The 2019 Nobel Prize in economics was awarded Monday to Abhijit Banerjee, Esther Duflo and Michael Kremer for pioneering new ways to alleviate global poverty.

Banerjee and Duflo are at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, while Kremer is at Harvard University. The three have often worked together.

Rescue crews dug through mudslides and searched near swollen rivers Monday as they looked for those missing from a typhoon that left dozens dead and caused serious damage in central and northern Japan.

Typhoon Hagibis unleashed torrents of rain and strong winds Saturday, leaving thousands of homes on Japan's main island flooded, damaged or without power.

Gaza's Hamas rulers are facing a rare and growing chorus of criticism, with little to show after 18 months of mass protests along the Israeli frontier organized by the Palestinian militant group.

The mass protests at the frontier with Israel were meant to draw attention to the plight of the territory's 2 million people. When the protests began, Hamas quickly seized upon the popular idea and transformed the quiet gatherings into violent confrontations.

Iranian state television says the Islamic Republic has launched a surprise military drill with army special operations forces near the country's border with Turkey.

The exercise comes amid Iran's opposition to Turkey's planned invasion of northern Syria against Syrian Kurdish fighters there. The Syrian Kurds were U.S. allies in the war against the Islamic State group.

The Kurdish-led civilian administration in northeastern Syria issued a "general mobilization" call along the Syrian border with Turkey on Wednesday as Ankara poised for an imminent invasion of the area in the latest major escalation in the war-ravaged country.

Turkey has long threatened an attack on the Kurdish fighters in Syria whom Ankara considers terrorists allied with a Kurdish insurgency within Turkey.

Bottled water and batteries were flying off the shelves at California stores as millions of customers prepared to live without electricity for days in the face of what Pacific Gas & Electric called an unprecedented wildfire danger.

The utility announced that it was shutting off power to 800,000 customers in 34 northern, central and coastal California counties beginning as early as midnight Wednesday to reduce the chance of fierce winds knocking down or toppling trees into power lines during a siege of hot, dry, gusty weather.

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has long threatened to send troops into northeastern Syria to clear the border region of Syrian Kurdish fighters whom Turkey considers a serious security threat.

A Turkish invasion looks more likely after President Donald Trump's sudden announcement that U.S. troops, who had fought alongside the Kurds against Islamic State group, would withdraw from the area.

Calm has prevailed in the Iraqi capital following a bloody night when at least 19 people were killed as security forces opened fire to break up anti-government protests.

Students made it to schools at the start of the working week early Sunday and government employees returned to work. But the capital's streets were mostly quiet and traffic thin. Burnt tires and debris littered thoroughfares while security remained heavily deployed in many neighborhoods.

The Taliban met U.S. peace envoy Zalmay Khalilzad in the Pakistan capital for the first time since President Donald Trump declared a seemingly imminent peace deal to end Afghanistan's 18-year war 'dead' a month ago, a Taliban official said early Saturday.

He offered few details of Friday's meeting between Khalilzad and the Taliban delegation led by Mullah Abdul Ghani Baradar, a co-founder of the movement that was ousted in 2001 by the U.S.-led coalition. The official spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak to the media.

The conflict between Iran and the U.S. that has created tensions throughout much of the Middle East is now also being felt in Lebanon, where Washington has slapped sanctions on the Iran-backed Hizbullah and warned they could soon expand to its allies, further deepening the tiny Arab country’s economic crisis.

The Trump administration has intensified sanctions on the Lebanese group and institutions linked to it to unprecedented levels, targeting lawmakers for the first time as well as a local bank that Washington claims has ties to the group.