A 6.7-magnitude earthquake has struck Mexico, shaking buildings and sending people rushing out on to the street.

Pakistan's interior minister and prime minister have both denied the government is holding peace talks with its homegrown Taliban, according to media.

French former prime minister and centre-right politician Dominique de Villepin has announced he will stand for president in the 2012 election.

Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg said on December 11 that David Cameron's veto of EU treaty changes was "bad for Britain" and could leave it "isolated and marginalised".

Africa's first elected female head of state, a Liberian peace activist, and a human rights activist from Yemen are the three female winners of this year's Nobel Peace Prize.

UN climate change talks agreed a pact on December 11 that for the first time would force all the biggest polluters to take action to slow the pace of global changing.

UN climate talks on December 10 faced the scythe of Father Time as environment ministers haggled over proposals for a new pact to roll back the threat from greenhouse gases.

The Pakistani Taliban’s Deputy Commander Maulvi Faqir Mohammad says his group has opened peace talks with the government.

A small plane crashed in the Philippines into a school building in Paranaque near Manila at about 14:30 local time on December 10.  

At least 89 people have been reported dead when a fire that broke out in a hospital in the eastern Indian city of Calcutta (Kolkata) on December 9, officials say.