​DAMASCUS (AFP) - (AFP) -  A rocket-propelled grenade exploded near a team of UN obser

​FERRARA, Italy (AFP) - (AFP) - A powerful earthquake shook Italy's densely populated

​CHICAGO (AFP) - (AFP) -   US President Barack Obama and NATO allies put up a united f

​LONDON (AFP) - (AFP) - Robin Gibb, singer with the legendary British band the Bee Gee

ATHENS (AFP) - (AFP) - Greece tries again Tuesday to form a government, hoping a technocrat solution to disputes over a tough EU-IMF bailout deal will avoid new polls and keep it in the eurozone

DAMASCUS (AFP) - (AFP) - UN observers said they were having a "calming" impact on the ground as Syrian rebels killed 22 troops in the army's deadliest day of a shaky three-week-old ceas

BEIJING (AFP) - (AFP) - US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton on Thursday told China that it cannot deny the "aspirations" of its citizens as she opened talks in Beijing marred by a row

BEIJING (AFP) - (AFP) - Blind Chinese activist Chen Guangcheng appealed Thursday for safety abroad, saying he feared for his life after his dramatic escape to Beijing, as US and Chinese leaders s

GUWAHATI, India (AFP) - (AFP) - Hopes dimmed on Tuesday of finding more survivors after an overcrowded ferry split in two and sank in northeast India, leaving more than 100 dead and around 100 mi

BAMAKO (AFP) - (AFP) - The soldiers who staged a putsch in Mali five weeks ago said early Tuesday they had defeated an overnight counter-coup by forces loyal to ousted president Amadou Toumani To

BEIJING (AFP) - (AFP) - Beijing and Washington are working on a deal to allow rights activist Chen Guangcheng to leave China for the United States with his family after he fled house arrest, a fe

​DAMASCUS (AFP) - (AFP) - A veteran peacekeeper urged all sides to "stop the violence" as he flew in to Syria on Sunday to lead a UN observer force for a more than two-week-old ceasefir

​BEIJING (AFP) - (AFP) - Chinese rights activist Chen Guangcheng is in the US embassy in Beijing but is not seeking asylum, fellow dissident Hu Jia said Monday, raising the spectre of a drawn-out

DAMASCUS (AFP) - (AFP) - French Foreign Minister Alain Juppe on Wednesday labelled the UN-backed peace plan for Syria "seriously compromised" and held out the threat of seeking military

​LEIDSCHENDAM, Netherlands (AFP) - (AFP) - Liberian ex-president Charles Taylor will hear a historic verdict Thursday on charges of arming Sierra Leone's rebels in return for "blood diamonds

​DAMASCUS (AFP) - (AFP) - Syrian troops killed 28 civilians in the city of Hama, monitors said, as UN military observers toured protest centres near the capital, and both Brussels and Washington

WASHINGTON (AFP) - (AFP) - US President Barack Obama Monday ordered new sanctions on Syria and Iran and the "digital guns for hire" who help them oppress their people with surveillance

PARIS (AFP) - (AFP) - Nicolas Sarkozy Monday went gunning for more than six million far-right votes in a bid to catch up with Socialist Francois Hollande who took the lead in round one of the Fre

DAMASCUS (AFP) - (AFP) - Troops shot dead six civilians on Sunday in Homs despite the presence of UN military observers in the rebel province to pave the way for a 300-strong mission approved by

​BENTIU, South Sudan (AFP) - (AFP) - South Sudan's army said on Sunday it had completed its pullout from an oil field seized from Sudan, ending a deadly standoff which forced thousands of civilia

PARIS (AFP) - (AFP) - Duelling left-right rivals Francois Hollande and Nicolas Sarkozy launched the race for the French presidential run-off on Monday, a race shaken up by the far-right's record

​MANAMA (AFP) - (AFP) - Bahrain's opposition reported the first death in protests timed for Sunday's controversial Grand Prix as a security lockdown was imposed around the Sakhir Formula One circ

​BEIJING (AFP) - (AFP) - China and Russia on Sunday launched their first joint naval exercises amid tensions between China and its Asian neighbours over regional territorial claims. T

