ISLAMABAD – Pakistan “strongly rejects” accusations by Afghanistan’s spy agency that a Pakistani intelligence officer helped orchestrate an attack on the Afghan parliament earlier this week. The Foreign Ministry said in a statement Thursday that the allegations aim to “disrupt the improving relations between the two brotherly nations.” It condemned …

LEXINGTON, N.C. – An inmate who authorities say escaped from a North Carolina lockup with the help of a prison employee has been recaptured, according to a state prisons spokeswoman. Kristopher McNeil, 29, was in custody in the Davidson County Jail, Department of Public Safety Communications Director Pamela Walker said …

BRATISLAVA, Slovakia – An appeals court in the Slovak capital has upheld a lower court ruling that Czech Finance Minister Andrej Babis did not collaborate with the communist-era secret police. Babis, a Slovak-born billionaire businessman, was trying to clear his name and sued Slovakia’s Institute of the Nation’s Memory, which …

NEW MILFORD, N.J. – Authorities say a tree split in half and fell on a New Jersey woman after a night of heavy rain, killing her. New Milford police Detective Lt. Brian Long tells The Record (http://bit.ly/1JwTnOB ) that the Norwood maple tree split in half Wednesday morning and struck …

LONDON – A former British diplomat says a bizarre plan to relocate the entire population of Hong Kong to Northern Ireland was a joke between government officials. David Snoxell says he’s shocked that anyone took his exchange of letters with fellow diplomat George Fergusson seriously. Snoxell says the exchange — …

JERUSALEM – Israel’s prime minister says each day that passes brings greater Western concessions toward Iran in talks over its nuclear program. Benjamin Netanyahu said Sunday the progressing talks in Vienna do not represent a “breakthrough but rather a breakdown.” Western diplomats are trying to reach a deal before an …

JOHANNESBURG – Uber, the international ride-hailing service, say some of their drivers are being harassed by taxi drivers in South Africa’s largest city, Johannesburg. Meter taxi driver Daniel Sejamoholo said drivers meeting on Tuesday decided Uber should not be allowed to work without an affiliation to a local taxi association. …

BERLIN – German prosecutors say they have charged four men with supporting the Islamic State group, one of them by helping smuggle would-be members to Syria. Federal prosecutors said Thursday that they filed charges of supporting a foreign terrorist organization against a Tunisian citizen identified only as Kemal Ben Yahia …

HUNTINGTON BEACH, Calif. – Lifeguards have ordered everybody out of the water in Huntington Beach after a shark bumped a surfer. The surfer told authorities a 5-to-8-foot-long shark bumped the underside of his board Friday morning as he sat waiting for a wave. The surfer paddled about 30 yards back …

RICHMOND, Va. – A Russian man charged with leading a Taliban attack against U.S. forces in Afghanistan has lost his bid to avoid trial in federal court in Virginia. U.S. District Judge Henry Hudson on Monday rejected Irek Hamidullin’s claim that he’s a prisoner of war and therefore cannot be …