More than two-thirds of American motorists use a mobile phone while driving despite recent laws in many jurisdictions banning the practice, a survey showed Thursday.

Global losses from natural disasters hit $138 billion in 2012, with half the sum claimed by drought and Hurricane Sandy in the United States, the UN said Thursday.

Cruise operator Carnival said Thursday it was arranging to fly as many as 4,300 passengers home after the Carnival Dream moored for repairs in the Dutch Caribbean island of St Maarten.

Author Tan Twan Eng became the first Malaysian author to win Asia's top literary prize on Thursday for his novel set during the aftermath of the Japanese occupation of Malaya.

A Carnival Cruise ship was moored in St Maarten for repairs Thursday with a boatload of passengers, the US Coast Guard said, a month after a hellish ordeal aboard another of its ocean liners.

Africa in particular is losing the fight against road accidents, which kill more than one million people worldwide each year, a UN World Health Organisation report showed Thursday, calling for stricter laws to help turn around the trend.

Britain's Labour Party suspended Pakistan-born Muslim peer Nazir Ahmed on Thursday over reports that he blamed a Jewish conspiracy for his imprisonment over a fatal car crash, a spokesman said.

Britain's Labour Party suspended Pakistan-born Muslim peer Nazir Ahmed on Thursday over reports that he blamed a Jewish conspiracy for his imprisonment over a fatal car crash, a spokesman said.

Japan provided $1 million on Wednesday to help clean up debris from the March 2011 tsunami that has washed up along Canada's shores.

A twin-engine plane crashed in the Brazilian Amazon state of Para, killing all nine passengers and the pilot, company officials said after finding the wreckage early Wednesday.

An international agreement to protect sharks could spell trouble for one tsunami-wrecked port in Japan as it struggles back to its feet two years after being swept away, locals say.

An accident at a coal mine in southwest China killed 21 miners Tuesday, state media said, in the latest disaster to hit the country's troubled industry.

Rescuers took four days to reach the wreckage of a UN helicopter that crashed in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo and finally found the bodies of the four Russian crew on Tuesday, the UN said.

Japan said Tuesday it had successfully extracted methane hydrate, known as "fire ice", from its seabed, possibly unlocking many years' worth of gas for the resource-starved country.

The United Nations mission in the Democratic Republic of Congo on Tuesday confirmed that four Russians reported missing were killed when their helicopter crashed in a remote eastern region.

Two Israeli reservists were killed early Tuesday when their attack helicopter crashed during a training mission in the south of the country, the military said in a statement.

Five US troops fighting Islamist insurgents in southern Afghanistan were killed in a helicopter crash in bad weather, the coalition and provincial authorities said Tuesday.

Japan said Tuesday it was "disappointing" China did not send anyone to a ceremony marking the second anniversary of its tsunami, in the latest sign of deteriorating ties between the two countries.

Munich Re, the world's biggest reinsurer, said Tuesday it expects business and earnings to be stable this year after bottom-line profit increased by more than fourfold in 2012.

Japan said Tuesday it was "disappointing" China did not send anyone to a ceremony marking the second anniversary of its tsunami, in the latest sign of deteriorating ties between the two countries.