​PARIS (AFP) - (AFP) - More than 44 million French voters were called to the polls on Sunday for the first round of a presidential election that may see the end of Nicolas Sarkozy's turbulent ter

BHUBANESWAR, India (AFP) - (AFP) - India successfully test-fired a new long-range missile on Thursday capable of delivering a one-tonne nuclear warhead anywhere in regional rival China and countr

​SEOUL (AFP) - (AFP) - North Korea has warned of retaliation after the US scrapped food aid over its rocket launch, raising fears of a new nuclear test, as China reportedly suspended a refugee deal wi

​LONDON (AFP) - (AFP) - British authorities re-arrested radical Islamist cleric Abu Qatada on Tuesday and began a fresh bid to deport him, saying they had resolved concerns about his treatment in

  CAIRO (AFP) - (AFP) - Egypt's electoral commission confirmed that 10 candidates have been barred from running for president, ruling out a challenge by two Islamists and Hosni M

CARTAGENA, Colombia (AFP) - (AFP) - Leaders from across the Americas failed to agree on Cuba's inclusion at future summits in the face of US and Canadian opposition, ending a rough two days for U

​DAMASCUS (AFP) - (AFP) - The first international observers tasked with monitoring a shaky UN-backed ceasefire arrived Sunday in Syria, where regime forces pounded a rebel city and killed five ci

​UNITED NATIONS (AFP) - (AFP) - The UN Security Council unanimously approved a resolution Saturday to send observers to monitor conflict-wracked Syria's shaky truce, as reports there said 12 peop

PESHAWAR, Pakistan (AFP) - (AFP) - Some 384 prisoners including militants escaped early Sunday from a jail in northwestern Pakistan after an attack by insurgents armed with guns, grenades and roc

​CARTAGENA, Colombia (AFP) - (AFP) - Leaders from across the Americas launched talks on expanding trade as the United States came under strong pressure to let Cuba attend future summits. <

​PYONGYANG (AFP) - (AFP) - North Korea's five-day window to launch a rocket opened Thursday with Asian countries on alert, as Washington told G8 world powers that the communist state was in flagr

JACKSONVILLE, Florida (AFP) - (AFP) - Prosecutors Wednesday charged a neighborhood watch guard with second-degree murder in the killing of an unarmed US black teenager that sparked nationwide ang

​DAMASCUS (AFP) - (AFP) - A UN-backed deadline for an end to 13 months of bloodshed in Syria that has killed thousands passed Thursday amid doubts about the regime's compliance with the ceasefire

​UNITED NATIONS (AFP) - (AFP) - Growing demands for tough UN Security Council action on Syria are putting increasing pressure on Russia's diplomatic shield around President Bashar al-Assad.

WASHINGTON (AFP) - (AFP) - Mitt Romney effectively won the Republican Party crown to challenge President Barack Obama in November elections, as chief rival Rick Santorum dropped his long-shot Whi

PYONGYANG (AFP) - (AFP) - North Korea on Wednesday readied a historic party conference to bolster its young new leader and began fuelling a rocket, defying US calls to cancel the launch in favour

DAMASCUS (AFP) - (AFP) - Syria faced a deadline Tuesday to withdraw its forces from urban areas as Washington said Damascus had shown no sign of complying with a peace deal amid fierce clashes th

BEIJING (AFP) - (AFP) - A Chinese court sentenced disabled activist Ni Yulan and her husband to jail on Tuesday, a year after the couple were detained during a widespread crackdown on dissent in

​BAMAKO (AFP) - (AFP) - Mali's coup leader held talks on when he would hand over power to allow the return of democratic rule in the troubled west African nation, now half controlled by Islamists

​DAMASCUS (AFP) - (AFP) - A peace plan for Syria was in jeopardy Monday after a rebel commander rejected fresh conditions from the government for a pullout of regime troops from protest hubs amid

​BANDA ACEH, Indonesia (AFP) - (AFP) - Indonesia's only province ruled by Islamic sharia laws elects its powerful governor on Monday in polls that will test a fragile peace following a 30-year se

​WASHINGTON (AFP) - (AFP) - Republican Mitt Romney notched a huge presidential primary triple win, strengthening an already compelling case that he is the presumptive nominee in the battle for th

