KANSAS CITY, Mo., Nov. 9 (UPI) -- A 23-year-old Kansas City man has been charged with statutory rape after signing a marriage contract with the family of a 14-year-old girl, police said.

WASHINGTON, Nov. 9 (UPI) -- The U.S. State Department appointed former Iranian embassy hostage John Limbert as its top-ranking diplomat for Iranian affairs.

SANAA, Yemen, Nov. 9 (UPI) -- Saudi Arabia's entry into Yemen's war against northern Shiite rebels has dramatically increased the stakes in a smoldering powder keg of conflicts in the Red Sea and Horn of Africa region, a key oil artery.

EAST ST. LOUIS, Mo., Nov. 9 (UPI) -- Police say they've arrested a suspect in the shooting deaths of three women at a gas station in East St. Louis, Mo.

UNITED NATIONS, Nov. 9 (UPI) -- U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon praised Iraqi lawmakers for passing a key election law in time for a January parliamentary election.

RIYADH, Saudi Arabia, Nov. 9 (UPI) -- Saudi Arabia has captured 250 Yemeni rebels in reasserting control over a strategic border mountain, local media reported.

BRUSSELS, Nov. 9 (UPI) -- Racial, gender, age and other forms of discrimination are on the rise in European Union nations, particularly among the young, a survey indicates.

MOSCOW, Nov. 9 (UPI) -- Russian physicist Vitaly Ginzburg, who won the Nobel Prize for physics in 2003, has died in Moscow at the age of 94, officials said Monday.

ISTANBUL, Turkey, Nov. 9 (UPI) -- Syrian President Bashar Assad met Turkish officials on the sidelines of an economic summit in Istanbul hailing bilateral ties as a model for regional affairs.

TEHRAN, Nov. 9 (UPI) -- Iranian opposition leader Mehdi Karroubi accused the regime in Tehran of undermining the public trust by allegedly meeting with U.S. officials in New York.

KABUL, Afghanistan, Nov. 9 (UPI) -- Non-governmental organizations worry the relocation of U.N. staffers from Afghanistan could influence their safety and the viability of their projects.

ANKARA, Turkey, Nov. 9 (UPI) -- Turkish lawmakers are set to consider a series of measures that includes rehabilitation for Kurdish separatists and various cultural considerations.

VAIL, Colo., Nov. 9 (UPI) -- A 63-year-old Vietnam War veteran in Vail, Colo., shot four people at a local bar, killing one, police allege.

NEWPORT NEWS, Va., Nov. 9 (UPI) -- Federal agents said a man indicted by a U.S. grand jury is the suspected leader of a major drug ring in Virginia's Hampton Roads region.

SEATTLE, Nov. 9 (UPI) -- A legal battle over the release of the names of people who signed a Washington State petition on same-sex marriage could have big ramifications, analysts say.