The conflict in Syria has caused the worst refugee crisis since the Rwandan genocide of 1994, UN's refugee chief Antonio Guterres says.

Cory Monteith, star of TV hit musical comedy Glee, died of a heroin and alcohol overdose in a Vancouver hotel, British Columbia's coroner says.

The train engineer at the centre of a derailment and explosion in a Canadian town that killed dozens is "devastated", his lawyer says.

The US Senate agrees a deal to approve Obama nominees after Democrats backed away from a threat to force a historic change in the chamber's rules.

US regulator the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission fines Barclays $435m for manipulating electric energy markets in California and elsewhere.

Colombia's President Santos calls the surrender of 30 rebels of the ELN, the country's second largest armed group, "a major step towards peace".

A North Korean ship seized in the Panama Canal on the way from Cuba was carrying obsolete weapons for repair, the Cuban foreign ministry says.

An unusual new species of dinosaur, which was unearthed in the deserts of Utah, is described by scientists.