The head of China's government-run Buddhist association quit his post on Wednesday amid an investigation into allegations that he coerced several nuns into having sex with him.

Russian President Vladimir Putin is ready to meet with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un "at an early date", the North's state media reported Wednesday, amid a rapid diplomatic thaw on the peninsula.

Roger Federer began his US Open preparation with a quick 6-4, 6-4 defeat of Peter Gojowczyk in his first ATP Cincinnati Masters appearance since 2015.

South Korean President Moon Jae-in said Wednesday his visit to Pyongyang next month will be a "bold step" towards formally ending the decades-old war with the nuclear-armed North.

The Rohingya had no time to consider what to take as Myanmar forces drove the Muslim minority into Bangladesh in a crackdown a year ago likened by the UN to ethnic cleansing.

An Australian politician was widely condemned Wednesday after demanding "a final solution" to immigration and calling for a return to the White Australia policy which favoured "European Christians".

Italian rescuers searched through the night Wednesday for any survivors under the shattered remains of a motorway bridge in Genoa as investigators probed what could have caused such a catastrophic collapse.

President Donald Trump lashed out at his former "Apprentice" and White House aide Omarosa Manigault Newman Tuesday in especially angry terms, slamming her as a "dog" and a "crazed, crying lowlife" as her tell-all book hit stores.

Manmade global warming and a natural surge in Earth's surface temperature will join forces to make the next five years exceptionally hot, according to a study published Tuesday.

Britain's Royal Bank of Scotland will pay $4.9 billion to settle charges it misled investors on mortgage-backed securities ahead of the financial crisis, the US Justice Department announced Tuesday.

President Recep Tayyip Erdogan on Tuesday said Turkey would boycott US electronic goods like the iPhone in retaliation for punitive sanctions from Washington, as the Turkish lira finally clawed back some of the ground lost in its stand-off with Washington.

Two-time world champion Fernando Alonso announced on Tuesday that he will retire from Formula One at the end of the season after his recent struggles with underachieving McLaren.

Nebraska on Tuesday carried out America's first execution using fentanyl -- the opioid at the center of the country's deadly overdose crisis -- as part of a previously-untested, four-drug combination.

A car swerved into passers-by then slammed into a barrier protecting Britain's Houses of Parliament in a suspected terror attack on Tuesday.

More than 300 "predator" priests in Pennsylvania are accused of abusing over 1,000 children across seven decades, a grand jury said Tuesday in a devastating report that decried a systematic cover-up by the Catholic Church.

Among giant slabs of the collapsed concrete bridge which once stretched above them, hundreds of Italian rescuers pull apart debris in search of survivors.

A Dutch seaside town overrun by fallow deer is mulling plans to diffuse the smell of lion manure to keep them at bay and stop them invading streets and parks.

Nebraska on Tuesday carried out America's first execution using fentanyl -- the opioid at the center of the country's deadly overdose crisis -- as part of an untested four-drug combination.

Five European countries on Tuesday offered to take in the 141 migrants marooned on board the Aquarius rescue vessel after it was given permission to dock in Malta, resolving a new standoff over the charity ship.

As many as 30 people were killed on Tuesday when a giant motorway bridge collapsed in Genoa in northwestern Italy.

Turkey's lira recovered steadily Tuesday, taking the pressure off stock markets although a boost from early bargain-hunting fizzled out, leaving most European share indices little changed on the day.

Israel will reopen its only goods crossing with the Gaza Strip on Wednesday if calm is maintained, after having prevented most deliveries since July 9 over border tensions, the defence ministry said Tuesday.

Retired Brazilian striker Ronaldo left a clinic in Ibiza on Tuesday following a four-night stay for treatment for a flu infection.

England cricketer Ben Stokes was found not guilty of affray in a unanimous decision by a jury in less than three hours of deliberations on Tuesday following a trial at Bristol Crown Court.

Italy's transport and infrastructure minister said Tuesday that he fears the collapse of a bridge in Genoa could be an "immense tragedy" as local media report 11 dead.

Taliban fighters overran an army base in northern Afghanistan, officials said Tuesday, killing at least 17 soldiers with dozens feared captured in a stinging blow to security forces already struggling to push insurgents from eastern Ghazni.

Forty children were among 51 people killed in a Saudi-led coalition air strike on a bus in rebel-held northern Yemen, the Red Cross said Tuesday, after thousands protested at a mass funeral.

