Still nursing election wounds, soul-searching Republicans gathered Thursday at the first conservative casting call for the US presidential election in 2016, with the party divided over how to broaden its appeal.

Canada's first Innu cabinet minister, Peter Penashue, resigned on Thursday over illicit donations to his 2011 election campaign.

The departing top US trade official Ron Kirk announced Thursday that his deputy Demetrios Marantis will serve as acting US trade representative.

Pope Francis celebrated his first mass as pontiff on Thursday, a day after his election as the first Latin American leader of the Catholic Church.

A divisive debate over Lebanon's electoral law may delay parliamentary elections scheduled for June 9, stoking fears of instability in a country already rattled by the conflict in neighbouring Syria.

The party of Kenya's outgoing Prime Minister Raila Odinga, defeated in presidential polls by Uhuru Kenyatta, will file a petition challenging the election result on Friday, officials said.

The Egyptian opposition is more determined than ever to boycott parliamentary elections after Islamist President Mohamed Morsi challenged a court decision delaying the polls, former Arab League chief Amr Mussa said on Thursday.

Pakistan's parliament made history Thursday by becoming the first in the country to complete a full term in office, dissolving in a low-key session that paves the way for elections.

Coordinated attacks involving a string of bombings and a brazen attempted assault on a ministry near the heavily-fortified Green Zone in central Baghdad killed nine people Thursday, officials said.

A string of apparently coordinated blasts struck near Iraqi government offices close to Baghdad's heavily fortified Green Zone on Thursday, a security official and witnesses said.

Venezuela's acting president Nicolas Maduro acknowledged that it could be too late to have president Hugo Chavez embalmed "like Lenin" so that his body could be on view permanently.

A senior official from Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe's party has been hospitalised after his house was fire-bombed ahead of a weekend constitutional referendum, police said Wednesday.

Motorcycle gunmen shot dead a prominent woman development worker Wednesday in the Pakistani city of Karachi, police said, fuelling fears of instability as the country heads towards general elections in May.

Nepal's Maoist prime minister was expected to step down late Wednesday after the party's spokesman said an agreement to end months of political deadlock had been reached.

Zimbabwe rights activists say they are suffering under a police crackdown designed to be an ominous warning ahead of a constitutional referendum this week and elections later in the year.

Prime Minister David Cameron has warned his Conservative lawmakers not to air their grievances about the party's dismal poll ratings and his leadership on Twitter, reports said Wednesday.

President Barack Obama warned America will not balance its budget within a decade because Republican plans to do so would entail slashing social programs many citizens rely on for support.

President Barack Obama warned America will not balance its budget within a decade because Republican plans to do so would entail slashing social programs many citizens rely on for support.

Togolese authorities have charged a prominent political opponent of President Faure Gnassingbe over two recent market fires in the West African nation, prosecutors said Wednesday.

Argentine President Cristina Kirchner, her approval rating plummeting, has refused to recognize the results of a referendum in which the people of the disputed Falkland Islands voted to remain British.