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For Chinese across the world, they celebrate and receive good fortune during Chinese New Year after cleaning the house to sweep away ill-fortune. On Lunar New Year's Eve, a surge of worshipers wait in front of a temple for expecting to be the first places the first incense stick into the incense burner and pray for good luck right after midnight. Traditionally, the celebration of Chinese New Year lasts for fifteen days and ends with the Lantern Festival. During Chinese New Year period, people greet each other by saying Gong He Xin Xi or Xin Chun Kuai Le (both mean” happy new year”in Chinese.) Children receive red envelopes filled with money from the elders when they greet the elders.

Today in the Vatican Benedict XVI received a group of prelates from the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops (Regions 4 and 6), at the end of their "ad limina" visit. Extracts from his English-language remarks to them are given below.

With new legislations coming into effect on 1 January 2012, changes in the Hungarian Government has incited negative responses from both its people and representatives from the European Union (EU) and International Monetary Fund (IMF).

UNIFIL on patrol in southern Lebanon

Under-Secretary-General for Peacekeeping Operations Hervé Ladsous (centre), visiting a UNAMID team site at Shangil Tobaya in North Darfur

When Pope Benedict XVI goes to Latin America in March, Mexico is an obvious choice, with nearly 100 million Catholics.

Some political and religious leaders say there is a White House-led war against religion.

The money-laundering case pending against Pakistan President Asif Ali Zardari in Switzerland cannot be re-opened even on Pakistan's insistence, sources have said.

A displaced family stands near a tent in a camp in Diyala Governorate, 90km east of Baghdad

Bahrain is the one Arab country where the government has suppressed a major uprising. Here, protesters wave flags at the Pearl Roundabout in the capital Manama on Feb. 20, 2011, when the demonstrations were at their peak.