Russian state oil giant Rosneft announced Thursday the creation of the world's top listed oil firm as it sealed a $56-billion acquisition of the British and local stakes in the lucrative but strife-torn joint venture TNK-BP .

Celebrated Romanian novelist Mircea Cartarescu has told AFP, in an exclusive interview, of a "war" against intellectuals in his country.

US President Barack Obama used a major speech in Israel on Thursday to issue a new call on Syrian President Bashar al-Assad to step down so his country's "future can begin."

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.

An Islamist activist on Thursday hacked the Facebook page of feminist group Femen's Tunisian branch and posted religious messages after images of two members of the group posing topless were published on the Internet.

Top Russian artist, Vladislav Mamyshev-Monroe, who painstakingly transformed himself to resemble Adolf Hitler, Marilyn Monroe and Vladimir Putin for avant-garde photo performances, has died at 43, Russian news agencies reported Thursday.

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.

Pope Francis was "not complicit" with Argentina's brutal military dictatorship and pursued "silent diplomacy", Nobel Peace Prize laureate Adolfo Perez Esquivel said on Thursday after meeting with Latin America's first pontiff.

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.

Scotland's First Minister Alex Salmond said on Thursday that Scots will vote in a referendum on whether the country should become independent on September 18, 2014.

A video of a French family of seven kidnapped last month which also purports to show the alleged leader of Nigerian Islamist extremist group Boko Haram was obtained by AFP on Thursday.

Egypt's ruling Muslim Brotherhood warned on Thursday that it will defend its headquarters, as opposition activists planned a march on the building where they have previously clashed with the Islamists.

Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas on Thursday told US President Barack Obama there could be no talks with Israel without a freeze on settlement construction.

Two rockets fired by militants in the Hamas-run Gaza Strip on Thursday hit southern Israel, police said, sparking a top-level condemnation from visiting US President Barack Obama.

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

The White House hosted award-winning dissident Cuban blogger Yoani Sanchez, on her first international trip in years, Wednesday after she met lawmakers on Capitol Hill.

Afghan President Hamid Karzai on Thursday claimed victory in his latest dispute with the US after accusing its special forces of abusing civilians in the key strategic province of Wardak.

Russia's state oil giant Rosneft on Thursday announced the creation of the world's largest listed oil company as it completed a $56-billion acquisition of the British and Russian stakes in the joint venture TNK-BP.

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.

US President Barack Obama on Thursday condemned Israel's ongoing settlement building as unhelpful to the pursuit of peace.