A sculpture by Italian artist Amedeo Modigliani has fetched $52.6 million at a Paris sale, an auction record for the artist and the highest price paid for a work of art sold in France.

The foreign ministers of Switzerland and Spain were in Libya on Sunday hoping to bring home a Swiss businessman stranded there for nearly two years and draw a line under a damaging diplomatic row.

Former Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev has appealed to the Kremlin to make Russia more democratic, saying President Dmitry Medvedev’s push to modernise the country would not succeed otherwise.

US President Barack Obama will press BP executives this week to set up an escrow account to pay damage claims by individuals and businesses hurt by the Gulf of Mexico oil spill disaster.

The United Nations is reviewing its sanctions roster targeting Taliban and Al Qaeda figures following a call by last week’s peace conference in Afghanistan, the top UN envoy said on Saturday.

Venezuela issued an arrest warrant and raided the home of the President of an Opposition TV news station on Friday, as the government kept up pressure on prominent critics of President Hugo Chavez.

In a town known for famous moviemakers, Queen Noor of Jordan is something of an anomaly in Hollywood — until you consider the movie she has helped make.

A majority of economists expect the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) to leave rates steady ahead of its quarterly review on July 27, a new Reuters poll showed on Friday, but almost all expect the RBI to raise rates in the policy review.

The delivery of S-300 surface-to-air missiles under a Russian contract with Iran would violate new UN sanctions, a Kremlin source said on Friday, in a sign of support for the Western stance on Iran.

India’s monsoon delivered normal rainfall in the past week, boosting prospects of higher farm output and lower inflation, and encouraging India to further relax curbs on rice exports.