Two U.S. companies this year broke new ground by winning regulatory approval to start the first experiments using embryonic stem cells on humans suffering from spinal cord injury and blindness.

The potent but hotly debated cells can transform into nearly any cell in the human body, opening a path toward eliminating such ills as Parkinson's disease, paralysis, diabetes, heart disease, and maybe even the ravages of aging.

Pope Benedict XVI is set to publish a decree on Thursday to fight money-laundering in the Vatican, three months after an investigation was launched into two senior figures at the Vatican bank.

Benedict's 'Moto Proprio' document, which will be published at noon (1100 GMT), concerns "the prevention and opposition to illegal financial activity," according to a Holy See press release.

With its religious retreats for meditation and yoga, India has long been sought out by Western visitors eager to escape the rat race and return home better prepared to face life's challenges.

Big cities like New Delhi and Mumbai, however, are becoming anything but havens of spiritual calm and inner peace for ordinary Indians, as the country's economy grows and more people leave the rural heartlands in search of prosperity.

The Swiss franc strengthened on Thursday to new highs against the U.S. dollar, Euro and the British Pound, as investors turned to the refuge currency amid weakness in other industrialized economies.

The euro slumped below the barrier of 1.24 francs in early morning trade, trading at just 1.2396 francs.

Defending champions Egypt are teetering on the brink of elimination from the African Nations Cup going into the new year while Botswana are just one win away from a fairytale first appearance.

The struggle for 14 places at the premier national-team football competition on the continent will dominate 2011 with four rounds of qualifiers starting in March and ending seven months later.

Clearer of mind and fitter of body than for some time, Serbian glamor girl Ana Ivanovic is confident she can climb back into the top 10 in 2011.

Ranked no.1 in the world in 2008, when she won her only Grand Slam singles title at the French Open,

Japan's Nintendo has issued a health warning over the 3D function on its upcoming gaming console, recommending children aged six and under do not play with it to prevent damage to their eyes.

At a promotional event near Tokyo in January, "we will offer 2Ds alone to children aged six and younger as continuing to watch 3D images for a long time could negatively affect the development of their eyes," Nintendo said.

As Lebanon braces for the international tribunal to issue indictments in the Rafik Hariri murder, the parents of the policeman believed to have cracked the case are hoping it will also shed light on who killed their son.

Major Wissam Eid, a top communications analyst with the police intelligence bureau, was assassinated in a January 25, 2008 car bombing outside Beirut.

Zajal, an old form of improvised Arabic poetry that enjoyed its heyday in Lebanon before the 1975-1990 civil war, is making a tentative comeback with thousands of fans on Facebook and YouTube.

Traditionally an emotional oratory duel between two men, zajal once drew crowds of tens of thousands who revered its artists as poets of the highest order. It also enraptured fans who sat glued to their black-and-white television sets for the shows.

Australia's Prime Minister Julia Gillard on Wednesday warned "unprecedented" flooding would worsen after entire towns were cut off and soldiers airlifted hundreds of people from northeastern towns.

Drenching rains unleashed by a tropical cyclone have left vast tracts of the state of Queensland under water, with 1,000 evacuations and 38 regions declared natural disaster areas.