EU leaders will go into a brainstorming session Thursday in the first of three summits being held before Christmas in the hope of ending the year with a deal on a stronger economic and monetary union.
Cubans will no longer need an exit permit to travel abroad from January, the communist regime said on Tuesday, in a major overhaul of a half-century-old policy despised by the island's citizens.
Syria has said it is prepared to explore a truce proposal by international peace envoy Lakhdar Brahimi, even as it unleashed multiple air strikes on rebel positions on a key highway.
Criminal investigators from the US Food and Drug Administration searched a Massachusetts pharmacy Tuesday which made tainted drugs tied to a meningitis outbreak that has killed 15 people.
A woman who identified herself as a daughter of Mexican drug lord Joaquin "El Chapo" Guzman has been arrested after trying to enter the United States with false documents.
Australian Prime Minister Julia Gillard's fiery speech calling the opposition leader a misogynist on Wednesday prompted a leading dictionary to broaden its definition of the word.
The head of a hard-hitting panel that blamed cultural factors for the Fukushima nuclear disaster voiced hope Tuesday that the tragedy would help open up Japan's system of government.
A combative Barack Obama landed telling blows on challenger Mitt Romney Tuesday as naked dislike boiled over between the White House foes in a tense debate three weeks from election day.
Long spared because of their remoteness, the high seas have become an important hunting ground for fish trawlers and oil prospectors, putting at risk many marine species that call these waters home.