The French National Assembly voted on Friday in favour of a largely symbolic ban on parents smacking their children, a practice which though condemned by the UN still enjoys widespread support in the country.
A jailbreak in western Indonesia has left 90 inmates on the run after they escaped by breaking down fences when they were supposed to be at a prayer gathering, an official said Friday.
A train carrying South Korean engineers and officials crossed into the North on Friday to begin a landmark joint survey to reconnect railway tracks between the two Koreas.
Five people were killed and 32 injured after a coach on its way to Hong Kong's airport collided with a taxi on Friday, police said, with passengers reportedly thrown from the coach's windows on impact.
This week Istanbul will host two separate but related international conferences on mediation. One will be devoted to the state of play in the conflict map and capacity for mediation within the membership of the Organization for Islamic Cooperation (OIC).
A Peruvian oil executive has warned of "catastrophe" after indigenous residents cut a major pipeline in a region of the Amazon, triggering the spill of 8,000 barrels of oil.
Nancy Pelosi, the highest-ranking woman in the history of US politics, was re-elected on Wednesday to lead congressional Democrats, a major step on her march toward once again becoming speaker of the House of Representatives.
World leaders began arriving in Argentina ahead of a G20 summit dogged by increasingly strident warnings about the impact on the world economy of threatened US trade tariffs.
The UN Commission of Inquiry on Syria has urged the Security Council to press the Syrian government to provide information to families about the fate of those missing or detained during the seven-year war.
British Prime Minister Theresa May will argue on Wednesday that she managed to secure broader fishing rights for Scotland in the face of firm EU opposition in tough Brexit talks.
An explosion and fire near a chemical factory left at least 22 people dead and 22 others injured on Wednesday in a northern China region that will host the 2022 Winter Olympics, authorities said.
Flights were cancelled, railway lines closed and motorists stranded on flooded roads, as a month's worth of rain fell on Sydney early on Wednesday, leaving emergency services battling to respond.
Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko on Tuesday warned of the threat of "full-scale war" and said Russia had sharply increased its military presence on their shared border as tensions escalate between the ex-Soviet neighbours.
US President Donald Trump said Monday he expected to raise the punitive tariff rates on hundreds of billions in Chinese imports as scheduled next year.
Beijing has ordered an investigation into claims by a Chinese scientist to have created the world's first genetically-edited babies, a move that would be a ground-breaking medical first but which has generated a barrage of criticism.
Mexico deported scores of Central American migrants arrested after hundreds forced their way through a Mexican police blockade and headed for the United States but were met with tear gas and rubber bullets.
Cheers and applause erupted at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory on Monday as a waist-high unmanned lander, called InSight, touched down on Mars, capping a nearly seven-year journey from design to launch to landing.
Prime Minister Theresa May will on Monday convene her cabinet and update parliament on her newly-agreed Brexit deal, as the embattled British leader tries to sell the maligned plan to a sceptical country.
Russia has seized three Ukrainian naval ships in a strait near Moscow-annexed Crimea, raising fears of military escalation and prompting an emergency meeting of the UN Security Council on Monday.
Up to 145 pilot whales have died in a mass stranding on a remote part of a small New Zealand island, authorities said on Monday.
