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Latest breaking news, top articles, media highlights and press releases.

US President Barack Obama on Monday pledged up to $5 billion to fight HIV/AIDS as long as the rest of the world collectively offers double that amount. Obama urged other countries to replenish the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria…

Taliban insurgents fighting against the US-backed Afghan government expressed their support on Monday for President Hamid Karzai’s refusal to sign a security pact with Washington. Karzai is locked in a public dispute with the US over the security deal…

The United States Monday urged Beijing to scrap new aviation arrangements set up by its new air defense zone which Washington has denounced as confusing and likely to increase the risk of accidents. “Our general position as a US government is that we…

The US military has begun outfitting a ship with special equipment that will be used to destroy part of Syria’s chemical arsenal, the Pentagon said Monday. A hydrolysis unit is being installed on the MV Cape Ray, a 650-foot (200 meters) cargo ship,…

The first full study of a snake’s genome has revealed the Burmese python to be one of the most evolutionarily advanced creatures on Earth, international researchers said Monday. The findings shed new light on how these southeast Asian natives have survived…

The Central African Republic needs foreign financial assistance as well as troops, its prime minister told AFP Monday as French forces deployed in a bid to halt spiralling violence. Speaking in Bangui before flying to Paris for a 40-nation France-Africa…

Syrian rebels, including jihadist groups, have captured the historic Christian town of Maalula north of Damascus, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said Monday. Rebels assaulted the town by rolling explosive-filled tyres down the hills onto regime…

A least a million Syrians are going hungry, as fighting and checkpoints prevent aid deliveries, the international Red Cross warned on Monday. “A conservative estimate is a million people without food,” said Simon Eccleshall, crisis management chief…

Hong Kong on Tuesday confirmed its first human case of the deadly H7N9 bird flu, according to a report, in the latest sign of the virus spreading beyond mainland China. A 36-year-old Indonesian domestic helper with a history of travelling to the mainland…

Italian coastguards on Monday rescued around 120 mostly Syrian refugees from a packed fishing boat adrift off the coast of southern Italy in gale-force conditions. Coastguards exploited a brief lull in the weather to rescue the migrants, including some…