Saudi women take the wheel as longstanding driving ban ends

Saudi women drove to work and ran errands on Sunday, relishing the freedom to move about without relying on men after the kingdom lifted the world’s last remaining ban on women driving.

It’s a historic moment for women who have been at the mercy of their husbands, fathers, brothers and drivers to move around. The ban had relegated women to the backseat, restricting when they could meet friends, where they could spend their time and how they could plan out their day.

No surprise: Beijing's pick Lam chosen as Hong Kong's leader

The candidate favored by China's Communist leadership was chosen as Hong Kong's new leader on Sunday, in the first such vote since huge pro-democracy protests erupted over the semiautonomous Chinese city's election system in 2014.

A committee dominated by pro-Beijing elites selected Carrie Lam, Hong Kong's former No. 2 official, as the financial hub's chief executive even though she was far less popular than her main rival. Lam received 67 percent of the votes cast by the 1,194-member committee.

'Fearless Girl' statue stares down Wall Street's iconic bull

A new statue of a resolute young girl staring down Wall Street's famous Charging Bull was erected by a major asset managing firm for International Women's Day to make a point: There's a dearth of women on the boards of the largest U.S. corporations.

State Street Global Advisors, the Boston-based investment giant, had the statue created to push companies to increase the number of women directors.

Over 1 million join anti-Trump women's marches worldwide

In a global exclamation of defiance and solidarity, more than 1 million people rallied at women's marches in the nation's capital and cities around the world Saturday to send President Donald Trump an emphatic message on his first full day in office that they won't let his agenda go unchallenged.

"Welcome to your first day, we will not go away!" marchers in Washington chanted.

Junko Tabei, 1st woman to climb Everest, dies at 77

The first woman to climb Mount Everest didn't stop there.

Japanese mountaineer Junko Tabei, who died Thursday at 77, devoted her adult life to scaling peaks, climbing the tallest mountains in more than 70 countries.

Her philosophy was to live life to the fullest. "I want to climb even more mountains," she said in a 1991 interview with The Associated Press, 16 years after conquering Everest. "To think, 'It was great,' and then die."

Woman in iconic V-J Day Times Square kiss photo dies at 92

The woman in an iconic photo shown kissing an ecstatic sailor in Times Square celebrating the end of World War II has died. Greta Zimmer Friedman was 92.

Friedman, who fled Austria during the war as a 15-year-old, died Thursday at a hospital in Richmond, Virginia, from complications of old age, her son, Joshua Friedman, said.

Greta Friedman was a 21-year-old dental assistant in a nurse's uniform when she became part of one of the most famous photographs of the 20th century.

Frenchwoman who got world's 1st face transplant dies at 49

Isabelle Dinoire, a Frenchwoman who received the world's first partial face transplant, has died more than a decade after a complex and daring operation that set the stage for dozens of similar transplants worldwide. She was 49.

Her life with a new face was a miracle to many, but was also marred by infections, kidney trouble and hypertension linked to her treatment. In announcing her death Tuesday, the Amiens University Hospital in northern France said Dinoire's experience "illustrates perfectly the high stakes of face transplants."

Italian woman, 116, seen as last living person born in 1800s

Surrounded by relatives and friends, Italy's Emma Morano greeted with a smile the news that she, at 116, is now the oldest person in the world.

Not only that, but Morano is believed to be the last surviving person in the world born in the 1800s, with a birthdate of Nov. 29, 1899. That's just 4 ½ months after Susannah Mushatt Jones, who died Thursday in New York, also at 116.

Journalists on Friday descended upon Morano's home in Verbania, a northern Italian mountain town overlooking Lake Major, to document her achievement, but had to wait until she finished a nap to greet her.

On day celebrating women, reminder of lingering gender gap

International Women's Day on Tuesday celebrated women and their accomplishments, but it also offered a stark reminder of the gender divides in rights, representation and pay.

The day carried the theme "Pledge for Parity" — a phrase and hashtag born out of the World Economic Forum's recent projection that the progress on achieving global gender parity is slowing.

Google's home page on Tuesday featured a video of women and girls dreaming and doing big things. Twitter and Facebook feeds filled with quotes from inspirational women and calls to action.

Russian police arrest woman seen waving child's head

Russian police on Monday arrested a woman who was seen waving the severed head of a small child outside a Moscow subway station. She is suspected of killing the child when it was in her care, officials said.

Videos posted on Russian news websites show a woman dressed all in black, holding the severed head and shouting "I am a terrorist" in Russian, although most of what she says is incomprehensible. In some of the videos the woman is tackled by men who appear to be police.

Saudi voters elect 20 women candidates for the first time

Saudi voters elected 20 women for local government seats, according to results released to The Associated Press on Sunday, a day after women voted and ran in elections for the first time in the country's history.

The women who won hail from vastly different parts of the country, ranging from Saudi Arabia's largest city to a small village near Islam's holiest site.

Saudi women vote for the first time, testing boundaries

Women across Saudi Arabia marked a historic milestone on Saturday, both voting and running as candidates in government elections for the first time, but just outside polling stations they waited for male drivers — a reminder of the limitations still firmly in place.

The landmark election for local council seats was not expected to immediately advance the status of women in Saudi Arabia, who are still not permitted to drive, but it seen as a chance for them to make their voices heard as citizens.

"We are making history. I just made history," said candidate Karima Bokhary, 50, after casting her ballot at a polling station in the capital Riyadh.

Woman back in India 12 years after straying into Pakistan

Twelve years ago, a deaf and mute 11-year-old girl crossed the Indian border into Pakistan. On Monday, finally, she flew home to a warm and emotional welcome.

Wearing a red tunic, her head loosely covered with a matching scarf, the girl — now a 23-year-old woman who had been given the name Geeta — waved to the scores of people who had gathered at the New Delhi airport to greet her. She was carrying a big bouquet of flowers given to her by Indian officials. It was a rare happy moment between hostile neighbors whose officials are often indifferent to the lives of innocent civilians.

Airline grounds over 100 flight attendants for being ‘overweight'

Air India has permanently grounded about 130 flight attendants, most of them women, for exceeding body-mass index standards.

Critics condemned the move as “shockingly sexist.”

BMI is a measure of body fat versus height and weight. Earlier this year, Air India gave about 600 cabin crew members six months to get their weight under control or risk reassignment to jobs on the ground. All were placed on a program to alter diet and exercise and were monitored by airline staff.

Mother, baby rescued 4 days after Colombia plane crash

A Colombian woman who survived a plane crash with her months-old baby, drinking coconut water to stay alive, was rescued after four days lost in the jungle.

Bollywood women soar but ask: Where's the money?

This is Bollywood's year of the woman. Some of the biggest hits in India's prolific movie industry this year have female leads in female-oriented stories.

In this summer's surprise hit, "Queen," Kangana Ranaut is the spunky heroine who embarks on her honeymoon alone after she is jilted the day before her big fat Indian wedding. In "Mary Kom," Priyanka Chopra plays a female Olympic bronze medal-winning boxer. Previously, women were relegated to playing the male lead's girlfriend, sister or mother in subservient roles reflecting the traditional dominance of men in Indian society.