DAMASCUS - Dozens of people have been killed by an air strike on a petrol station in the outskirts of the Syrian capital, Damascus, activists say. Damascus residents say they saw burning bodies and a scene of horror after the strike...

WASHINGTON - President Barack Obama is cutting short his Hawaiian holiday to leave for Washington on Wednesday to address the unfinished "fiscal cliff" negotiations with Congress, the White House said on Tuesday. As the clock ticks toward a January 1 deadline,...

MOSCOW - Russian President Vladimir Putin has defended a ban on Americans adopting Russian children, which has been proposed by the Russian parliament. He said the bill, a response to the US Magnitsky Act which bars entry to Russian alleged human...

WASHINGTON - US President Barack Obama has met senior officials to discuss how to respond to Friday's school shootings in Newtown, Connecticut, in which 20 children and six adults died. The White House said curbing gun violence was a "complex" problem...

DAMASCUS - A Russian official has said for the first time that the Syrian government may be defeated by opposition forces. President Bashar al-Assad's forces are "losing more and more control and territory", deputy foreign minister Mikhail Bogdanov said on Thursday....

WASHINGTON - US President Barack Obama has warned of a "Scrooge Christmas" if tax breaks are not renewed for working families in a deal to avert a so-called fiscal cliff. Mr Obama made the remarks as he tried to win public...

DAMASCUS - Activists in Syria say a government jet has dropped a cluster bomb on a playground, leaving 10 children dead. Video posted on the internet showed children's bodies on the ground with their mothers grieving over them. The children were...

DHAKA - More than 100 people are now known to have died in a fire that swept through a clothes factory in Bangladesh, local officials say. The blaze broke out late on Saturday in the multi-floor Tazreen Fashion factory in the...

KABUL - A suicide bomber dressed as a security guard blew himself up Wednesday in a street near the U.S. Embassy in the Afghan capital, killing himself and two other people, authorities said. The attacker set off the explosives attached to...

WASHINGTON - The US has lifted a decade-old ban on most imports from Burma, ahead of a historic visit by President Obama. The move was intended to support political reform in Burma and to offer new bilateral business opportunities, said US...

DAMASCUS - Not long after Syrian dissidents united in hopes of gaining global credibility, the Syrian government slammed the new coalition, saying any effort to topple President Bashar al-Assad will be futile. "There is no power in this entire world that...

HARARE - President Barack Obama has been re-elected to a second term, defeating Republican challenger Mitt Romney. America's first black president secured the 270 votes in the electoral college needed to win the race. In his victory speech before supporters in...

WASHINGTON - A roller-coaster ride of an election campaign, buffeted by a superstorm and missteps on both sides, finally concludes Tuesday when America decides if President Barack Obama gets a second term or Republican challenger Mitt Romney will move into the...

HONG KONG - If there's one thing that would have struck a chord with seven million Hong Kongers this election season, it was U.S. President Barack Obama and his challenger Mitt Romney using China as a political punching bag during the...

WASHINGTON - President Barack Obama is to resume an election campaign which was suspended in the aftermath of storm Sandy, which wreaked havoc in the north eastern US. Obama visited storm-hit New Jersey on Wednesday, while Republican rival Mitt Romney has...

BUENOS AIRES - Argentinian lawmakers passed a new measure Wednesday lowering the nation's voting age to 16. Representatives in the South American country's lower house overwhelmingly voted in favor of the law Wednesday. A majority of senators approved it last week....

NEW JERSEY - Millions of people awoke on Tuesday to scenes of destruction wrought by monster storm Sandy after it smashed into the eastern United States, cutting power to swathes of the nation’s most densely populated region, swamping New York’s subway...

BEIJING - China has condemned as a "smear" a New York Times report saying Premier Wen Jiabao's relatives have accumulated billions of dollars. The article said Mr Wen's family members "have controlled assets worth at least $2.7bn (£1.7bn)". A Foreign Ministry...

DAMASCUS - The UN's envoy to Syria says President Bashar al-Assad's government has agreed to abide by a ceasefire during the Islamic holiday of Eid al-Adha. Lakhdar Brahimi told reporters in Cairo that most opposition factions had also said they would...

NEW YORK - A forceful President Barack Obama put Republican challenger Mitt Romney on the defensive on foreign policy on Monday night, with analysts and an immediate poll giving him the victory in their final debate just 15 days before the...

NEW YORK - A more aggressive Barack Obama buried the memory of a poor first showing as he and Republican presidential challenger Mitt Romney clashed in the second presidential debate in New York. Mr Obama, perceived to have lost their first...

BENGHAZI - US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton says she takes responsibility for the security failure at the Benghazi consulate that led to the killing of four Americans in Libya last month. Mrs Clinton said ensuring the safety of US diplomatic...

DAMASCUS - UN envoy Lakhdar Brahimi has appealed for Iranian help to implement a ceasefire in Syria over the upcoming Muslim holiday of Eid al-Adha. Following a visit to Tehran, Mr Brahimi said such a ceasefire could "allow a political process...

DAMASCUS - Turkish civilian planes are no longer allowed to fly over Syria, Damascus has said, amid growing tensions between the two neighbouring countries. The ban took effect at midnight (2100GMT) on Saturday. This comes just days after Turkey intercepted a...