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China says it is "cautiously optimistic" about its relations with the United States as President Barack Obama begins his second term as the American leader.

France attacked Islamists targets in Mali for the third straight day on Sunday, bombing an key northern town held by the extremists.

More than 50 countries, led by Switzerland, will ask the United Nations Security Council Monday to refer Syria to the International Criminal Court, a move that would pave the way for war crimes prosecutions.

In the wake of agreements reached today to end a rebellion in the Central African Republic (CAR), the United Nations envoy for the country today said that the international community now needs to engage more forcefully, both diplomatically and financially, to pull the CAR from the brink.

The Ethiopian government wants a uniform health evaluation process to be introduced in all of Africa to help reduce child deaths. The idea will be recommended during an upcoming African Child Survival Conference.

As senior U.S. and Russian negotiators - along with the United Nations peace envoy - again failed to find a breakthrough in Syria talks on Friday, analysts say a solution could be a long time coming.

A combined Afghan and coalition security force arrested a Taliban leader in the Burkah district of Afghanistan’s Baghlan province today, military officials reported.

A member of Togo’s main opposition National Alliance for Change, or ANC, party said the opposition wants to stop the government’s preparation for March parliamentary elections amid a dispute over electoral reform.

A leading human rights group says Pakistan's Shi'ite Muslims are living in a state of siege, after a string of bombings across the country killed 115 people and wounded nearly 250, in one of the nation's deadliest days in years.

The U.S. non-profit group that produces the children's television show Sesame Street says a major North Korean toy maker is producing unlicensed replicas of popular characters from the internationally syndicated educational program.