China says it has called on North Korea to secure the release of a fishing boat and its crew seized on 5 May, as captors reportedly demand a ransom. ...

A senior doctor treating Alberto Fujimori says the jailed former president of Peru has severe and worsening health problems. ...

CARACAS (Reuters) - Venezuela's recent designation of an acting head of its diplomatic mission in the United States shows the OPEC nation's desire to restore full diplomatic relations, the foreign minister said in an int ...

At least one person is reported dead and several others injured by a series of tornadoes that have torn through the US state of Oklahoma. ...

Egyptian President Mohammed Morsi rules out negotiating with the abductors of seven security personnel seized last week in the Sinai peninsula. ...

At least three police officers have been killed after gunmen attack their station in northern Iraq, local officials say. ...

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - President Barack Obama will walk a fine line between fostering a U.S. ally in China's backyard and trying to defend human rights when the president of Myanmar becomes the first head of his country ...

RAMADI, Iraq (Reuters) - - Militants killed at least 10 Iraqi policemen in a series of attacks on checkpoints in the West of the country on Sunday, police and local officials said. ...

Canada Prime Minister Stephen Harper's top aide resigns over his role in a growing expenses scandal. ...

Colombia's main rebel group, the Farc, denies it is moving too slowly to end five decades of conflict, six months after peace talks began. ...

ISLAMABAD (Reuters) - Pakistan's all-powerful military overthrew Nawaz Sharif 14 years ago and hustled him off into exile in handcuffs. Now he's back as prime minister-elect, with the army watching his every move, especi ...

TOKYO (Reuters) - Japan risks missing, yet again, an opportunity to use foreign investment to help fuel sustained economic growth that has eluded it for the last two decades. ...

GAZIPUR, Bangladesh (Reuters) - A Bangladesh factory where Wal-Mart Stores Inc and Inditex SA inspectors spotted cracks in the wall this month is still making Wrangler shirts for the world's largest apparel maker, U.S.-b ...

JAKARTA (Reuters) - When a sick Indonesian baby died after 10 hospitals in Jakarta turned her family away in February, critics blamed a pilot health insurance scheme that had overwhelmed the city's public hospitals. ...

ZHUHAI, China/HONG KONG (Reuters) - In an underground mall just a stone's throw from China's teeming border with Macau, a row of 30 small shops with identical golden plaques does a brisk, though shadowy trade with mainla ...

TRIPOLI, Lebanon (Reuters) - One person was killed and a dozen people were wounded by gunfire on Sunday in the northern Lebanese city of Tripoli, security sources said, in the latest outbreak of sectarian violence fuelle ...

CAIRO (Reuters) - Egyptian police enraged by the kidnapping of seven of their colleagues by Islamist gunmen in the Sinai Peninsula blocked a commercial border crossing with Israel on Sunday to pressure the Cairo governme ...

The Nigerian military says that Boko Haram militants in the north-east of the country are "in disarray" as a result of its offensive against them. ...

NEW DELHI (Reuters) - India's Prime Minister Manmohan Singh told visiting Chinese President Li Keqiang on Sunday a recent military standoff in the Himalayas could affect relations between the two countries as they looked ...

CAIRO (Reuters) - Two Egyptian journalists at a newspaper critical of President Mohamed Mursi were ordered on Sunday to face an expedited criminal trial for defamation. ...

MAIDUGURI, Nigeria (Reuters) - Nigeria offered an amnesty on Sunday to Islamist militants who surrender and said 17 people had been killed on the fifth day of a military operation to try to crush the Boko Haram insurgenc ...

Yahoo's board has approved a deal to buy New York-based blogging service Tumblr for $1.1bn (£725m; 857m euros), US media reports say. ...

US diplomat Ryan Fogle, accused by Russia accused of being a spy, has now left the country according to Russian television. ...

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The U.S. Justice Department's seizure of phone records for journalists at the Associated Press is hurting the agency's ability to gather news, the wire service's Chief Executive and President Gary ...

DUBAI (Reuters) - Thousands of workers employed by Dubai's largest construction firm, Arabtec, stayed away from work on Sunday to back wage demands, a rare labour protest in the Gulf emirate, where trade unions are banne ...

AMMAN (Reuters) - Lebanese Hezbollah militants attacked a Syrian rebel-held town alongside Syrian troops on Sunday and Israel threatened more attacks on Syria to rein the militia in, highlighting the risks of a wider reg ...

LIMA (Reuters) - President Ollanta Humala's approval rating fell 5 points to a six-month low of 46 percent, reflecting the unpopularity of his proposal to buy an oil refinery owned by Spain's Repsol and his support for V ...

CAIRO (Reuters) - Egyptian police enraged by the kidnapping of seven of their colleagues by Islamist gunmen in the Sinai Peninsula blocked a commercial border crossing with Israel on Sunday to pressure the Cairo governme ...

ATLANTA (Reuters) - President Barack Obama, under fire for security lapses at a U.S. mission in Libya, will in a speech on Thursday lay out his wide-ranging counter-terrorism policy, from the controversial use of drones ...

ALGIERS (Reuters) - Three weeks after being rushed to hospital in Paris, Algerian President Abdelaziz Bouteflika has disappeared from sight, leaving behind a country preparing for a successor who for the first time will ...

