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Francois Hollande has been elected France's first Socialist president in nearly two decades, beating incumbent Nicolas Sarkozy in a vote marked by anger over austerity measures, high unemployment and the country's lagging economy.

Nearly 14 months after a powerful earthquake and tsunami triggered the most severe nuclear accident since Chernobyl, Japan is shutting down the last of its nuclear reactors.

A senior al-Qaeda leader, wanted in connection with the 2000 bombing of the USS Cole warship, has been killed in a Yemen air raid.

Greeks are voting Sunday in the first general election since the start of the country's debt crisis.

French people are voting in a crucial run-off in the country's presidential polls Sunday that could see a Socialist win for the first time since 1988.

Iranian Intelligence Minister Heidar Moslehi said Sunday that some drug smugglers linked to the assassination of Iranian nuclear scientists have been arrested, the semi-official Mehr news agency reported.

Russia will keep backing the peaceful settlement plan in Syria, Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov has said.

The American Civil Liberties Union has requested access to statements made by alleged conspirators of the September 11th attacks.

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This morning in the Vatican, Benedict XVI received five new non resident ambassadors to the Holy See: Teshome Toga Chanaka of Ethiopia, David Cooney of Ireland, Naivakarurubalavu Solo Mara of the Republic of Fiji, Viguen Tchitetchian of Armenia and Dato' Ho May Young, the first ambassador of Malaysia to the Holy See.