. Prime Minister Naftali Bennett is opposed to the creation of a Palestinian state and has refused to meet with Palestinian officials.

A visit by the United Arab Emirates' top diplomat this week may have turned a page for Syria's embattled autocratic president, enabling more Arab countries to re-engage with Bashar Assad.

That would be a major shift in a region that for a decade ostracized Assad, supported his adversaries and worked with the U.S. to seek a negotiated settlement of the Syria conflict.

Paul Rudd has been crowned as 2021's Sexiest Man Alive by People magazine.

Rudd, known for his starring roles in Marvel's "Ant-Man" films, "This is 40" and "Clueless," was revealed as this year's winner Tuesday night on CBS' "The Late Show with Stephen Colbert."

What would it be like to walk around the ancient religious sanctuary of Olympia when the Olympic Games were held?

An unusual partnership between Microsoft and Greece's Ministry of Culture and Sport is offering visitors the answer, providing an immersive tour at one of the world's major archaeological sites that launched Wednesday.

A top European Union court on Wednesday rejected Google's appeal of a 2.4 billion euro ($2.8 billion) fine from regulators who found the tech giant abused its massive online reach by giving its own shopping recommendations an illegal advantage in search results.

The European Commission, the 27-nation bloc's top competition watchdog, punished Google in 2017 for unfairly directing visitors to its own shopping service, Google Shopping, to the detriment of competitors. The EU's General Court dismissed Google's appeal of that antitrust penalty and upheld the fine.

Spain enters its decisive World Cup qualifiers against Greece and Sweden without some key players because of injuries.

Nine players are not available for coach Luis Enrique for the matches at Greece on Thursday and against Sweden on Sunday.

European nations play their last group games in qualifying for the 2022 World Cup over the next week, with some of the continent's biggest teams still not assured of going to the tournament in Qatar.

Only Germany and Denmark have claimed places in Europe's 13-team quota in the 32-nation World Cup lineup before the qualifiers resume Thursday. Eight more will be known by Tuesday.

From the southern border of Germany to the highest peaks in Africa, glaciers around the world have served as moneymaking tourist attractions, natural climate records for scientists and beacons of beliefs for indigenous groups.

With many glaciers rapidly melting because of climate change, the disappearance of the ice sheets is sure to deal a blow to countries and communities that have relied on them for generations — to make electricity, to draw visitors and to uphold ancient spiritual traditions.

Governments are poised to express "alarm and concern" about how much Earth has already warmed and encourage one another to end their use of coal, according to a draft released Wednesday of the final document expected at U.N. climate talks.

The early version of the document circulating at the negotiations in Glasgow, Scotland, also impresses on countries the need to cut carbon dioxide emissions by about half by 2030 — even though pledges so far from governments don't add up to that frequently stated goal.

Lebanon's ambassadors who were recently asked to leave Bahrain and Saudi Arabia amid an unprecedented diplomatic spat with Gulf countries expressed fear Wednesday the dispute could harm the interests of Lebanese living in the region.

The warning, which included concerns that bilateral relations could further worsen, came as the daily al-Qabas newspaper reported that Kuwait halted issuing visas to Lebanese citizens. The dispute over comments made by Lebanese Information Minister George Kordahi marks the worst row between Lebanon and Saudi Arabia in decades.