UNITED NATIONS

Russia sought to delay a U.N. Security Council vote on a resolution aimed at ending the bloodshed in Syria, warning on Saturday of a so-called scandal should the current draft be put to council members, the Itar-Tass news agency reported.

More than 200 people were killed in shelling by Syrian forces in the city of Homs, activists said on Saturday, as the U.N. Security Council prepared to vote on a draft resolution backing an Arab call for President Bashar al-Assad to give up power.

An excellent harvest, good rains and food deliveries by numerous aid agencies have helped end famine in Somalia but food stocks could run out again in May, the United Nations has said.

More than 200 people were killed in shelling by Syrian forces in the city of Homs, activists said on Saturday, as the U.N. Security Council prepared to vote on a draft resolution backing an Arab call for President Bashar al-Assad to give up power.

India has announced its support of a United Nations Security Council resolution aimed against Syria.

The famine is Somalia is officially over, the United Nations said on Friday.

The Maoist fighters who have been living in United Nations-monitored camps since 2007 are now leaving. They have the choice of accepting compensation to help them return to civilian life or of undergoing re-training to join the Nepali army.

Duch, now 69 years old, was the commander of the notorious Tuol Sleng prison.

Former UBS AG trader Kweku Adoboli, who is accused of unauthorized deals that cost the Swiss bank $2.3 billion, was refused bail by a London court on Friday less than an hour after regulators stepped up their probe into the scandal.

Russia shot down suggestions from some U.N. Security Council members of an imminent deal on a draft resolution aimed at stopping Syria's bloody upheaval, warning it would veto the current text if it were put to a vote on Friday.

The United States, European governments and Arab states have begun discussing the possibility of exile for Bashar al-Assad despite skepticism that the defiant Syrian president is ready to consider such an offer, Western officials say.

Faced with international political tensions, disruptive weather and natural disasters and global economic woes, oil companies in the U.S. and Europe reported overall declining earnings for the fourth quarter, even as they earned. The good news is that the U.S. became a net energy exporter for the first time since 1949.

ACTA protests continue to spark unrest across Europe. This slideshow has some of the best photos from the massive rallies sparked by anger about the Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement.

Topless Protest at Political Summit: Feminist Arrested At Davos Forum [VIDEO, PHOTOS]

They had fled the recent civil war in Sri Lanka between Tamils and the Sinhalese.

The health impact of last year's Fukushima nuclear disaster in Japan appears relatively small thanks partly to prompt evacuations, the chairman of a U.N. scientific body investigating the effects of radiation said on Tuesday.

Assad has also rejected calls from the Arab League to step down from power.

The Senate Banking Committee is proposing news sanctions on Iran in an effort to stall its nuclear ambitions.

Syrian President Bashar al-Assad's forces have taken the upper hand in escalating battles on the outskirts of the capital Damascus while top Western and Arab diplomats are seeking a U.N. Security Council resolution calling for him to go.

The world is running out of time to make sure there is enough food, water and energy to meet the needs of a rapidly growing population and to avoid sending up to 3 billion people into poverty, a U.N. report warned on Monday.

The trial, which is likely to shine a searching light on the adequacy of the bank's management and risk controls, could land Adoboli with a maximum 10-year jail sentence if convicted of the two counts of fraud and two of false accounting.