Spotlight
Britain's Prince William declared Friday that he is no fan of durian, the spiky and notoriously pungent Southeast-Asian fruit, after sampling it on a visit to Malaysia.
The future king and his wife Catherine were served durian, revered in the region as the "king of fruits", during a welcome lunch with Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Razak after their arrival Thursday for a three-day visit.
Full Story
Many cases of female genital mutilation likely go unreported in Australia, a state minister said Friday after four people were charged over the alleged circumcision of two girls aged 6 and 7.
Two men and two women were charged on Thursday over their involvement in the alleged mutilation of the girls in Sydney homes over the past 18 months.
Full Story
Iran should "understand the message" that it needs to do more to address global concerns that it wants the bomb, following the U.N. atomic agency's latest board resolution, the watchdog's chief told Agence France Presse.
"I hope that Iran clearly understands the message and engages with us on substance," International Atomic Energy Agency director general Yukiya Amano said in an interview.
Full Story
Facebook on Thursday said that it has shaken up its engineering teams to make targeting smartphones a top priority at the world's leading social network.
"We have really just re-organized the company to build faster on mobile," Facebook director of product management Peter Deng said during a briefing with reporters at the company's campus in Menlo Park, California.
Full Story
A 6.3-magnitude quake struck off Indonesia's Sumatra island on Friday, the U.S. Geological Survey said, but no tsunami warning was issued and there were no immediate reports of damage or injuries.
The epicenter of the quake, which struck at 11:51 am (0451 GMT) at a depth of 25 kilometers (15.5 miles), was 190 kilometers northwest of the town of Bengkulu.
Full Story
Sculptor El Anatsui, who was born in Ghana and lives and creates in Nigeria, has mined Africa's history and culture to carve, mold and weave forms that captivate viewers around the world.
"When I set out to do work, I want something that would arrest people at least, draw them closer, so they can decide for themselves whether it's really beautiful," he told art-lovers last week in Denver, Colorado.
Full Story
A prominent Jewish rights group expressed fears Thursday of "another blood libel" against Jews stemming from a film mocking Islam that triggered riots in Muslim countries.
The amateur film denigrating the Prophet Mohammed was promoted by evangelical and Coptic Christians living in the United States, and the suspected producer is a Coptic Christian living in California.
Full Story
Striving for a Guinness World Record in oral hygiene, officials in Lagos have called on 300,000 students to take out their toothbrushes on December 5 and start scrubbing simultaneously at noon.
The current record was set in India on October 9, 2007, when 177,003 people gathered at 380 locations and brushed at the same time, according to guinnessworldrecords.com.
Full Story
Italy's financial police on Thursday said they had discovered 174 pensioners who were picking up poverty benefits while living in the United States and South America and travelling to and from Italy.
Police seized 173 properties, 56 plots of land and 59 bank accounts belonging to the alleged fraudsters, who were all officially registered as residents in seaside villages in the southern region of Calabria.
Full Story
Prince William and his wife Catherine reacted with fury Friday after a French magazine printed topless photos of her, saying it evoked painful memories of press harassment of William's mother Diana.
The young British royals, who are currently in Malaysia, were consulting lawyers over what they called a "grotesque" breach of privacy by the French version of Closer magazine, palace officials said.
Full Story