SEOUL (AFP) - (AFP) - North Korea said Monday its ruling party would hold a special conference on April 11, bolstering the power of its young leader just before a major anniversary and the planne

YANGON (AFP) - (AFP) - Myanmar opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi hailed a "victory of the people" but warned against triumphalism after her apparent win in elections seen as a test of

​MOSCOW (AFP) - (AFP) - A twin-engine ATR-72 plane with 43 people aboard has crashed in Siberia, killing at least 16 while 12 survivors were rushed to hospital, Russia's emergencies ministry said

​DAMASCUS (AFP) - (AFP) - Syria's regime declared it has defeated those seeking to bring it down while reiterating support for a UN-Arab peace plan, as its troops reportedly shelled rebels in the

​BAMAKO (AFP) - (AFP) - Mali junta head Captain Amadou Sanogo has ordered the army "not to prolong" fighting in a key northern town as rampant Toureg rebels tighten their grip over swat

KAWHMU, Myanmar (AFP) - (AFP) - Voters in Myanmar flocked to the polls on Sunday for elections expected to sweep opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi into parliament for the first time as part of d

DAMASCUS (AFP) - (AFP) - The United States accused Syria's President Bashar al-Assad of failing to respect a UN-Arab League peace plan as Syrian forces continued their assault on rebel bastions W

​HAVANA (AFP) - (AFP) - Pope Benedict XVI wrapped up a visit to Cuba with a call for respect of "basic freedoms," pursuing his persistent prodding of the island's Communist authorities

​NEW DELHI (AFP) - (AFP) - Leaders of the emerging world met in India Thursday to discuss creating a new development bank, at a summit in which the bloc will seek to convert its economic might in

DAMASCUS (AFP) - (AFP) - Syria has accepted a proposal crafted by Kofi Annan designed to end the bloodshed in the country, the envoy's spokesman said Tuesday, as opposition factions agreed to joi

HONG KONG (AFP) - (AFP) - Hong Kong's court of appeal on Wednesday overturned a landmark ruling that opened the door for thousands of foreign maids to claim residency in the southern Chinese city

KHARTOUM (AFP) - (AFP) - Sudanese warplanes launched fresh air raids on oil-rich areas of South Sudan, a Southern official said, threatening a tentative rapprochement despite international calls

PARIS (AFP) - (AFP) - The brother of the French gunman who killed seven people including children in a shooting spree denied involvement in the attacks but said he was proud of his sibling's acti

GUANAJUATO, Mexico (AFP) - (AFP) - Pope Benedict XVI was to celebrate open-air mass on Sunday as he calls for non-violence and respect for human life during his landmark visit to Mexico overshado

DEMILITARISED ZONE, South Korea (AFP) - (AFP) - US President Barack Obama visited the tense inter-Korean border Sunday, calling it "freedom's frontier", as he weighs a response to North

​TOULOUSE, France (AFP) - (AFP) - French police stepped up pressure Thursday on a besieged Al-Qaeda militant who boasted of having "brought France to its knees" with a wave of brutal at

BAMAKO (AFP) - (AFP) - A group of renegade Mali soldiers said Thursday they had seized power from an "incompetent regime," announcing on television the dissolution of state institutions

DAMASCUS (AFP) - (AFP) - Russia has added its voice to growing calls for a humanitarian truce in Syria, a move hailed by the US after deadly clashes rocked a district of the capital near the

JERUSALEM (AFP) - (AFP) - The United Nations and Israel led world condemnation of the shooting of three children and a teacher at a Jewish school in France, with Prime Minister Benjamin

SEOUL (AFP) - (AFP) - North Korea has invited UN inspectors to monitor a nuclear deal with the United States, insisting the pact remains in force despite its shock announcement of an upco

NUKA'ALOFA (AFP) - (AFP) - Tonga's King George Tupou V, who relinquished absolute power to bring democracy to the South Pacific nation, has died at the age of 63, the country's prime mini

SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico (AFP) - (AFP) - Mitt Romney scored a resounding win in Puerto Rico's Republican primary, gaining momentum in the hotly contested White House race.

