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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

The EU will put its controversial carbon tax on intercontinental airline flights on hold for a year to give time for international talks to reach a compromise on the issue, a European source said Thursday.

Spain's borrowing costs dipped in a bond auction Thursday, easing concerns that a feared banking meltdown in Cyprus could scare investors away from other troubled eurozone states.

Iran will "annihilate" the Israeli cities of Tel Aviv and Haifa if it comes under attack by the Jewish state, supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei warned on Thursday.

The European Central Bank warned Thursday it was ready to pull the plug on emergency funding for Cyprus banks as the island's politicians scrambled to raise billions of euros to head off financial meltdown.

US President Barack Obama insisted on Thursday a two-state solution was still viable, but disappointed his Palestinian hosts by failing to take a clear stance on freezing settlement activity.

Sri Lanka announced on Thursday plans to take back part of a strategic oil storage depot from a state-run Indian firm after Delhi supported international calls to probe war crimes on the island.

UN envoy Christopher Ross said on Thursday that a solution to the decades-old Western Sahara conflict was "more urgent than ever" after meeting top Moroccan officials on a visit aimed at reviving stalled peace talks.

White House advisors have warned that US spy agencies are too focused on anti-terror operations and pay inadequate attention to China, the Middle East and other flashpoints, a news report said Thursday.

Hundreds of thousands of people flocked to Bangladesh's presidential palace Thursday to pay their last respects to president Zillur Rahman after he died in a Singapore hospital.