OTTAWA (Reuters) - The top aide to Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper abruptly resigned on Sunday over his role in an mounting expenses scandal which is threatening to undermine the Conservative government. ...

JOHANNESBURG (Reuters) - South Africa's justice minister on Sunday accused an Indian High Commission official and some South Africans of colluding to obtain permission for a plane chartered by a rich family close to Pres ...

A French government minister who quit over revelations of his undeclared Swiss bank account says he will not stand again for election. ...

DHAKA (Reuters) - A Bangladesh court on Sunday banned the owner of a garment factory that was destroyed in a fire in November from leaving the country as anger builds up over a string of deadly incidents in which thousan ...

(Reuters) - Hope is fading for a global deal to regulate the airline industry's greenhouse gas emissions ahead of a fall deadline, even though failure could push the industry back to the brink of a trade war over the Eur ...

The funeral of the murdered vice-president of Pakistan's PTI party, Zahra Shahid Hussain, is held at a mosque in Karachi. ...

AMMAN (Reuters) - Syrian troops supported by Hezbollah militants launched an offensive to retake a major town near Lebanon from rebels on Sunday, the heaviest fighting yet involving Lebanese armed group, opposition activ ...

VATICAN CITY (Reuters) - Pope Francis warned the Catholic Church to not close in on itself at a Mass to mark Pentecost Sunday attended by more than 200,000 people, urging the faithful to be open and present in a new and ...

World number one Serena Williams beats Victoria Azarenka to win the Italian Open and her fourth consecutive tournament. ...

BRUSSELS (Reuters) - The European Union criticised Russia's human rights record on Sunday, saying it was increasingly concerned at a wave of restrictive legislation and prosecutions against activists. ...

BERLIN (Reuters) - Germans lamented their unexpectedly poor showing at the Eurovision Song Contest, blaming Chancellor Angela Merkel's tough stance in the euro zone crisis for their failure to win any points from 34 of t ...

(Reuters) - A single winning ticket for a record U.S. Powerball lottery jackpot worth $590.5 million was sold in Florida, organizers said late on Saturday, but there was no immediate word about who won or where in the st ...

BAMAKO (Reuters) - After winning adulation across Mali for a five-month military offensive that crushed al Qaeda fighters, France is now frustrating some of its allies by pushing for a political settlement with a separat ...

CAIRO (Reuters) - Egyptian police enraged by the kidnapping of seven of their colleagues by Islamist gunmen in the Sinai Peninsula blocked a commercial border crossing with Israel on Sunday, security sources said. ...

Tunisian police clash with hundreds of supporters of the radical Islamist group Ansar al-Sharia defying attempts to bar a gathering. ...

TUNIS (Reuters) - Tunisian police fired teargas and shots into the air in Tunis on Sunday to disperse some 500 supporters of the hardline Islamist group Ansar al-Sharia who were protesting and throwing stones at police a ...

PARIS (Reuters) - France is in talks with the United States and Israel to buy intelligence-gathering drones to build up a modern fleet, Defence Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian said on Sunday. ...

Five decades after Fidel Castro ordered Cuba's golf courses to be closed down because he considered them "elitist", the island's communist government has approved the construction of a luxury golf resort. ...

SEOUL (Reuters) - North Korea fired a short-range missile from its east coast on Sunday, a day after launching three of these missiles, a South Korean news agency said, ignoring calls for restraint from Western powers. . ...

Iranian officials say two men have been executed after they were convicted of spying for Israel and the US. ...

A guitar played by John Lennon and George Harrison in The Beatles in 1967 fetches $408,000 (£269,000) at auction in New York. ...

JERUSALEM (Reuters) - Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu held out the prospect on Sunday of further Israeli strikes inside Syria, pledging to act to prevent advanced weapons from reaching Hezbollah and other militant grou ...

MOSCOW (Reuters) - U.N. Secretary General Ban Ki-moon voiced concern on Sunday over North Korea's launch of short-range missiles, urging Pyonyang to refrain from further launches and return to stalled nuclear talks with ...

LIMA (Reuters) - Proposed peace talks for Syria would not curb "terrorism" in the country and it is unrealistic to think they would succeed, Syrian President Bashar al-Assad said in an interview published in an Argentine ...

Syrian government forces surround the rebel town of Qusair with opposition activists saying at least 16 people have been killed. ...

KABUL (Reuters) - Afghan President Hamid Karzai plans to discuss potential arms deals with Indian officials during a trip to New Delhi this week, officials said, at a time when tensions are running high on Afghanistan's ...

UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon urges North Korea to end its missile tests after test firing three short-range missiles on Saturday. ...

A ticket holder in Florida has won the largest Powerball jackpot in US history, more than $590m (£388m), lottery officials say. ...

SEOUL (Reuters) - North Korea fired three short-range missiles from its east coast on Saturday, South Korea's Defence Ministry said, prompting Western powers to urge Pyongyang to exercise restraint. ...

DUBAI (Reuters) - Iranian authorities executed two men on Sunday convicted of working for Israeli and U.S. spy agencies, Iran's Fars news agency reported. ...