HAVANA (AFP) - (AFP) - With a visit by Pope Benedict XVI looming, police in Cuba arrested over 50 activists, including members of the Ladies in White group, amid a surge in anti-governmen

BERLIN (AFP) - (AFP) - Former Nazi death camp guard John Demjanjuk, convicted last year in one of the last trials linked to the Holocaust, has died at age 91 at a care home in southern Germany, p

DILI (AFP) - (AFP) - Early results from East Timor's presidential polls on Sunday showed the opposition Fretilin party's Francisco "Lu Olo" Guterres had surged ahead with incumbent Jose

​DAMASCUS (AFP) - (AFP) - Two huge bomb blasts killed at least 27 people in Syria's capital, as special envoy Kofi Annan warned of regional fallout from the year-long bloodshed. An Ar

​WASHINGTON (AFP) - (AFP) - A "chuffed to bits" President Barack Obama gushed over British Prime Minister David Cameron on Wednesday, but deepening world crises conspired to darken a wa

​SION, Switzerland (AFP) - (AFP) - Belgian military planes were on standby Thursday to fly home the bodies of 22 children and six adults killed in a school bus crash in a Swiss Alpine tunnel.

KANDAHAR, Afghanistan (AFP) - (AFP) - About 1,000 Afghans took to the streets in a southern town on Thursday to protest the killing of 16 civilians in a murderous rampage by a US soldier, police

UNITED NATIONS (AFP) - (AFP) - Wrangling between the United States and Russia over the Syria crisis left the UN Security Council even further from reaching an accord on ways to end the bloodshed,

DHAKA (AFP) - (AFP) - At least 150 people were missing after a ferry carrying 200 passengers sank in Bangladesh on Tuesday morning, police said, adding that about 35 survivors had been found.

JALALABAD, Afghanistan (AFP) - (AFP) - Hundreds of university students took to the streets in Afghanistan's eastern city of Jalalabad Tuesday to protest a rampage by a US soldier who killed 16 vi

WICHITA, Kansas (AFP) - (AFP) - Rick Santorum picked up a solid win in the caucus in conservative Kansas, keeping him in contention in the Republican presidential contest on the heels of frontrun

​UNITED NATIONS (AFP) - (AFP) - The world powers are on course for a new diplomatic clash over Syria when foreign ministers from the main UN Security Council nations meet on Monday. W

ISHINOMAKI, Japan (AFP) - (AFP) - Japan on Sunday marked one year since a huge earthquake and tsunami killed 19,000 people and changed the lives of hundreds of thousands more in a nuclear crisis

DAMASCUS (AFP) - (AFP) - The UN's humanitarian chief heads for Syria Wednesday to urge the regime to let aid into devastated protest cities, with US President Barack Obama insisting military inte

​(AFP) - 0550 GMT: With former Massachusetts governor Mitt Romney projected to win in five states: Idaho, Massachusetts, Vermont, Virginia and crucial Ohio, AFP is closing its Super Tuesday Live

​BOSTON, Massachusetts (AFP) - (AFP) - White House hopeful Mitt Romney was Tuesday locked in a nail-biting battle with Rick Santorum in Ohio as he looked to tighten his grasp on the Republican pr

BRAZZAVILLE (AFP) - (AFP) - The United States led international pledges of emergency aid to Congo after huge blasts at an arms depot in Brazzaville killed more than 150 people and left 1,000 inju

​MOSCOW (AFP) - (AFP) - Russian police arrested more than 500 people protesting Vladimir Putin's crushing victory in elections that the opposition denounced as illegitimate and international moni

​MOSCOW (AFP) - (AFP) - Russians voted on Sunday in presidential polls expected to return strongman Vladimir Putin to the Kremlin for a record third term, despite a wave of protests against his 1

CHICAGO (AFP) - (AFP) - Rescuers and residents searched house to house Saturday a day after tornadoes killed at least 37 people and injured hundreds, tearing across the US heartland and virtually

DAMASCUS (AFP) - (AFP) - China called for an end to violence in Syria Sunday as the regime of Bashar al-Assad sparked international outrage by blocking aid from reaching the battered Baba Amr fla

