Government and Politics

Bangladeshi police on Friday shot dead a protester in fresh clashes with thousands of supporters of the nation's biggest Islamic party angered by the ongoing war crimes trials of their leaders.

A day after challenging Israelis to embrace peace with Palestinians, US President Barack Obama Friday will face scrutiny over his strategy on Syria during an overnight stay in Jordan.

South Korea said Friday that an IP address identified as a source of a major cyber attack this week was not based in China as originally believed.

In the furnace of the Ifoghas mountains, a purgatory of dust and sharp black rock straddling the Mali-Algeria border, soldiers hunt down a ghost-like enemy, invisible but ever present.

Italy's President Giorgio Napolitano said he will hand out a mandate for the formation of a new government on Friday in a bid to break a deadlock created by elections last month, but the identity of the possible prime minister is still a mystery.

Japan logged a huge surge in air purifier sales last month, as Tokyo warned that smog was blowing into its territory from China, which is grappling with an air pollution crisis.

Palestinians sour at Barack Obama's perceived failure to honour their historical struggle have invoked the US civil rights movement and South Africa's apartheid in a bid to win his sympathy.

The United Nations launched a campaign Friday to lift a deadly taboo on talking about toilets and to turn the world into an "open defecation-free zone."

Two former Philippine soldiers who took part in a failed coup in 2003 were sentenced on Friday to long prison terms, officials said, after both spurned President Benigno Aquino's offer of pardon.

Cyprus is scrambling to overhaul its banking sector to avoid financial meltdown, after the European Central Bank threatened to pull the plug on emergency funding for the island's lenders.

An emergency session of the Cyprus parliament to race through a raft of bills aimed at raising billions of euros to secure an international bailout was delayed on Friday, local media said.

Cypriot Finance Minister Michalis Sarris left Moscow on Friday after two days of talks aimed at securing a financial lifeline from Russia without reaching an agreement.

Sri Lankan state media called Friday for the dismantling of the UN human rights chief's office after Colombo was angered by a resolution calling for a probe into alleged war crimes in the island.

Australian Prime Minister Julia Gillard set about rebuilding her Labor party's tainted image on Friday after a botched leadership coup as a slew of ministers who supported rival Kevin Rudd quit.

Former president Nicolas Sarkozy has been charged with taking financial advantage of France's richest woman, as part of a probe into illegal party funding that could shatter his hopes of a political comeback.

American lawmakers averted a feared government shutdown by approving a stopgap spending bill, but heated debate over future federal spending took shape as they clashed over budget plans.

Russian President Vladimir Putin and China's new leader Xi Jinping are to hold landmark talks Friday in the hope of further cementing the two countries' partnership with a range of strategic agreements.

US officials involved in enforcing international sanctions against North Korea expressed optimism on Friday that China was willing to cooperate to disrupt financing for Pyongyang's nuclear and missile programmes.

Singapore on Friday strongly rejected a whistleblower's allegation that its banks facilitate massive tax evasion by a powerful family in neighbouring Malaysia's Sarawak state.

Two Italian marines flew back to India on Friday to face murder charges, after Rome dramatically reversed a decision that they would not return which had triggered a diplomatic firestorm.