World News

New York financier Leon Black was the mystery buyer of a $47.9 million Raphael drawing auctioned by Sotheby's, according to people familiar with the matter. But he hasn't been able to take the piece from the U.K.

A month before the hotly anticipated arrival of Britain's royal baby, its sex is still a secret—even to the parents.

The Verrazano-Narrows Bridge was a feat of American engineering when it was built across New York's harbor in the 1960s. Now, it's being repaired with steel made in China.

Al Qaeda-backed militants attacked a U.N. compound in Somalia's capital, leaving at least 15 people dead and as many injured in the latest attempt to undermine the East African nation's new government.

Karzai suspended key security talks with the U.S. and pulled his envoys from planned negotiations with the Taliban following the opening of a Taliban political office in Qatar.

The regulator said the meatpacker is by far the largest user of derivatives among nonfinancial companies in Brazil.

Smog intensified in Singapore to a record level, as smoke from fires in neighboring Indonesia blanketed the island country in one of its worst air-pollution crises.

Michael Froman, currently a senior White House economic adviser, will lead an agency involved in two significant trade deals.    

The decision raised new questions about the country’s secret courts and was a vindication for the Iranian bank, Bank Mellat, which had spent four years fighting the sanctions designation.    

Serbia and its former southern province exchanged official representatives on Monday under a push by the European Union to improve ties between the Balkan neighbors.    

A court found the women guilty of setting off a recent outbreak of sectarian violence and convicted them of “insulting religion.”    

A few miles from the border with Turkey, the Syrian army regularly lobs artillery on towns and villages where rebels and their Western backers had once envisioned an enclave to lay the groundwork for a post-Assad Syria.

SAO PAULO/FORTALEZA, Brazil (Reuters) - Brazil's two biggest cities agreed on Wednesday to revoke an increase in public transportation fares that set off demonstrations that have grown into nationwide protests against poor public services, inflation and corruption.

A Vatican official, speaking on the condition of anonymity, said a commission of theologians approved a miracle attributed to John Paul’s intercession.    

President Obama called for negotiations with Russia to end the two nations' military posturing, and a reduction of nuclear arms.

The governing Workers Party is watching with dismay as political corruption, bad public services and the government’s focus on lifting Brazil’s international stature through events like the 2014 World Cup and the 2016 Olympics inspire outrage.    

The Syrian pound fell 30 percent against the dollar over the weekend in panicky selling by Syrians worried it could weaken even further.    

A great gap between India and China is in the provision of essential public services — a failing that depresses living standards and is a persistent drag on growth.    

A humanitarian crisis is threatening the region’s stability.    

President Obama’s new disarmament goal, announced in a speech in Berlin, drew skepticism from the Kremlin and Congress alike.