Newt Gingrich, a leading US Republican presidential candidate, says Virginia's primary is flawed after failing to qualify for the ballot.

Pope Benedict XVI attacks the commercialisation of Christmas as he holds the traditional Christmas Eve Mass at St Peter's Basilica in Rome.

At least 38 migrants from Haiti are found dead after their boat sank just off the eastern tip of Cuba, government officials in Havana say.

The Sudanese army has killed Khalil Ibrahim, the leader of Darfur's main rebel group the Justice and Equality Movement, the military says.

US teenager Jordan Romero becomes the youngest person to climb to the summit of the tallest mountains on each of the seven continents.

A bomb blast rips through a Catholic church near the Nigerian capital, Abuja, killing at least 10 people, officials say.

TV pictures of North Korean leader Kim Jong-un's uncle standing at his side in military uniform emerge, suggesting a key position in the hierarchy.

At least 20 people die in a suicide attack on a funeral procession in Afghanistan's northern province of Takhar, officials say.