Claims over remote South China Sea rocks certain to be a flashpoint
Fragile democracies, ailing leaders and political tensions will be other concerns in the year ahead.
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Fragile democracies, ailing leaders and political tensions will be other concerns in the year ahead.
Iran's President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has sacked Health Minister Marziyeh Vahid Dastjerdi, the sole woman in his cabinet
China has tightened its rules on internet usage to enforce a previous requirement that users fully identify themselves to service providers.
Pyinyananda was chanting with dozens of fellow Buddhist monks when an object landed in the folds of his orange robes and blew up.
International correspondents look back at events that helped define the year for them.
US President Barack Obama has increased pressure on Republicans to accept a deal aimed at stopping the country going over a "fiscal cliff".
Pakistan has freed the Afghan Taliban's ex-justice minister, Mullah Nooruddin Turabi, and three other Taliban prisoners, officials say.
Minutes before the midnight deadline of the fiscal cliff Democrats started celebrating a partial victory – it appeared the White House and Senate leaders had cut a deal ...
North Korean leader Kim Jong-un called for an end to confrontation between the two Koreas, technically still at war in the absence of a peace treaty to end their 1950-53 conflict ...
Thousands of people in Hong Kong have taken to the streets on the first day of the new year to call for the city's chief executive to resign