The Catholic Archdiocese of Los Angeles agrees to pay out nearly $10m (£6.7m) to settle four clergy sex abuse cases.

A court in Chile says the remains of the Nobel Prize-winning poet Pablo Neruda will be exhumed on 8 April to investigate the cause of death.

Euro MPs set conditions for a deal on the EU's multi-year budget, amid tensions with austerity-minded governments.

Increasing numbers of children in Syria are being recruited by armed groups on both sides of the conflict, Save the Children says in a report.

Cardinals will begin their second day of deliberations over who should be the new pope, after the first round of voting proved inconclusive.

Officials say the number of dead pigs found in Shanghai's Huangpu River has risen to nearly 6,000, amid online concern over water quality.

Richard Beasley is found guilty of aggravated murder over a plot to lure men to their deaths with bogus jobs ads on the Craigslist website.

BHP Billiton says it is co-operating with a probe into possible violations of corruption laws during its sponsorship of the 2008 Beijing Olympics.