The United Nations will appoint an independent expert to investigate and help improve the human rights situation in war-torn Mali, the UN Human Rights Council decided Thursday.

Former French president Nicolas Sarkozy was unexpectedly hauled back before a judge Thursday over claims he accepted envelopes stuffed with cash from France's richest woman to illegally finance his 2007 election campaign.

Washington is still hoping for better ties with Venezuela even as the South American nation ratcheted up tensions by cutting off a channel of communications, a US official said Thursday.

About 1,000 mourners massed Thursday for the cremation of a co-founder of Cambodia's Khmer Rouge, highlighting the stark divide between supporters and victims of the brutal communist regime.

Sri Lanka must launch an in-depth probe into claims that government troops killed 40,000 civilians during a 2009 offensive against Tamil Tiger rebels that ended its three-decade civil war, the UN Human Rights Council said Thursday.

An Indonesian city government demolished a church in front of its weeping congregation Thursday, as Muslim protesters egged on workers and branded the Christians "infidels".

As the EU raised the spectre of a eurozone exit for Cyprus, experts warned on Thursday of the consequences of brinksmanship from Brussels to Moscow in the race to fix new bailout terms.

The United Nations on Thursday said it will for the first time establish a commission of inquiry into grave human rights violations in North Korea that may amount to crimes against humanity.

Myanmar must launch an independent investigation into reports of widespread human rights violations, the United Nations' top human rights body said Thursday.

A senior Indian central bank official cleared three private banks of money-laundering on Thursday after an undercover media investigation led to the suspension of dozens of their employees.

Iran's supreme leader on Thursday signalled openness for the first time to US offers to hold direct talks on his country's disputed nuclear drive, but voiced pessimism over the chances of a breakthrough.

London shares closed lower on Thursday as traders looked past positive economic data to focus on bleak eurozone news, notably fallout from the Cyprus bailout impasse.

European stock markets slid Thursday as disappointing eurozone data and the Cyprus bailout impasse overshadowed strong Chinese economic performance.

Former Ivory Coast president Laurent Gbagbo's party announced Thursday it would boycott the regional and local elections scheduled for April 21, saying the vote would not be fair.

Spain's battered banks predicted Thursday they will turn a profit this year after a "horrific" 2012 in which the overall industry recorded losses for the first time in its history.

A suicide bomber blew himself up outside a police post in the Somali capital's main market Thursday, wounding several people, police said.

Pope Francis was "not complicit" with Argentina's brutal military dictatorship and pursued a "silent diplomacy" , Nobel peace laureate Adolfo Perez Esquivel said on Thursday, following criticism the pontiff had failed to speak out.

Syrian rebels have gained ground in the Golan Heights, which is partly occupied by Israel, launching coordinated attacks in the area and in nearby Daraa province, a watchdog said on Thursday.

Cases of tuberculosis reached an all-time low in the United States last year, but the disease continued to affect minorities at much higher rates than whites, health authorities said Thursday.

Ireland's bailed-out economy grew by 0.9 percent in 2012 but stagnated in the final quarter of the year, official data for the troubled eurozone nation showed on Thursday.