Italy said two marines on trial for murder in India would return to the country by Friday, in a stunning turnaround after Rome earlier unleashed a diplomatic furore by saying they would not go back.

A preliminary hearing into the case of a Canadian former porn actor accused of murdering and dismembering a Chinese man was adjourned until April 8 here Thursday, court officials said.

Nearly two-thirds of Americans favor a path to citizenship -- with conditions -- for undocumented immigrants, according to a new poll out Thursday, as lawmakers debate reform plans.

The United States on Thursday welcomed a call from the jailed rebel leader of the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) urging his fighters to lay down their arms, saying it was a "positive step."

Chinese Internet users have deluged the microblog of the Russian embassy in Beijing with thousands of abusive comments within days of its opening, just ahead of a visit to Moscow by China's new president Xi Jinping.

A Jewish student group has announced it was taking further legal action against Twitter over the global networking site's failure to respond to a French court order to hand over data to help identify the authors of anti-Semitic tweets.

Jailed Kurdish rebel chief Abdullah Ocalan called Thursday for a new ceasefire, telling his fighters to lay down their arms and withdraw from Turkish soil, raising hopes for an end to a three-decade conflict that has cost tens of thousands of lives.

The United Nations will investigate whether chemical weapons have been used in the Syria conflict, UN leader Ban Ki-Moon announced Thursday.

Cyprus Thursday was examining an overhaul of its banking sector to avoid financial meltdown after the European Central Bank threatened to pull the plug on emergency funding for the island's banks.

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.

The head of the International Olympic Committee's Evaluation Commission Craig Reedie said he is happy with the guarantees given by the Madrid 2020 bid team that the Spanish economy could support hosting the Olympics.

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".

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.