The Rohingya had no time to consider what to take as Myanmar forces drove the Muslim minority into Bangladesh in a crackdown a year ago likened by the UN to ethnic cleansing.

The prime minister of Tonga has challenged fellow Pacific leaders to a year-long weight-loss competition to combat soaring obesity levels in the region.

Manmade global warming and a natural surge in Earth's surface temperature will join forces to make the next five years exceptionally hot, according to a study published Tuesday.

Raging conflict is hampering efforts to rein in an Ebola outbreak in the Democratic Republic of Congo, the WHO chief warned Tuesday, urging a ceasefire to stop the virus from transmitting freely.

The collapse of the Turkish lira has caused trauma as Turks see their purchasing power slashed, but bargain-hunting foreign tourists visiting the country at the peak of the summer season are cashing in on a currency windfall.

Bin bags at the ready, "long-distance activist" Mohamed Oussama Houij moves methodically along a beach in Tunisia's Mediterranean town of Nabeul, scooping up all kinds of trash as he goes along.

A two-week jungle trek followed by a sheer climb up avalanche-prone slopes to a jagged ridge of icy pinnacles awaits three Myanmar mountaineers planning to take on Hkakabo Razi, a peak so treacherous it has been conquered only once.

In a dusty Baghdad dance studio, conductor Mohammed Amin Ezzat tries to fire up the musicians of Iraq's National Symphony Orchestra, whose enthusiasm has been dampened by eight months without pay.

Austria's capital Vienna has beaten Melbourne to be ranked the "world's most liveable city" in a new annual survey released Monday, ending the southern Australian city's seven-year reign.

Billionaire former New York mayor Michael Bloomberg on Tuesday gave a trio of anti-tobacco crusaders $20 million to up their game against an industry aggressively marketing its deadly wares worldwide, especially in developing countries.

It's barely 6:00 am and Alfred is already busy milking cows. But when his chores on the farm are done, he won't be going home -- he'll be returning to his prison cell.

In the tiny maternity ward in Murrupelane, two 16-year-old mothers breast-feed their babies, both born that morning.

Georgia's overly punitive drug laws cause severe and unjustifiable harm, Human Rights Watch said Monday, calling on the government to decriminalise personal use and possession of drugs.

Britain's Ken Loach, Canada's David Cronenberg and dozens of other filmmakers called Monday on Russia to free Ukrainian director Oleg Sentsov, who has been on hunger strike for nearly three months in a Siberian jail.

From hand-held copters that zoom around the living room to high-speed craft offering the sensation of flying over the countryside, drones have won over legions of fans -- and are proving a growing challenge for security authorities.

They may feel aggrieved at not obtaining an official seal of approval, but traditional Romanian dressmakers are riding a wave of demand for their folk designs after a top fashion house inadvertently showcased their craft.

After his wheat crop failed and wells dried up, Ghulam Abbas sold his animals and joined thousands of other farmers migrating to cities as Afghanistan's worst drought in living memory ravages the war-torn country.

Standing outside their yellow hut on a ridge 3,200 metres (10,500 feet) above sea level, two French gendarmes peer through binoculars at a group of foreign climbers making their way across a scree-littered stretch on what has become one of the deadliest routes to the top of Mont Blanc.

Monsanto's German owners insisted Saturday that the weed killer Roundup was "safe," rejecting a California jury's decision to order the chemical giant to pay nearly $290 million for failing to warn a dying groundskeeper that the product might cause cancer.

Three years ago, the Greek island of Lesbos found itself at the heart of Europe's greatest migration crisis since World War II.

A row is erupting over vaccines in Italy as the country's new populist government fights to roll back a law that bans children from attending school if they haven't received a series of jabs.

Fears for more than 500 greyhounds cooped up at a shuttered racetrack in Macau have been reignited after a plan to rehome them hit red tape.

Indonesia has set aside worries about terrorism, street crime and Jakarta's notorious traffic, saying it is ready to roll for the Asian Games in a week's time.

Netflix's new series "Insatiable," hitting screens Friday, was touted by the streaming service as a dark comedy meant to spark debate on society's ills.

An outbreak of West Nile virus, which is spread by mosquitoes, has left three people dead in northeast Italy in recent days, the local health authority said Friday.

Three people have died from West Nile fever after an outbreak in Athens which has infected 60 people this year, Greek authorities said Friday, indicating they were monitoring the situation carefully.

