Nearly 400 priests were defrocked in only two years by the former Pope, Benedict XVI, over claims of sexual child abuse, the Vatican confirms.

The governor of California declares a state-wide drought, urging people to conserve water in what could be the state's driest year on record.

A senior IMF official and four UN employees were among 15 people killed in a suicide bomb attack on a restaurant in Kabul, officials say.

Mexican Interior Minister Miguel Angel Osorio Chong tells vigilantes to trust the security forces to do their job and urges them to lay down arms.

A West Virginia firm responsible for a chemical spill that led to drinking water bans for 300,0000 residents declares bankruptcy.

At least 18 people are killed in a stampede before the funeral of a Muslim spiritual leader in the western Indian city of Mumbai, officials say.

Mexico's authorities say top security officials will be replaced in the western state of Michoacan that has recently been rocked by violence.

India's minister Shashi Tharoor, whose wife was found dead in a hotel on Friday, is taken to a Delhi hospital with chest pain, officials say.