Canadian soldiers have fired on Islamic State (IS) militants in Iraq, in what is thought to be the war's first confirmed ground battle of Western forces.

Good Roman Catholics do not need to breed like "rabbits", Pope Francis says, but rejects birth controls being imposed in the developing world.

One of Libya's most senior energy officials, Opec representative Samir Salem Kamal, disappeared on Thursday, family members tell the BBC.

Baby Gammy, who was born with Down's syndrome to a surrogate mother in Thailand, is granted Australian citizenship, local media report.

Voters in Zambia are going to the polls in a presidential election caused by the death of President Michael Sata last year.

A worker at the crippled Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant dies after falling into a tank, becoming the second worker to die in repair efforts.

Four men are to appear before a judge in Paris on suspicion of supporting one of the gunmen behind the Islamist attacks in France that killed 17.

Joel and Ethan Coen, the award-winning directors of No Country for Old Men and Fargo, will jointly head the 2015 Cannes Film Festival jury, organisers say.