One North Korean who worked abroad says that as a waitress in China, she was forced to put up with male customers who groped her and tried to get her drunk. Two others recall the frozen bodies of their countrymen stored in Russian logging camps. Another says he toiled for up to 16 hours a day at a Kuwaiti construction site surrounded by wire fences.

As difficult as those lives were, the four workers told The Associated Press, it beat staying in the North. The jobs actually conveyed status back home, and were so coveted that people used bribes and family connections to get them.

When she was being tortured under Brazil's military dictatorship, Dilma Rousseff could never have imagined becoming the country's first female president.

But four decades on from those dark days in 1970, when Rousseff belonged to a violent Marxist underground group, she did indeed rise to the top -- only to face impeachment less than a year into her second term.

Two elderly men in chequered headdresses, a Syrian army officer and a Russian colonel sat at a plastic table by a desert road signing sheets of paper.

"In the name of Allah the most merciful" read a Russian translation of the agreement, with the title "Application form to join the cessation of hostilities" printed across the top.

Foreign ministers from the Group of Seven nations are gathering this weekend in Hiroshima, the site of the world's first atomic bombing in 1945.

Streetwalkers have largely disappeared from the sidewalks but prostitution remains alive and well in northern Europe where laws criminalizing the purchase of sex have been in place for years, illustrating the limits of legislation.

France on Wednesday passed a law punishing the clients of prostitutes, following in the footsteps of Sweden, Norway and Iceland -- three countries at the forefront of women's rights.

By subduing dissidents and eliminating rivals, Taliban leader Mullah Akhtar Mansour is rapidly consolidating his authority over the fractious Afghan insurgent movement as it prepares for "decisive" battles in its upcoming spring offensive.

Mansour was declared Taliban leader last summer after the announcement of long-term chief Mullah Omar's death, but many top commanders refused to pledge their loyalty alleging that he rigged the hastily organized selection process.

Ah, long weekends.

Three precious days to catch up on sleep, spend time with family, enjoy a getaway... or, in Venezuela, to stand in snaking lines at supermarkets whose shelves are bare and whose lights could go out at any minute.

Hillary Clinton has the biggest chance in U.S. history of shattering the ultimate glass ceiling and becoming the first female commander-in-chief. But could men spoil it for her?

On paper, few White House candidates have been more qualified: a two-time senator, a two-term first lady and a former secretary of state who was on the job when America killed most wanted man Osama bin Laden.

The "Panama Papers" have laid bare how readily bad actors can circumvent global sanctions via the maze of anonymous shell companies set up in banking havens, as documented in the massive leak.

Terror groups, drug cartels, and pariah countries like North Korea -- not just tax evaders -- use them to hide flows of money that would otherwise be blocked by sanctions, experts say.

Anger over labor reforms has spawned a protest movement dubbed "Up All Night" that is taking over French city squares, with young people gathering until dawn demanding social change.

Spreading from Paris to the western cities of Nantes and Rennes as well as Toulouse in the southwest, the protesters have been occupying central squares overnight until police disperse them at daybreak.