Ecuadoran President Rafael Correa said he expects to respond to Wikileaks founder Julian Assange's application for political asylum some time this week.
China played down the frantic drive for gold medals and focused on "Olympic spirit" and sportsmanship at a London Games marked by an unusual bout of soul-searching.
The London Olympics closed in a blaze of music and colour Sunday after a two-week sporting festival that electrified the host nation and was watched by billions around the world.
Designer Giorgio Armani predicted that the London Olympics would be the most stylish ever, but fashion experts say there has been as much bad taste as elegance on display.
US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton arrived Saturday in Istanbul for talks on the conflict in Syria with Turkish leaders after Washington slapped fresh sanctions on Bashar al-Assad's regime and its allies.
Most Britons believe the London Olympics have delivered good value for money, according to a poll published Saturday, as the hosts revel in Britain's best performance at the Games for more than a century.
American nuns in open conflict with the Vatican over claims they have "radical feminist" views and have strayed too far from Catholic doctrine offered Friday to talk with top Church leaders.
Usain Bolt is targeting a spectacular send-off as the Olympic track and field competition draws to a close on Saturday with Jamaica aiming to seal their sprinting supremacy.
London mayor Boris Johnson has had a golden political Olympics, emerging for the first time as a serious contender for prime minister despite -- or perhaps because of -- his clownish antics.
The razzmatazz of the London 2012 Olympics is a world away from the last Games held in London in 1948, when athletes had to survive on rations, stitch their own kit and wash it themselves.
Scientists in Switzerland said on Friday they had devised software that can swiftly trace terror suspects, computer viruses, rumour-mongering and even infectious diseases back to their source.
Britain's world-renowned football club Manchester United slashed the price of its US share launch, cutting the amount it was raising in Friday's IPO to $233 million from a hoped-for $300 million or more.
Usain Bolt can become the first man to claim a second successive 100m-200m Olympic Games double on Thursday with the Jamaican superstar confidently predicting his own 200m world record could fall.