Pope Francis on Friday called for the Roman Catholic Church to “intensify” its dialogue with Islam, echoing hopes in the Muslim world for better ties with the Vatican during his reign.

Clashes killed five people overnight in the flashpoint Lebanese city of Tripoli, a security official said on Friday, with the Army reporting a soldier was among the dead.

Syria’s key regional ally Iran on Friday condemned a suicide mosque bombing in Damascus that killed the country’s top Sunni Muslim cleric and at least 40 other people, Fars news agency reported.

Former President Nicolas Sarkozy has been charged with taking financial advantage of France’s richest woman, as part of a probe into illegal party funding that could shatter his hopes of a political comeback.

French fashion label Smuggler on Thursday said it had produced a suit that can block electromagnetic waves produced by mobile phones.

Italian President Giorgio Napolitano began two days of consultations with political leaders today in a bid to determine who should be given the mandate to form a new government in the eurozone’s third largest economy.

At least two shells and one missile fired in fighting in Syria landed inside Lebanon today, residents and security sources said, but there were no reports of damage or injuries.

German auto giant Volkswagen will recall 384,181 vehicles in China over gearbox defects, it said today after state television criticised it over the issue.

Out with the polka dots! Nothing less than specially designed Lanvin gowns will do for Minnie Mouse, who makes her haute couture debut on Saturday at Disneyland near Paris.

Engineers at Fukushima today partly succeeded in getting cooling systems back online after a power outage underlined the still-precarious state of the nuclear plant two years after the tsunami.