UNITED NATIONS

Yemen's President Ali Abdullah Saleh gave his farewell address on Monday, stepping down after 33 years in power in response to months of protests.

Gun and bomb attacks by Islamist insurgents in Kano kill at least 178 people, a doctor claims as hospitals struggle to cope with carnage.

Top 5 highlights from last year.

Arab states, divided over how to handle the crisis in Syria, are likely to extend a peace mission there that critics say is handing President Bashar al-Assad more time to kill opponents of his rule.

The Islamist sect Boko Haram has claimed responsibility for coordinated bomb attacks on security forces in the northern Nigerian city of Kano that killed at least seven people late Friday.

Multiple explosions have ripped through Nigeria's northern city of Kano, one blast believed to have been targeting police headquarters Friday, causing unknown casualties, although details were not readily available.

Heavy fighting broke out in Somalia's capital of Mogadishu Friday as African Union peacekeepers backed al-Shabab Islamist militants to the outskirts, seizing rebel bases beyond the city's limits for the first time.

While the official festival film kicks off Thursday night, the unofficial Sundance fun festival peaks this weekend.

The latest survey indicates that 69 percent of India's population still live in rural areas.

Economic growth, jobs and protectionism are the top three worries at the start of 2012, according to a Call to Action published by 11 leaders of international organizations on Friday in a bid to kick-start debate at next week's Davos Forum.

Experts have recommended eliminating leap seconds from the time scale used by most computer systems, but governments are split on the issue, to be decided this week, the International Telecommunications Union (ITU) said Tuesday.

India has urged Sri Lanka to continue reconciliation efforts started at the end of the island nation's brutal 30-year conflict with Tamil separatists.

Images of the Costa Concordia cruise ship sinking off the West Coast of Italy have been splashed across the global media and as the death toll rises into double digits, the question of cruise ship safety is likely on the minds of many.

Ethiopia blamed the small neighboring country of Eritrea in the killing of five European tourists on Tuesday.

A prime suspect in the Christmas Day bombings that killed more than 40 Nigerians in attacks aimed at Christian churches has escaped from police custody, officials said.

The cowardly act of the Costa Concordia's captain, Francesco Schettino, who has been accused of abandoning the sinking ship, leaving more than 4,200 passengers onboard, has added another unsavory chapter to the less reputable parts of maritime history. Fortunately, the seas have examples of bravery as well. If the above cases pointed to instances of cowardice and shame, there are incidents where the heroism of the captains onboard sinking ships has become legendary.

Russia has distributed a new draft resolution, on the Syria crisis, at the United Nations Security Council (UNSC). The draft was sent to the Council's 14 other members and has asked for concerned experts to meet on Tuesday to debate the provisions.

Let's from the get-go point out the obvious: Iran does not, even in the slightest, have any intention of quitting its attempts to acquire nuclear weapons. And why should they? No one is stopping them.

Rescuers resumed a search of the hulk of a giant cruise liner off the west coast of Italy on Monday after bad weather forced them to halt operations, but hopes were fading of finding more survivors.

A stranded Russian science satellite, loaded with rocket fuel for a roundtrip mission to Mars, is expected to plunge back to Earth on Sunday, but officials said on Friday they don't know when or where it will hit.

Pieces of a failed Russian Mars probe plummeted into the Pacific Ocean far off the Chilean coast Sunday, Russian news agencies cited a military official as saying.