Rescuers searched for more than 800 people missing on December 18 after flash floods and landslides killed more than 600 people in the southern Philippines.
The UN Security Council has 16 decided to lift the sanctions on the Central Bank of Libya and its investments subsidiary - the Libyan Foreign Bank.
Three people were killed as troops fought daylong battles with protesters, showing the tensions seething in Egypt nine months after Hosni Mubarak's fall.
Engineers have brought the crippled Fukushima nuclear plant to a "cold shutdown condition", nine months after the earthquake and tsunami, Japan has confirmed.
Reports from Syria say military defectors killed at least 27 soldiers on December 15 in intensifying bouts of armed resistance against embattled President Bashar al-Assad.
The death toll from the illicit liquor disaster in the eastern Indian state of West Bengal has risen to 121, while 100 are being treated in hospitals for poisoning, according to local media reports.
Russian President Dmitry Medvedev and top leaders from the European Union (EU) on December 15 agreed to start talks on visa-free travel.
The death of former Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi, who was captured and killed by rebels in October, may have been a war crime, the chief prosecutor of the International Criminal Court (ICC) said on Thursday.
Tension between the Republic of Korea (RoK) and China has been growing after a Chinese fisherman stabbed a RoK Coast Guard officer to death on December 12.
Egyptians return to polling stations on December 14 in a phased election likely to give Islamists the biggest bloc in a parliament that will play a key role in drafting a new constitution.
Vladimir Putin will not step down as prime minister when he is campaigning for Russia's presidency, his spokesman said on December 15, dismissing reports he might become acting president to help secure re-election to the Kremlin.
Syrian troops have wept into the city of Hama to break a three-day strike by opponents of President Bashar al-Assad, killing at least 10 people.
US President Barack Obama has marked the end of the Iraq war by applauding the "extraordinary achievement" of US troops in a conflict he firmly opposed.
Russian President Dmitry Medvedev has announced the first session of the country's newly elected parliament.
Iran will move its uranium enrichment plants to safer sites if needed, a Revolutionary Guards commander was quoted on December 14 as saying, following speculation that Tehran's enemies could attack the facilities.
A gunman opened fire at Saint-Lambert, the centre of the Belgian city of Liege, on December 13, killing at least four people and wounding 123.
Iran has rejected US calls for the return of a spy drone captured by its military and instead demanded an apology from Washington.
US President Barack Obama and Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki say their countries will maintain strong security, diplomatic and economic ties after the last US combat forces withdraw at the end of the year.
Canada on December 11 became the first country to announce it would withdraw from the Kyoto protocol on climate change, dealing a symbolic blow to the already troubled global treaty.
More than 5,000 people are now believed to have been killed in the uprising in Syria, the UN's top human rights official has said.
US President Barack Obama meets with Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki at the White House on December 12 to discuss Iraq's future.
