Venezuela's government has not given details about what sort of treatment Chavez is now undergoing in Havana, more than two months after his fourth cancer-related surgery in December.

The Pontiff received a tanding ovation; Pope Benedict XVI celebrates last public Mass as pontiff for Ash Wednesday.

Same-sex marriage in France came one step closer to legality Tuesday, as lawmakers in the lower house of parliament approved a controversial bill that would extend the right to marry and adopt to same-sex couples.

North Korea said the atomic test it conducted Tuesday in the remote, snowy northeast was merely its "first response" taken with "maximum restraint," in response to what it called U.S. threats, and said it will continue with unspecified "second and third measures of greater intensity" if Washington maintains its hostility.

The move allows for a fast-track conclave to elect a new pope, since the traditional nine days of mourning that would follow a pope's death doesn't have to be observed. It also gives Benedict great sway over the choice of his successor.

North Korea appeared to have conducted its third underground nuclear bomb test, as the U.S. Geological Survey reported a seismic disturbance.

Dalal Al-Ziben says she got pregnant by her husband because he managed to have his sperm smuggled out of a high security prison.

Lolong, the world's largest crocodile in captivity, has died in the southern Philippines.

A local Indian official resigned Monday after a chaotic crush at a railroad station a day earlier left 36 people dead among tens of millions of Hindu pilgrims flocking to the banks of the Ganges River for the world's largest religious gathering.

UK news source, The Telegraph, reports Monday that a spokesman says Pope Benedict XVI will resign at the end of the month.

Outrage is mounting in Saudi Arabia about the case of a 5-year-old girl who died after allegedly being beaten and tortured by her father, who activists say is an Islamist preacher.

An 8.0-magnitude earthquake struck off the Solomon Islands in the South Pacific on Wednesday, triggering a tsunami that killed five people but didn't threaten the wider region.

Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe on Wednesday described as "dangerous" and "regrettable" the actions of a Chinese navy ship that Tokyo says put a radar-lock on a Japanese vessel last week.

With a glaring spotlight on sexual violence after a fatal gang-rape case, a high-profile government panel has joined women's rights advocates in demanding changes to India's sexual assault medical exam.

Sexual violence against female protestors at Cairo's Tahrir Square appears to be increasing, an activist group devoted to end such assaults said Tuesday.

Spanish and Italian bond and stock markets tumbled on Monday, bringing a months-long rally to an abrupt halt as investors pulled back amid a political storm in Madrid and as Silvio Berlusconi staged an electoral fightback in Italy.

The ear-splitting crack of 101 rounds of artillery will mark the final moment before late Cambodian King-Father Norodom Sihanouk is cremated Monday in a specially built crematorium outside the Royal Palace.

Yum Brands, owner of the KFC fast-food chain, forecast a drop in 2013 earnings as a result of the fallout from food safety concerns surrounding its Chinese business, sending shares tumbling about 6 per cent in after-market trading.

The body of Sarai Sierra was found in Istanbul, Turkey, on Saturday. The Staten Island, New York, woman went missing in Turkey some 10 days earlier. Her husband and brother traveled to Istanbul to assist in the search.

A suicide car bomber joined by other suicide attackers on foot assaulted a provincial police headquarters in a disputed northern Iraqi city on Sunday, killing at least 15 people and wounding 90 others, officials said.

A New York City woman who went missing while vacationing alone in Istanbul was found dead on Saturday, and police were questioning 11 people in connection with the case, Turkey's state-run news agency said.

John Kerry sworn in, first trip likely to include stops in Egypt and Israel. Clinton cites Turkey attack as example of challenges in the world, after her resume includes visiting 112 countries and flew almost 1 million miles in four years.

A truck carrying fireworks on an expressway bridge in central China exploded Friday, causing part of the bridge to collapse and sending dozens of vehicles plunging off the edge, authorities said.

A suicide bomber detonated an explosive device at an entrance to the U.S. Embassy in the Turkish capital on Friday, killing himself and one other person, officials said.

14 people were killed and at least 100 are injured, interior minister says. The explosion collapsed two stories of an office building, a paramedic says. Rescuers have pulled a survivor from the rubble, Mexico's president says.