Norway, which has one of the highest deadly drug overdose rates in Europe, will test prescribing free heroin to the most serious addicts to improve their living conditions, the government said on Friday.

Japanese superstar Keisuke Honda revealed Wednesday he planned to retire after the World Cup but decided to keep playing after being inspired by Melbourne Victory coach Kevin Muscat.

Roger Federer began his US Open preparation with a quick 6-4, 6-4 defeat of Peter Gojowczyk in his first ATP Cincinnati Masters appearance since 2015.

Atlanta rookie Ronald Acuna became the second player in history to hit a leadoff homer in three straight games as the Braves defeated the Miami Marlins 10-6 on Tuesday.

Chinese trampoline star Dong Dong has spent his life defying gravity, but now he wants to defy his age as he trains to participate in a record-equalling fourth Olympic Games in Tokyo in 2020.

Two-time world champion Fernando Alonso announced on Tuesday that he will retire from Formula One at the end of the season after his recent struggles with underachieving McLaren.

Croatian World Cup hero and star striker Mario Mandzukic has announced his retirement from international football at the age of 32, the country's national soccer federation said Tuesday.

Captain Lionel Messi will miss Argentina's next four friendly matches, according to local press reports on Tuesday.

Patrick Bamford celebrated his first Leeds start with a goal as new boss Marcelo Bielsa extended in his flying start with a 2-1 win against Bolton in the League Cup first round on Tuesday.

Wales defence coach Shaun Edwards has agreed to work with the Ospreys in a consultancy role.

Kaizer Chiefs' new Italian coach Giovanni Solinas blamed fatigue on Tuesday as a disappointing start to the 2018/2019 South African Premiership continued with a 1-1 draw at Baroka.

French heavyweight boxer Tony Yoka's appeal against a one-year ban for doping violations was rejected on Tuesday, denting his hopes of winning a world title.

France international Steven Nzonzi, a World Cup winner in Russia, completed his switch to Roma from Sevilla on Tuesday after signing a four-year deal with the Italian side.

Samuel Eto'o sought the advice of Xavi Hernandez and Wesley Sneijder before choosing to play in Qatar, the Cameroon star said as he was unveiled by his new club Tuesday.

Centre-back Diego Godin said on Tuesday he wanted to stay with Atletico Madrid "for personal reasons", but that he is yet to extend his contract which expires in 2019.

A former goalkeeper for Italian Serie A club Cagliari survived the deadly collapse of a motorway viaduct in Genoa on Tuesday despite going down with the bridge in his car and finishing among the rubble.

Former US Open champions Stan Wawrinka and Svetlana Kuznetsova received wildcards into the event on Tuesday along with two-time Australian Open winner Victoria Azarenka, tournament organisers announced.

Spinner Lakshan Sandakan starred in Sri Lanka's hard fought three-wicket win over South Africa in the only Twenty20 international after bowling out the visitors for their lowest total in the game's shortest format.

His two world championships now a distant memory, Fernando Alonso has finally had enough of life in the slow lane with McLaren.

England all-rounder Ben Stokes should be welcomed back into the Test team after being cleared of affray on Tuesday, said former national captain Michael Vaughan.

A 23-year-old Nepalese World Cup labourer in Qatar died Tuesday while working on one of the venues for the 2022 tournament, officials in Doha announced in a statement.

With both Cristiano Ronaldo and Zinedine Zidane gone and Julen Lopetegui in, a new era at Real Madrid officially begins when they face city rivals Atletico Madrid in the UEFA Super Cup in Tallinn on Wednesday evening.

Tottenham have apologised to their supporters after the "unavoidable" delay to the opening of their new White Hart Lane stadium.

Tyson Fury has taunted Deontay Wilder as the controversial British fighter sets his sights on a clash with his heavyweight rival.

Retired Brazilian striker Ronaldo left a clinic in Ibiza on Tuesday following a four-night stay for treatment for a flu infection.

England cricketer Ben Stokes was found not guilty of affray in a unanimous decision by a jury in less than three hours of deliberations on Tuesday following a trial at Bristol Crown Court.

Russia winger Denis Cheryshev, one of the standout performers at the World Cup this summer, has returned to Valencia for a second stint on loan from Villarreal.

Ethiopia has asked dissident marathoner and Olympics silver medallist Feyisa Lilesa to come home, promising a "hero's welcome", in an open letter published Tuesday.

