Category: World News

Michael Schumacher, the seven-time Formula 1 champion, is “fighting for his life” after a ski accident in the French Alps, his doctors say.

An explosion at a train station in the southern Russian city of Volgograd has killed at least 14 people, reports say.

Barrels packed with explosives and dropped from Syrian aircraft have killed 517 people in the northern province of Aleppo since 15 December, activists say.

More than 500 municipal lawmakers in one Chinese province have stood down following an electoral fraud scandal, according to state media.

Arvind Kejriwal, the leader of a new anti-corruption party in India, has been sworn in as Delhi’s chief minister at the city’s Ramlila Ground.

A scientific mission ship, trapped in dense pack ice off East Antarctica since Christmas Day, is close to being rescued as a Chinese icebreaker nears.

Japan has approved the relocation of a US military airbase on its southern island of Okinawa, officials said.

Thailand’s government has rejected calls to delay February’s election, amid increasingly violent protests in which a policeman has been shot dead.

Celebrations are being held in China to commemorate the 120th birthday of Mao Zedong, the founder of modern China.

Pope Francis has used his first Christmas Day address to urge access for humanitarian aid in Syria.

Three Turkish ministers have resigned after their sons were arrested amid a corruption scandal that has hit the government of PM Recep Tayyip Erdogan.

The UN says it has reports of three mass graves in South Sudan, amid “palpable fear” among civilians they will be killed for their ethnicity.

Former National Security Agency (NSA) contractor Edward Snowden, who leaked details of US electronic surveillance programmes, says he’s achieved his aim.

The inventor of the Kalashnikov assault rifle, Mikhail Kalashnikov, has died aged 94, Russian TV reports.

Lawyers for former Pakistani military ruler Pervez Musharraf have failed to delay a special court due to try him for treason.

Australia says it will send a surveillance plane to the Southern Ocean  to monitor Japanese whaling ships.

A top Afghan general has told BBC News his country may be dangerously exposed if a security pact with the US on its military withdrawal is not signed soon.

Thailand’s main opposition Democrat Party has announced it will boycott snap elections set for 2 February.

A Chinese billionaire is feared dead in a helicopter crash that happened as he was surveying his newly-purchased vineyard in south-west France.

Former tycoon Mikhail Khodorkovsky has been released from jail following a pardon from Russian President Vladimir Putin, his lawyers say.

The US will not drop charges against Indian diplomat Devyani Khobragade, the state department has said after her arrest last week led to a huge diplomatic row.

South Sudanese rebels have taken over a key town, the military has said, as fighting continues after Sunday’s reported coup attempt.

Voicemails left for Kate Middleton by her boyfriend Prince William were hacked by the News of the World, the phone-hacking trial has heard.

Outraged Indian MPs have spoken out in parliament against the arrest and alleged ill-treatment of one of the country’s diplomats in New York. Upper house opposition leader Arun Jaitley said the arrest was a clear violation of the Vienna convention.…

Russian MPs have backed an amnesty that may include some of the country’s best-known prisoners including Pussy Riot and the Greenpeace Arctic protesters.

Fugitive former South Sudanese vice-president Riek Machar has denied government allegations that he tried to stage a coup at the weekend.

India has ordered a series of reprisals against the United States amid a worsening row over the arrest of one of its diplomats in New York.

Japan’s cabinet has approved a new national security strategy and increased defence spending in a move widely seen as aimed at China.

The United Nations has announced its biggest ever appeal, seeking $6.5bn (£4bn; 4.7bn euros) for humanitarian aid to Syria.