ROME (AFP) - (AFP) - An Italian cruise ship from the same fleet as the tragedy-struck Costa Concordia was adrift on Tuesday in pirate-infested seas off the Seychelles with no power and with more

DAMASCUS (AFP) - (AFP) - Syria said almost 90 percent of voters approved a new constitution in a referendum which Washington condemned as "absolutely cynical" as more than 100 people we

​DAKAR (AFP) - (AFP) - Senegal votes in its most tumultuous polls yet on Sunday with 85-year-old President Abdoulaye Wade's bid for a third term having sparked deadly protests in one of Africa's

KABUL (AFP) - (AFP) - NATO and Britain have pulled staff out of Afghan government institutions after the killing of two US military advisers took the death toll from raging anti-US protests to ar

​DAMASCUS (AFP) - (AFP) - The Red Cross Saturday failed to agree a deal to evacuate wounded Syrians and Western journalists from battered Homs city as regime forces killed dozens more civilians o

DENPASAR, Indonesia (AFP) - (AFP) - Indonesian security forces Wednesday stormed a riot-hit prison housing murderers, paedophiles and Australian drug mules in Bali after a night of arson and rock

VIENNA (AFP) - (AFP) - A visit to Iran by UN inspectors probing Iran's suspected nuclear weapons activities failed to achieve a breakthrough, with Tehran denying access to a key military site, th

​KABUL (AFP) - (AFP) - Hundreds of Afghan demonstrators took to the streets of Kabul for a second day Wednesday to protest against the burning of copies of the Koran by NATO troops. B

BERLIN (AFP) - (AFP) - German Chancellor Angela Merkel agreed to back former East German rights activist Joachim Gauck to become the country's next president, resolving a political dispute that h

MONTERREY, Mexico (AFP) - (AFP) - At least 44 inmates were killed in a Mexican prison riot on Sunday, just days after a deadly inferno in a jail in Honduras, again highlighting terrible overcrowd

BRUSSELS (AFP) - (AFP) - Eurozone finance ministers meet in Brussels Monday with time running out if they are to close a new 230-billion-euro ($300 billion) bailout package for Greece and avert a

​DAMASCUS (AFP) - (AFP) - Security forces shot dead a mourner at a huge funeral on Saturday for demonstrators killed in rare protests in the Syrian capital, as a senior Chinese envoy issued a ple

COMAYAGUA, Honduras (AFP) - (AFP) - Rescuers began the task of removing the charred bodies of inmates trapped in their cells after a fire gutted an overcrowded jail in Honduras, killing more than

​DAMASCUS (AFP) - (AFP) - Syria flatly rejected UN charges of crimes against humanity, even as monitors said troops killed at least 18 civilians, six in the heaviest shelling of the protest city

​WASHINGTON (AFP) - (AFP) - China's likely next leader Xi Jinping was feted with head-of-state-style honors by President Barack Obama, who has his own sights set on steering US-Beijing ties in a

​BANGKOK (AFP) - (AFP) - Iranian suspects behind a failed attack in Bangkok aimed to assassinate Israeli diplomats, a Thai official said Wednesday, in the third bomb plot to shake world capitals

The Arab League said Sunday it had agreed to open contacts with Syria's opposition and ask the United Nations to form a joint peacekeeping force to the nation, moves swiftly denounced by Syria.

ISLAMABAD (AFP) - (AFP) - Pakistan's prime minister was indicted for contempt by the country's highest court on Monday, pleading not guilty to charges that could see him jailed for six months and

MALE (AFP) - (AFP) - Ousted Maldives president Mohamed Nasheed on Sunday rejected a US call to compromise and dismissed proposals for a unity government to end political unrest in the Indian Ocea

meet on Sunday in Cairo to discuss their next move over the Syrian crisis with the bloodshed showing no signs of abating, even spilling over into Lebanon.   The Syrian National C

DAMASCUS (AFP) - (AFP) - UN chief Ban Ki-moon accused the Syrian army of appalling brutality, after the deaths of 69 more civilians Wednesday, and said the Arab League was proposing a joint missi

