Emanuelle Degli Esposti

Priests exchanged blows at Bethlehem's Church of the Nativity over plans for the Orthodox Christmas in January.

Protesters against Syrian president freed as reports surface of deaths in Hama city.

Convicted sex offender Michael Plumador posted photos of murdered Aliahna Lemmon and her sisters only weeks before he killed her with a brick and dismembered her body.

Arab monitors anger anti-Assad protesters by saying 'not overly concerned' by Homs violence.

Funeral cortege for 'Dear Leader' Kim Jong-il passes through frozen streets of Pyongyang.

In a country where military strongmen have long been key to the regime's vice-like grip on power, the succession of Kim Jong-un looks set to follow this pattern of a political and military power coalition.

Britain's Foreign and Commonwealth office has said Iranian authorities have blocked access to an official website "UK in Iran" .

Indigenous Maya people in southern Mexico Wednesday began a year-long countdown to Dec. 21 2012, which some believe will bring the end of the world.

With scuffles over the Muslim call to prayer, controversy over women's rights and accusations about freedom of expression being stifled, what is happening to diversity and tolerance in the state of Israel?

Russian President Dmitry Medvedev has warned that 'provocateurs and extremists' will not be permitted to 'divide Russian society'.

A lesbian couple serving in the U.S. Navy have become the first openly gay couple to share the traditional dockside "first kiss" since the lifting of a ban on homosexuals in the U.S. army.

An artist shortlisted for the prestigious Lacoste Elysée photography prize has accused the French clothing brand of censoring her work because it is 'too pro- Palestinian.'

Filipino residents start gruelling task of rebuilding their lives after storms devastated two southern islands and left more than 1,000 dead.

The body of Vaclav Havel, a former dissident playwright and Czechoslovakia's first post-communist president, has been transported to Prague Castle, where it will lie in state for a period of official mourning until his funeral service on Friday.

New North Korea leader Kim Jong-un to share collective rule with military and not have the full powers of father.

Tests show religious icon alleged to be burial shroud of Christ 'could not have been faked by medieval science'.

The body of longtime North Korea dictator Kim Jong-il has been displayed in an open coffin in the capital Pyongyang.

Mourners and well-wishers have gathered to pay their respects to the late North Korean leader, Kim Jong-il, whose body has been displayed in an open coffin on Tuesday.

North Koreans vent their sorrow and grief at the passing of their 'Dear Leader' Kim Jong-il.

How does North Korean mourning compare to mass grief at death of Kim Il-sung in 1994?

The death of North Korea's supreme leader Kim Jong-il has triggered a military alert in bordering South Korea, which has a long history of conflict with its secretive neighbour.

The Théâtre du Rond-Point in Paris has become the latest target in a wave of Catholic demonstrations across France against what they call "blasphemous" plays.

Pop diva Mariah Carey gave the thumbs-up to the men and women of the Royal Navy after the crew of HMS Ocean turned one of her songs into a hit online video.

At least 73 people have been killed and many more injured in a fire that broke out in a hospital in the eastern Indian city of Calcutta (Kolkata).

At least five UN members of a UN peace delegation and a Lebanese civilian have been injured in a bomb blast in southern Lebanon.

The new government in Libya has said it will allow British police to begin fresh investigations into the Lockerbie bombing and the murder of PC Yvonne Fletcher.

A prominent Zionist rabbi is facing trial in Jerusalem's Magistrate's Court on charges of forcible sexual assault.

The cost of British military intervention in Libya has been revealed as £212 million from 19 March to 31 October, amounting to a spending of nearly £1 million a day.

The government of the Maldives has temporarily banned the depositing of more rubbish onto an artificial island used for dumping garbage over fears that it is overflowing.