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

Italian police arrest six people accused of kidnapping the accountant of ex-PM Silvio Berlusconi and attempting to extort money.

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.

Islamist rebel groups in the Syrian city of Aleppo say they reject the new Western-backed opposition coalition, and seek to establish an "Islamist state".

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.