More than 100 victims have come forward in the Central African Republic with appalling new accounts of sexual abuse, including bestiality, by UN peacekeepers and French troops, said United Nations.
A massive gas explosion devastated the top three floors and roof of a building in central Paris, police said, adding that five people suffered minor injuries. The blast near the Jardin du Luxembourg was accidental and was traced to a fire that caused a gas stove to blow up.
The United States Capitol in Washington was on lockdown after shots were apparently fired in the Capitol Visitors Center, police said, but local media reports that the gunman was injured and taken into custody.
The Red Cross appealed for more funds to help disaster-stricken Fiji, saying 60,000 people remain homeless six weeks after a super cyclone battered the Pacific nation and killed 44.
Syrian government forces backed by heavy Russian air support drove Islamic State out of Palmyra, inflicting what the army called a mortal blow to militants who seized the city last year and dynamited its ancient temples.
Militants fired four rockets at the Afghan Parliament with one impacting the new building that was built with India's assistance, media reports said. The Parliament building project was started by India in 2007 as a mark of friendship and cooperation to help rebuild Afghanistan.
Myanmar's outgoing government lifted a state of emergency in conflict-hit Rakhine, a parting gesture that coincides with turbulent relations between Aung San Suu Kyi's new administration and the western state's powerful Buddhist political party.
Chinese tourists from smoggy and pollution-hit cities are buying fresh air cans for about USD 4.5 at an ongoing trade expo in Hainan province. About 300 cans of fresh air from south China's Hainan province were sold at seaside tourism resort.
Pakistan government promised not to amend the country's controversial blasphemy laws to end a major stand-off with thousands of Islamists who had besieged the capital city for four days, demanding martyrdom' for the assassin of Punjab's liberal governor Salman Taseer.
UN food experts warned of alarming' levels of starvation in South Sudan with food prices at record highs after two years of civil war marked by atrocities.
The Pakistani Taliban faction behind the brutal Easter suicide bombing at a crowded park in Lahore has warned that the terror attack was a message' to the government about their arrival' in Punjab, as the death toll rose to 74 after two more persons succumbed to their injuries.
A fire erupted at a high-rise tower in the United Arab Emirates city of Ajman, the latest in a series of skyscraper blazes in the Gulf nation.
A hijacker seized an Egyptian airliner and forced it to land in Cyprus, but nearly all of the passengers were quickly released and officials said the incident was not linked to terrorism. The hijacker had demanded to see a Cypriot woman, his estranged lover who lives on the island.
The two-day Nuclear Security Summit in Washington witnessed world leaders from over 50 countries who shared their assessment of the threat from nuclear weapons and materials.
Here's a look at the important events in the world this week.