An Australian state inquiry into the handling of child sex cases by the Catholic Church on Wednesday said religious leaders trivialised the problem and recommended concealment of abuse should be a crime.
The US government has guaranteed the UN that it is not intercepting its secret communications, a spokesman said Wednesday while not being drawn on reports of past spying.
Syria's stockpile of chemical agents is largely "unweaponized" and could be eradicated more quickly than initially thought, the Washington Post reported Thursday citing a confidential US and Russian assessment.
The Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development on Tuesday backed Japan's bid to end years of deflation, but called on Tokyo to step up efforts to shrink its huge debt pile.
Cross-border lending saw its smallest growth in 13 years in the third quarter of 2012, according to a report published Sunday by the Bank for International Settlements (BIS).
The International Monetary Fund said Monday its executive board is unlikly to consider until late January any possible action against Argentina for failing to supply accurate economic data.
Amnesty International on Thursday accused South Korea of systematically abusing a 65-year-old security law in order to stifle debate and silence political opposition in Asia's fourth-largest economy.
Iran is ready to significantly boost output at its most controversial nuclear plant, a new UN nuclear agency report showed Friday, taking Tehran closer in theory to being able to develop a nuclear weapon.
Millions of girls worldwide are condemned to lives of hardship because they don't go to school, an education gap that entrenches broader extreme poverty.
Governments around the world must work out how to cope with ageing, a UN report said Monday, warning developing economies with lots of young workers may one day find their populations a drag.
A series of political transitions led by the Arab Spring uprisings are shifting the balance of world power with the United States set to play a less dominant role.
A new US government report has found major reconstruction projects in Afghanistan are so behind schedule they will not yield results before most combat troops leave.