Isaac Hou is one of Taipei's best-known street artists, famous for his mesmerising acrobatics using a giant spinning hoop.

Actor Ethan Peck -- whose grandfather was Hollywood legend Gregory Peck -- has been cast as iconic half-Vulcan science officer Spock in CBS's "Star Trek: Discovery."

Ugandan musician and opposition lawmaker Robert Kyagulanyi, better known as Bobi Wine, was arrested Tuesday after an incident in which security officers shot his driver dead, a police spokesman said.

In a dusty Baghdad dance studio, conductor Mohammed Amin Ezzat tries to fire up the musicians of Iraq's National Symphony Orchestra, whose enthusiasm has been dampened by eight months without pay.

One of China's biggest and wealthiest film stars, actress Fan Bingbing, has disappeared from public view as authorities probe alleged tax evasion by entertainers, sparking growing fan speculation over her fate.

Music legend Aretha Franklin is gravely ill and reportedly receiving hospice care, friends of the singer said Monday, as prayers and well wishes poured in for the Grammy-winning "Queen of Soul."

"Fortnite" star Tyler "Ninja" Blevins on Monday defended not streaming video game play with women, saying it was to guard against marriage-wrecking rumors.

Billionaire former New York mayor Michael Bloomberg on Tuesday gave a trio of anti-tobacco crusaders $20 million to up their game against an industry aggressively marketing its deadly wares worldwide, especially in developing countries.

The North American box office was under attack from shark thriller "The Meg" over the weekend, industry data showed Monday, as it more than doubled the earnings of its closest competitor to claim top spot.

Netflix chief financial officer David Wells on Monday announced plans to hand his job off to a successor and then focus on philanthropy.

Fifty years after the Beatles came to India, the bungalows where the Fab Four lived, the post office where John Lennon sent Yoko Ono postcards and the giggling guru's house are all ruins.

Singer Aretha Franklin, a multiple Grammy award-winner star whose legacy stretches back decades, is gravely ill and surrounded by relatives, a reporter and family friend wrote on his website Monday.

Britain's Ken Loach, Canada's David Cronenberg and dozens of other filmmakers called Monday on Russia to free Ukrainian director Oleg Sentsov, who has been on hunger strike for nearly three months in a Siberian jail.

Usain Bolt might be a superstar athlete but the fastest man ever won't be getting special treatment when he arrives in Australia in his bid to become a professional footballer.

The North American box office was under attack from sci-fi horror film 'The Meg' this weekend, industry estimates showed Sunday, as it more than doubled the earnings of its closest competitor to claim the top spot.

The lost resting place of British poet and artist William Blake was finally marked Sunday with a gravestone, almost 200 years after he died.

Tributes poured in Sunday for Nobel prize-winning author V.S. Naipaul, who has died aged 85, including from many of those who clashed with him.

British author V.S. Naipaul, a famously outspoken Nobel laureate who wrote on the traumas of post-colonial change, has died at the age of 85.

Whether by brazenly injecting sex in the public sphere, adopting gay subculture for mainstream audiences or becoming the top-selling female musician of all time, Madonna has asserted an incalculable influence.

The final of this year's edition of Mr Gay Europe took place on Saturday in the western city of Poznan in Poland, a conservative and devout Catholic country where many do not accept homosexuality.

Madonna remains one of the most controversial artists of all time, with the Material Girl refusing to hold back with age from the unbridled sexuality that helped make her a superstar.

Nobel prize-winning British author V.S. Naipaul has died at the age of 85, his family announced on Saturday.

Rowdy brass bands and revellers ruled the streets of the small Serbian town of Guca on Saturday as its annual trumpet festival hit full stride with music, meat and alcohol flowing in abundance.

The Gay Games which are under way in Paris are not just a chance to celebrate sport and diversity: they offer crucial respite to gay athletes forced to hide their sexuality in their home countries.

Netflix's new series "Insatiable," hitting screens Friday, was touted by the streaming service as a dark comedy meant to spark debate on society's ills.

Turkish director and Cannes Palme d'Or winner Nuri Bilge Ceylan on Friday received an outstanding contribution award at the opening of the Sarajevo film festival.

The 1970s hit "Skiing" has topped Austria's music downloads in the current heatwave after a spat between the singer, an Austro-pop legend, and the governing far-right party.

Manmade global warming and a natural surge in Earth's surface temperature will join forces to make the next five years exceptionally hot, according to a study published Tuesday.

