The French conservative UMP party chooses Jean-Francois Cope, an ally of ex-president Sarkozy, as its next leader after a tight election.

The credit ratings agency Moody's downgrades French debt and maintains the negative outlook, meaning its rating could be cut again.

Canada's health minister refuses to halt approval of a generic form of OxyContin, an opioid widely abused in the country's First Nation communities.

An Australian man who locked a fake bomb around the neck of a teenage girl in an apparent extortion attempt is jailed for 13-and-a-half years.

Thieves use power saws to cut out and steal a series of ancient carvings sacred to Native Americans from a California cliff side.

Militant Islamists in northern Mali say they have driven Tuareg-led rebels out of the desert town of Menaka, a claim denied by the rebels.

Authorities in the Indian state of Bihar begin an investigation into a stampede at a religious ceremony on Monday in which 17 people were killed.

US President Barack Obama attends a regional summit in Cambodia, with trade pacts and rumbling tensions over the South China Sea set to dominate.