World News Headlines

JOHANNESBURG (Reuters) - South African "Blade Runner" Oscar Pistorius, a double amputee who became one of the biggest names in world athletics, was charged on Thursday with shooting dead his girlfriend at his upscale home in Pretoria. Police said they opened a murder case after a 30-year-old woman was found dead at the …

CAIRO (Reuters) - The Muslim Brotherhood's political party aims to win an outright majority in Egypt's forthcoming parliamentary elections without making alliances with other more hardline Islamist groups, its leader said on Thursday. Saad el-Katatni, 61, became the Freedom and Justice Party (FJP) leader in October, replacing …

DUBAI (Reuters) - Bahraini security forces killed a teenager and injured dozens more protesters on Thursday, an opposition website said, during clashes on the second anniversary of an uprising to demand democratic reforms in the U.S.-allied Gulf Arab state. Several hundred demonstrators, mostly youths from largely Shi'ite …

UNITED NATIONS (Reuters) - The U.N. Security Council warned on Thursday that funding, training, spare parts, weapons systems and other materiel supplied to Sudan's government could be used for air strikes in the Darfur region in violation of a U.N. arms embargo. The 15-member council expressed concern that "the direct or …

MALE (Reuters) - Former Maldives President Mohamed Nasheed will stay in the Indian Embassy in Male until a caretaker government is formed, his party said on Thursday, despite a government assurance he would not be arrested if left. Nasheed, the Maldives' first democratically elected leader, who left office last year in …

ABUJA/LONDON (Reuters) - Pirates attacked three vessels off the coast of Nigeria in the space of eight days this month, killing one person, a maritime agency said, in a sign of worsening security off the coast of Africa's biggest oil exporter. Gunmen killed a crew member when they attacked a chemical tanker carrying out …

TIMBUKTU, Mali (AP) — In their hurry to flee last month, al-Qaida fighters left behind a crucial document: Tucked under a pile of papers and trash is a confidential letter, spelling out the terror network's strategy for conquering northern Mali and reflecting internal discord over how to rule the region.

PRETORIA, South Africa (AP) — Paralympic superstar Oscar Pistorius was charged Thursday with the murder of his girlfriend who was shot inside his home in South Africa, a stunning development in the life of a national hero known as the Blade Runner for his high-tech artificial legs.

JOHANNESBURG (AP) — The leggy blonde model tweeted that Valentine's Day should be "a day of love for everyone."

VATICAN CITY (AP) — For an institution devoted to eternal light, the Vatican has shown itself to be a master of smokescreens since Pope Benedict XVI's shock resignation announcement.

The face of the Roman Catholic Church has changed profoundly in Pope Benedict XVI's lifetime. Congregations in the West are smaller and older, while those in Africa, Latin America and pockets of Asia are booming, bringing youth and energy to the Catholic world.

PARIS (AP) — The price, smell and color should have been clear tipoffs something was wrong with shipments of horsemeat that were fraudulently labeled as beef, French authorities said Thursday. The government pinned the bulk of the blame on a French wholesaler at the heart of a growing scandal in Europe.

WASHINGTON (AP) — As the U.S. looks to reduce American and Afghan forces in Afghanistan after 2014, Congress members are making comparisons to Iraq and predicting a sharp decline in troops will quickly lead to increased violence and instability.

BERLIN (AP) — It was only a matter of time. With many of its debt-ridden euro partners in recession, Germany could only swim against the tide for so long.

BEIRUT (AP) — Syrian rebels captured most of an eastern oil field and stormed a military base in the south, anti-regime activists said Thursday, further chipping away at President Bashar Assad's hold on the country's hinterlands.

CAIRO (AP) — Egypt's military made a rare admission and apology on Thursday for mistakenly shooting and killing a 12-year-old street vendor in Cairo, a day after activists accused the government of trying to cover up the death.

Spain’s aging King Juan Carlos is intent on extending his reign and reaffirming his legacy of resurrecting the monarchy, but calls for his abdication are growing amid a simmering scandal over embezzlement of public funds incriminating his son-in-law, a duke. The scandal and climate here are proving a serious threat to the …

When Indonesian high court judge Muhammad Daming Sunusi joked during vetting for a Supreme Court position this month that women might enjoy rape, he sparked an outcry that, activists say, helped drive nearly a thousand Indonesians onto the streets today.