Vatican City (dpa) - Catholic Church hierarchies shielded the crimes of paedophile priests, Pope Francis admitted Monday, hours after meeting people who were abused in their youth by members of the clergy.

New York (dpa) - Iran and the United States should discuss a prisoner swap, President Hassan Rowhani said.

Japan's opposition on Friday introduced a censure motion against the premier to block military reform bills, a day after the proposal sparked disorder and disruption in the upper house.

US lawmakers Thursday called for the United States to be more robust in its reaction to Chinese construction on reefs and islands in the South China Sea, a week ahead of a visit to the White House by Chinese President Xi Jinping.

The Chilean government declared a state of emergency in a central region Thursday after a magnitude-8.3 earthquake killed 11 people and caused widespread disruption.

At least 13 militants were killed Friday in clashes with security forces when they attacked a Pakistani air force base in the troubled north-west, the military said.

Tokyo (dpa) - Torrential rains, flooding and mudslides in eastern and north-eastern parts of Japan left three people dead and brought misery to thousands in the worst-hit towns and cities, authorities said Friday.

KUALA LUMPUR/BEIJING (Reuters) - Angry relatives of Chinese passengers aboard a Malaysia Airlines plane missing for more than a year clashed with police in Beijing on Friday as French officials extended the search for debris on remote Indian Ocean

Beirut (dpa) - Islamic State has seized a strategic town in central Syria from President Bashar al-Assad's troops, a monitoring group said Thursday, while dozens of fighters from the extremist militia were killed in US-led airstrikes in

Rome (dpa) - Ships have rescued 373 immigrants whose boat capsized off Libya, the Italian Coast Guard said Thursday, adding that the search for 200 others persists as hopes of finding more survivors fade.

Kuala Lumpur (dpa) - A piece of a plane's wing found on Reunion Island on Wednesday has been identified as belonging to a Boeing 777 aircraft, the Malaysian transportation minister said on Sunday.

New Delhi (dpa) - The Indian government has told internet service providers and telecom operators in the country to block 857 pornographic websites. Communications and Information Technology Ministry officials denied there was a crackdown and ca

Washington (dpa) - US president Barack Obama is to issue on Monday a final, tougher version of rules aimed at limiting carbon emissions from power plants that are expected to seal a key part of his presidential legacy. He signalled his intent in

Beirut (dpa) - At least 23 people were killed as a result of aerial bombings by the Syrian government and the subsequent crash of a war plane near a market area in north-western Idlib province, activists said Monday. The incident took place in A

New Delhi (dpa) - More than 100 people have been killed, most of them in India's eastern states, during heavy rains and floods over the past week, officials said Monday. More than 4 million people in 10,000 villages were affected in the stat

MUZAFFARGARH, Pakistan (AP) — Pakistani police gunned down one of the country's most-feared Sunni militant leaders and 13 followers in a mysterious pre-dawn shootout Wednesday, killing a man believed to behind the slaughter of hundreds of

Kuala Lumpur (dpa) - Sacked Malaysian deputy prime minister Muhyiddin Yassin on Wednesday appealed for unity among his supporters. "I advise my supporters to put priority on party and country and not do something that will cause a split,&qu

Dhaka (dpa) - A Bangladeshi opposition leader saw his death sentence upheld Wednesday for crimes against humanity during the war of independence with Pakistan in 1971. Salahuddin Quader Chowdhury, leader of the Bangladesh Nationalist Party, was

Berlin (dpa) - German Chancellor Angela Merkel fought Friday against a possible rebellion in her government's ranks over a new bailout for Athens, warning of a catastrophe for cash-strapped Greece if a new aid deal is not struck. Greece coul

China on Thursday urged Tokyo to avoid "crippling regional peace and security", after the lower house of Japan's parliament passed bills that could see Japanese troops fight abroad for the first time since World War II. "It is f

South Korea on Friday invited a North Korean vice defence minister to attend an international security conference in September in Seoul, despite cross-border military tensions, officials said. The invitation was sent by South Korea's vice de

The nuclear deal that will lift tough sanctions on Iran is mobilizing Saudi Arabia to turn the tide against its regional rival in Yemen and Syria before it makes an economic recovery, military officials and analysts say. According to the sour

At least 18 people are dead after ethnic Uighurs attacked police with knives and bombs at a traffic checkpoint in China's western Xinjiang region, Radio Free Asia reported on Wednesday. The attack occurred on Monday in a district of the southe

The United States National Security Agency spied on French presidents Jacques Chirac, Nicolas Sarkozy and Francois Hollande, WikiLeaks said in a press statement published on Tuesday, citing top secret intelligence reports and technical documents.

CAIRO (Reuters) - An Egyptian court postponed issuing a final ruling over a death sentence recommendation for former Islamist President Mohamed Mursi and other top Muslim Brotherhood leaders in a case related to a 2011 jail break. The judge said

DUBAI (Reuters) - Iran will back Syria's President Bashar al-Assad until the end, Iranian news agencies quoted President Hassan Rouhani as saying, signaling undimmed support for Tehran's Arab ally following major gains by armed opposition f

BEIRUT (Reuters) - The United States has accused the Syrian military of carrying out air strikes to help Islamic State fighters advance around the northern city of Aleppo, messages posted on the U.S. Embassy Syria official Twitter feed said. Isl

SHANGHAI (Reuters) - Rescuers fought bad weather on Tuesday as they searched for more than 400 people, many of them elderly Chinese tourists, missing after a ship capsized on the Yangtze River in what was likely China's worst shipping di

An Egyptian court on Saturday sentenced the country's first freely elected leader, ousted Islamist President Mohammed Morsi, to death over a mass prison break during the 2011 uprising that eventually brought him to power. The ruling appl

Burundi's President Pierre Nkurunziza on Sunday made his first official appearance since an attempted coup against him this week, AFP reporters said. The president smiled and appeared relaxed as he greeted the press at the presidential p