The new Pope Francis appoints a group of top churchmen to advise him on how to reform the Vatican's often arcane bureaucracy, or curia.

US President Barack Obama will meet South Korean President Park Geun-hye in Washington in May amid high tension on the peninsula.

Authorities in India reject a plan by the adult entertainment company Playboy to open its first club in the country, in Goa.

Results of random tests for horse DNA in processed beef products across the EU are being published by the European Commission later.

The FBI launches a "potential terrorist inquiry" after two explosions at the Boston Marathon leave three people dead and more than 100 injured.

Police in India say they have killed nine Maoist rebels in a clash in the central state of Chhattisgarh.

The heads of five major UN agencies issue a rare joint appeal to the international community to do much more to end "cruelty and carnage" in Syria.

A court in Grosseto, Italy, begins pre-trial hearings to decide who should stand trial over last year's Costa Concordia cruise ship disaster.