Pope Benedict XVI today announced he will resign on February 28, a Vatican spokesman said, which will make him the first pope to do so in centuries.

The Dubai Mall, one of the world’s largest shopping arcades, had a total footfall of 65 million visitors last year, a figure more than the number of tourists visiting cities like New York and Los Angeles, annually.

A spate of car bombs in Shiite areas of Iraq, including two blasts minutes apart at a popular bird market, killed at least 29 people on Friday, the latest in a spike in violence amid a political crisis.

Iran’s all-powerful supreme leader on Thursday rejected a US offer to negotiate one-on-one on Tehran’s nuclear ambitions, ruling out such contacts so long as Washington keeps up its threats against the Islamic republic.

A prominent Danish writer who heads a controversial group that claims free speech is under threat from Islam escaped an attempt on his life in Copenhagen, the police said.

Shane Watson hit a century on his return from injury and Phil Hughes cracked 86 as Australia scored a daunting 329 for seven in the third one-day international against the West Indies today.

A major 8.0 magnitude earthquake jolted the Solomon Islands today with small tsunami waves buffeting Pacific coastlines, leaving at least five people dead and dozens of homes damaged or destroyed.

Kuwait’s lower court today sentenced an Opposition youth activist to five years in jail “with immediate effect” for insulting the emir on Twitter, a rights group said.

A car bomb detonated by a suicide attacker followed by gunmen storming a police headquarters in the north Iraqi city of Kirkuk killed 30 people and wounded 70 others today, a police general said.

Syria threatened today to retaliate for an Israeli airstrike and its ally Iran said the Jewish state will regret the attack.