Botanists have discovered a new species of orchid in Peru's central Amazonian rainforest, the country's national parks service announced Tuesday.

Bin bags at the ready, "long-distance activist" Mohamed Oussama Houij moves methodically along a beach in Tunisia's Mediterranean town of Nabeul, scooping up all kinds of trash as he goes along.

Burundi's president, Pierre Nkurunziza, has issued a decree banning the use of plastic bags in the small central African country within the next 18 months.

New Caledonia agreed Tuesday to tougher protections around a huge swathe of some of the world's last near-pristine coral reefs, in a move conservationists hailed as a major breakthrough.

Tech magnate Elon Musk's SpaceX vowed Monday to send its first astronauts into orbit on schedule next year -- part of a drive to restore America's dominance of the space race.

Scientists on Monday unveiled a previously unknown species of giant pterosaur, the first creatures with a backbone to fly under their own power.

France plans to introduce a penalty system next year that would increase the costs of consumer goods with packaging made of non-recycled plastic, part of a pledge to use only recycled plastic nationwide by 2025, an environment ministry official said Sunday.

France plans to introduce a penalty system next year that would increase the costs of consumer goods with packaging made of non-recycled plastic, part of a pledge to use only recycled plastic nationwide by 2025, an environment ministry official said Sunday.

NASA on Sunday blasted off its first-ever spaceship to explore the Sun, the $1.5 billion Parker Solar Probe, on a strategic mission to protect the Earth by unveiling the mysteries of dangerous solar storms.

The leaders of the five states bordering the resource-rich Caspian Sea signed a landmark deal Sunday on the legal status of the inland sea which boasts a wealth of oil and gas reserves and sturgeon.

After his wheat crop failed and wells dried up, Ghulam Abbas sold his animals and joined thousands of other farmers migrating to cities as Afghanistan's worst drought in living memory ravages the war-torn country.

Standing outside their yellow hut on a ridge 3,200 metres (10,500 feet) above sea level, two French gendarmes peer through binoculars at a group of foreign climbers making their way across a scree-littered stretch on what has become one of the deadliest routes to the top of Mont Blanc.

Monsanto's German owners insisted Saturday that the weed killer Roundup was "safe," rejecting a California jury's decision to order the chemical giant to pay nearly $290 million for failing to warn a dying groundskeeper that the product might cause cancer.

Flash floods in Kerala have killed 37 people and displaced around 36,000, Indian officials said Saturday, after heavy monsoons led to landslides and overflowing reservoirs across the southern state.

Glyphosate, the world's most widely used herbicide and the active ingredient in Monsanto's weedkiller Roundup, is the subject of fierce controversy all across the globe and is classified by the World Health Organization as "probably" being carcinogenic.

NASA postponed until Sunday the launch of the first ever spacecraft to fly directly toward the Sun on a mission to plunge into our star's sizzling atmosphere and unlock its mysteries.

Authorities battling massive wildfires in large swathes of California issued mandatory evacuation orders and health warnings Friday over the worsening air quality as the flames grew ever closer to populated areas.

Six crows specially trained to pick up cigarette ends and rubbish will be put to work next week at a French historical theme park, its president said on Friday.

NASA counted down Friday to the launch of a $1.5 billion spacecraft that aims to plunge into the Sun's sizzling atmosphere and become humanity's first mission to explore a star.

New Zealand became the latest country Friday to outlaw single-use plastic shopping bags, with Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern saying they will be phased out over the next year as a "meaningful step" towards reducing pollution.

Vice President Mike Pence on Thursday unveiled details of plans to build a US Space Force that would become the sixth branch of America's massive military, saying the time has come to prepare for "the next battlefield."

Wildfires which have blazed along a stretch of Portugal's Algarve for a week died down on Thursday, but fears remained that winds could reignite the flames.

Icelandic conservationists have asked prosecutors to probe whether the killing of a rare hybrid whale was illegal, a lawyer said on Thursday.

After spending 15 years on Wall Street, Francois Cazalot had had enough and moved out West to become a firefighter.

US forecasters on Thursday downgraded their hurricane season predictions, saying that ocean conditions suggest it's now likely that a below-average number of storms will strike the Atlantic and Caribbean this year.

Sweden's wildfires and drought have caused the environment to become the second most important issue after immigration for Swedes before the September 9 general election, a poll showed Thursday.