World News

BEIJING (Reuters) - China hit back on Friday at the U.S. State Department's annual survey of human rights, saying that only the Chinese people could pass judgement on what the Foreign Ministry said were the country's obvious achievements in the area. Asked about criticism of China in the report, Foreign Ministry spokesman …

Russia on Friday called the latest round of talks on the Iranian nuclear standoff "constructive" despite big differences that remain as the parties head for more negotiations in Moscow next month.

President Francois Hollande visited Afghanistan on Friday to defend France's imminent departure from the war, telling troops that it would be coordinated closely with Afghan and NATO allies.

A crowd of the president's supporters chanted noisily outside Johannesburg's High Court as the Zuma Spear case (as it's now known) took another dramatic turn inside.

The Dragon space capsule launched by US company SpaceX was within 350 meters (yards) of the International Space Station early Friday on a test maneuver ahead of a high-stakes berthing bid.

A man has told New York police that he suffocated a six-year-old boy who disappeared 33 years ago.

A suicide bomb squad killed two policemen and wounded more than a dozen people in central Turkey on Friday after it drove into a police station and opened fire, reports said quoting officials.

Egypt looked set on Friday for a run-off presidential vote pitting Muslim Brotherhood candidate Mohammed Mursi against former prime minister Ahmed Shafiq, according to tallies by the Islamist group.

A mother in Mexico has been arrested on suspicion of gouging out the eyes of her five-year-old son during a ceremony.

How the emergency services responded during the massacre on Utoya island on July 22 last year.

EDINBURGH (Reuters) - Supporters of independence for Scotland will launch on Friday what they say is the biggest grassroots campaign in Scottish history, a move that could result in the demise of a 305-year-old union with England and the breakup of Britain. Seeking to tap into a cocktail of historical rivalry, opposing …

America has withdrawn $33m in aid from Pakistan in protest at the 33-year sentence given to a Pakistani doctor who helped the CIA find Osama Bin Laden.

More than 200 mountaineers are set to head for the summit of Mount Everest on Friday and Saturday, risking perilous overcrowding just a week after four died on the packed trail in bad weather.

A parliamentary debate in Ukraine has descended into chaos with politicians from opposing parties throwing punches in a violent scuffle.

A man has confessed to strangling to death a boy who vanished on his way to school in 1979 -- a haunting case that terrified parents across America and baffled police for three decades, New York police chief Ray Kelly said.

Vote counting was underway in Egypt Friday after two days of polling in a landmark presidential election which pitted stability against the ideals of the uprising that ended Hosni Mubarak's rule.

BEIJING (Reuters) - Chinese President Hu Jintao has demanded senior Communist Party officials stifle tensions over the ousting of ambitious politician Bo Xilai and show unity as they prepare for a change of leadership, sources briefed on recent meetings said. Hu urged the party to close ranks at a meeting of about 200 officials …

Thousands of protesters returned to the streets across Quebec late Thursday in defiance of a new law regulating demonstrations and despite the arrest of some 1,000 protesters this week.

YANGON (Reuters) - Five days of street protests over chronic power shortages present Myanmar's reformist government with a headache and an opportunity. Police forcibly dispersed protesters in the central Myanmar town of Pyi on Thursday, a heavy-handed response reminiscent of the previous military junta that could fuel grievances …

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Blind Chinese activist Chen Guangcheng urged authorities in Beijing on Thursday to prosecute "lawless" officials who harassed and abused the self-taught lawyer, his family and supporters, saying such prosecutions could help China establish the rule of law. In one of his first interviews since arriving …

HONG KONG (Reuters) - Alongside an armada of paramilitary patrol vessels and fishing boats, China has fired off a barrage of historical records to reinforce its claim over a disputed shoal near the Philippines in the South China Sea. While this propaganda broadside makes it clear Beijing will take a tough line with Manila …

Hurricane Bud off Mexico's Pacific coast gained strength and become a Category Three storm on the five-level Saffir-Simpson scale, the National Hurricane Center said.

Iran and six world powers achieved little in two days of intense nuclear talks in Baghdad except arranging another meeting in Moscow next month and establishing they are poles apart on crucial issues.

Blind activist Chen Guangcheng has vowed to keep speaking out against rights abuses in China as he settles into a new life in New York following his dramatic escape from illegal detention.

Eurozone tensions have intensified after grim news on the economic outlook and as investors sought safety in Germany on growing doubts over Greece's future in the currency union.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The United States pledged on Thursday to "stand with the Egyptian people" and said it looked forward to working with their democratically elected government. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said Egypt marked "another important milestone in their transition to democracy" by holding its first free …

HONG KONG (Reuters) - Alibaba.com Ltd, Hong Kong-listed unit of China's Alibaba Group, said on Friday that 83.8 percent of its shareholders have approved a $2.5 billion buyout offer by the parent to take the company private, in a decision that was widely expected. Alibaba Group, in which Yahoo Inc owns a 40 percent stake, …

(Reuters) - Europe's economic slowdown has hit the engine-room of the euro zone, including Germany, gloomy new indicators have revealed, adding urgency to the region's struggle to keep Greece's debt crisis from tearing the single currency apart. So far, the 17-nation euro zone's downturn has been confined mainly to its …