Pakistani teen activist Malala Yousafzai, in her first public speech at the UN since being shot in the head by the Taliban, has said she is inspired by Mahatama Gandhi’s path of non-violence.

Venezuela’s President says that his country has received an asylum request from NSA leaker Edward Snowden. President Nicolas Maduro had already offered asylum to Snowden, who apparently is holed up in the transit lounge of a Moscow airport.

Pope Francis today cleared Pope John Paul II for sainthood, approving a miracle attributed to his intercession and setting up a remarkable dual canonisation along with another beloved pope, John XXIII.

Kevin Rudd was sworn in today as Australia’s new Prime Minister almost three years to the day since he was ruthlessly ousted from the job by Julia Gillard, as Labour desperately fights for electoral survival.

A miffed Federation of International Cricketers Association today demanded an ICC ethics committee enquiry into BCCI-backed L. Sivaramakrishnan’s appointment as a players’ representative in the governing body, saying captains could have been forced to vote against incumbent Tim May.

Border troops of Pakistan and Afghanistan clashed today, even as the two countries engaged in a war of words over construction of security posts along their porous border.

China today declined to give any timeline for withdrawal of its troops from Depsang valley in Ladakh but said the issue that has sparked new tensions in bilateral ties “will be properly resolved soon through negotiations”.

The death toll in the collapse of an eight-storey commercial building in the Bangladeshi capital today rose to 290, as rescuers looked for last survivors under tonnes of debris at suburban Savar.

Over 110 people were killed and more than 3,000 injured today when a powerful 7.0-magnitude earthquake rocked southwest China’s Sichuan province, causing massive destruction in a region that suffered a catastrophic quake in 2008.

Taliban insurgents killed 13 local policemen Friday in an attack on their checkpoint in southeast Afghanistan, officials said.