UNITED NATIONS

Bashir has been welcomed in the Malawi capital of Lilongwe by government officials in order to attend a trade summit.

George Soros says he isn't a financial backer of the Wall Street protests, despite speculation by critics including radio host Rush Limbaugh that the billionaire investor has helped fuel the anti-capitalist movement.

Former Ukrainian Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko was found guilty of abuse of power and sentenced to seven years in prison on Tuesday, but her legal troubles are far from over, and the government has now accused her of embezzling $400 million.

Angelina Jolie is in Libya Wednesday, where she is meeting with refugees of the ongoing Libyan revolution, as well as the county's new, post-Moammar Gadhafi leadership.

The number of people getting sick with tuberculosis has dropped for the first time, while the death toll from the disease reached its lowest level in a decade, helped by progress in countries like China, the World Health Organization said on Tuesday.

Actress and U.N. goodwill ambassador Angelina Jolie was in Libya on Tuesday for a visit to help agencies bringing aid to Libyans in Tripoli and Misrata, she said in a statement provided to Reuters.

Liberians queued peacefully in the rain on Tuesday for the West African state's second presidential election since its civil war, with incumbent Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf bidding for a second term.

China made particularly extraordinary success against TB.

In Egypt, Coptic Orthodox Pope Shenuda III has called for three days of mourning and fasting to remember the 20 Christians killed during a protest in Cairo Sunday.

In Egypt, Coptic Christians mourned the 25 people killed on Sunday when a protest in Cairo turned violent. Above the sadness, there is anger -- the intense frustration of being ignored and persecuted, of being blamed by the government for starting the violence that killed their own.

The fate of Youcef Nadarkhani, the Iranian pastor sentenced to death for refusing to convert to Islam, now belongs to Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.

Marzieh Vafamehr was sentenced her to one year in prison and 90 lashes, according to The Associated Press.

The U.N. Mission in Afghanistan interviewed prisoners held by both the Afghan National Police and the National Directorate of Security, many of whom reported that they were tortured, beaten and subject to devices like electric shocks during interrogation sessions.

The power couple donated $340,000 to aid the drought and famine crisis.

Medvedev seems to be suggesting that Moscow would oppose any attempts by foreign forces to oust the Syrian leader.

Singer Shakira has a long history of working for education opportunities for Latino children.

Rebels in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo killed 10 people, including members of a local aid group, in attacks on vehicles travelling in the province of South Kivu this week, the local government said on Thursday.

Now the Palestinian spring has arrived, asking for freedom and an end to the [Israeli] occupation. We deserve your support.

Zimbabwe's economy will grow at a slower pace in 2012 than this year as politics puts a drag on full recovery and inflation should stay in single figures, partly due to prudent fiscal policy, Finance Minister Tendai Biti said on Wednesday.

Libya's top oil body is pursuing international oil firms for bills worth around $6 billion that were left unpaid this year due to U.N. sanctions imposed in March, a source in the National Oil Corporation (NOC) told Reuters this week.

Turkey’s military coincidentally plans to conduct a routine exercise near the Syrian border through next week.