A fragile quantum memory state persists at room temperature for a record 39 minutes - overcoming a barrier to ultrafast computers.

Greek officials say 12 migrants, including four children, have drowned off the Greek coast in the latest accident at sea.

Unconfirmed reports that Albania may take in Syrian chemical weapons for disposal provoke angry protests in the capital Tirana.

Burmese officials say they are releasing 69 political prisoners, including the grandchildren of former leader General Ne Win.

A US court jails two Somali pirates for life for their role in the killing of four Americans aboard a yacht off the Horn of Africa in 2011.

Former Cypriot President Glafcos Clerides, who oversaw his country's entry into the EU in 2004, dies at the age of 94 in a Nicosia hospital.

The global chemical weapons watchdog says it has now adopted a detailed plan for the destruction of Syria's stockpile by mid-2014.

The results of a DNA study suggest that dogs were domesticated in Europe.