World
Latest stories
Ghani Wins Fraud-Hit Afghan Election

Former World Bank economist Ashraf Ghani won Afghanistan's presidential election, according to preliminary results Monday, but fraud allegations are set to spark a dispute over the outcome and stoke concerns of instability.

Ghani won 56.4 percent of the run-off vote to ex-foreign minister Abdullah Abdullah's 43.5 percent -- a major comeback for Ghani after the first-round election in April when eight men stood to succeed President Hamid Karzai.

W140 Full Story
S.Sudan Leaders Told to Talk as Famine Looms

South Sudan's warring leaders must resume stalled peace talks in earnest before the months-long bloody conflict is written off as an international lost cause, a senior AU official warned on Monday.

"They have to realize that the world is watching them, that the world will not wait for them indefinitely," said Olusegun Obasanjo, the head of an African Union team probing atrocities in the war-torn country.

W140 Full Story
Asylum Requests Shoot Up in Europe

Almost half a million people requested asylum in Europe last year, 30 percent more than in 2012 and the highest number yet registered, official figures showed Monday.

"We have in our immediate neighborhood a very worrying situation," said the EU's home affairs commissioner Cecilia Malmstroem as data showed a 19 percent rise already in the first five months of 2013.

W140 Full Story
Violence in C. Africa Escalating Says French Minister

Violence in the Central African Republic is becoming "more serious" as a political deadlock inflames tensions between rival Christians and Muslims, France's defense minister warned as he left for the war-torn country.

A dozen French peacekeeping troops were wounded last week in clashes with armed groups and Jean-Yves Le Drian admitted that efforts to stabilize the country have stalled, six months after the election of a new transitional leader.

W140 Full Story
Sarkozy Hit with New Probe over Election Finances

Nicolas Sarkozy's legal headaches intensified on Monday as it emerged that the former president is the subject of a fresh legal probe into the financing of his unsuccessful 2012 re-election bid.

Sarkozy, who was last week hit with charges including corruption and influence peddling in a case linked to his victorious 2007 campaign, is being investigated over whether financial penalties paid by his UMP party should have come out of his own pocket, judicial sources said.

W140 Full Story
Pope Tormented by Sex Abuse Suicides, Slams Complicity

Pope Francis said the suicides of sex abuse victims weighed on his conscience on Monday, speaking of the "terrible darkness" inside the Church as he met with survivors and pledged to crack down on pedophilia.

At his long-awaited first meeting with victims, the pope reached out to the tens of thousands of people abused by priests globally, telling them he was sorry for the "grave crimes of clerical sexual abuse committed against you".

W140 Full Story
Russia Extends Detention of Ukrainian Filmmaker

Russia on Monday extended by three months the detention of a Ukrainian film director arrested on charges of plotting "terrorist attacks" in Crimea after the peninsula's takeover by Moscow.

"The detention of Oleg Sentsov has been extended until October 11," a spokeswoman for a Moscow court, Yulia Sotnikova, told Agence France Presse.

W140 Full Story
Kerry Heads for Tough U.S.-China Talks as Ties Strain

U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry Monday headed for tough talks in Beijing seeking to chart a path ahead in turbulent China-U.S. ties roiled by differences over hacking and maritime tensions.

Senior officials will meet in Beijing on Wednesday and Thursday for the sixth Strategic and Economic Dialogue, billed as the main annual meeting between the world's two largest economies.

W140 Full Story
Retreating Rebels Dig in around Ukraine Coal Hub

Retreating pro-Russian insurgents dug in on Monday in Ukraine's sprawling industrial hub of Donetsk after government forces scored a string of morale-boosting victories in the bloody battle for the future of the ex-Soviet state.

The eastern home of one million mostly Russian speakers has been flooded with convoys carrying hundreds of fighters and scores of anti-aircraft guns from five smaller surrounding cities where Ukrainian flags were flying for the first time in three months.

W140 Full Story
At Least 2 Dead as 6.9 Quake Hits Mexico, Guatemala

A strong 6.9 magnitude earthquake rocked parts of southern Mexico and Guatemala on Monday, killing at least two people as shockwaves toppled walls and caused landslides.

The U.S. Geological Survey -- which revised down the magnitude from 7.1 -- said the quake struck the Pacific coast of Mexico's Chiapas state at about 1124 GMT at a depth of 60 kilometers (37 miles).

W140 Full Story