SALVADOR DE BAHIA (AFP) - (AFP) - Talks to end a strike by police who have occupied the legislature in Brazil's Bahia state for a week ended without agreement here Tuesday, with each side blaming

DAMASCUS (AFP) - (AFP) - Russia said on Tuesday that President Bashar al-Assad was "fully committed" to ending the bloodshed in Syria, as his regime pounded the city of Homs for a fourt

DOHA (AFP) - (AFP) - Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas is to head an interim consensus government under a deal signed with Hamas on Monday, ending a long-running disagreement over the post that

DAMASCUS (AFP) - (AFP) -  The Syrian regime's rocket and shell bombardment of protest hubs has left another 79 civilians dead, activists said, as Washington closed its Damascus embassy and Britai

LAHORE, Pakistan (AFP) - (AFP) - Around 100 people, including women and children, were feared trapped Monday when a building collapsed in Pakistan's second largest city of Lahore, witnesses and a

BEIRUT (AFP) - (AFP) - Syrian forces launched a fresh bombardment of powderkeg city Homs at dawn on Monday, causing an unknown number of casualties, activists and correspondents said.

CAIRO (AFP) - (AFP) - Protesters and riot police fought pitched battles in Cairo on Sunday as clashes sparked by the failure of Egypt's military rulers to prevent deadly football-linked violence

Russia and China blocked a UN Security Council resolution condemning Syria for its crackdown on protests, hours after Syrian forces bombed Homs, killing hundreds.   The he

​LAS VEGAS, Nevada (AFP) - (AFP) - Republican White House hopeful Mitt Romney romped to victory in the Nevada caucuses Saturday, cementing his position as frontrunner to take on President Barack

UNITED NATIONS (AFP) - (AFP) - Russia has clashed with Western powers and the Arab League over their demand that the United Nations take immediate action to stop Syrian President Bashar al-Assad'

​BEIJING (AFP) - (AFP) - China said Wednesday that 25 Chinese workers kidnapped by Egyptian Bedouins demanding the release of their Islamist relatives had been released.  

​LONDON (AFP) - (AFP) - Pakistan's security services are secretly aiding Afghanistan's Taliban, who assume their victory is inevitable once Western troops leave, a secret NATO document says, acco

KHARTOUM (AFP) - (AFP) - The Sudanese military has freed 14 Chinese workers "kidnapped" by rebels in the country's South Kordofan state, the official SUNA news agency reported on Monday

​DAMASCUS (AFP) - (AFP) - The Arab League suspended its controversial observer mission in Syria on Saturday as the bloodshed in a crackdown on anti-regime protests spiked and the death toll in four da

​PORT MORESBY (AFP) - (AFP) - As many as 60 people are feared dead after a massive landslide wiped out an entire village in a scene of "utter devastation" in Papua New Guinea, reports a

​WASHINGTON (AFP) - (AFP) - 0341 GMT: And with that we conclude AFP's Live Report on this year's State of the Union address. Thanks for joining us. 0338 GMT: Such was the fast pace of

WASHINGTON (AFP) - (AFP) - US President Barack Obama demanded large tax hikes on millionaires to finance a fair economy for all, sketching a populist vision to persuade crisis-weary voters he mer

DAMASCUS (AFP) - (AFP) - Syria rejected on Tuesday a Qatari proposal to deploy Arab troops to halt 10 months of deadly unrest, as army defectors and a tribal leader appealed to the UN Security Co

GIGLIO ISLAND, Italy (AFP) - (AFP) - The "most hated man in Italy," the captain of the doomed Italian cruise liner Costa Concordia, was put under house arrest for manslaughter as the de

​ABUJA (AFP) - (AFP) - Nigeria's government and union leaders ended talks late Saturday without a deal to end a week-old strike that has shut down the country, but a threat by workers to halt oil

​ASTANA (AFP) - (AFP) - A shaken Kazakhstan began electing a new parliament on Sunday just a month after deadly riots challenged the resource-rich but authoritarian nation's status as the beacon

  GIGLIO ISLAND, Italy (AFP) - (AFP) - Rescuers have found two people alive on a cruise ship that hit rocks and keeled over off the west coast of Italy, as three were confirmed d