At least 12 people were killed and more than 100 others seriously injured in a fire at a garment factory in Bangladesh on December 14, the country's national news agency reported.

Italy's PM Silvio Berlusconi has won a vote of confidence in the Senate but must now face a second vote in the lower house.

China and Cambodia on December 13 agreed to establish a comprehensive strategic partnership and strengthen bilateral cooperation.

Richard Holbrooke, the diplomat who brokered the accord that ended the war in Bosnia and served as the US special representative for Afghanistan and Pakistan, has died, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said on December 13.

Iran's president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad on December 13 fired Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki in part of a perceived power struggle in Tehran.

French police on Monday arrested a young man who had taken some 20 kindergarten kids hostage in an eastern city before releasing all of them.

Nine people died and two others were injured in a fire that ripped though a residential apartment in Quzhou, east China's Zhejiang Province, local fire brigade said Tuesday.

Artists from Cambodia and Thailand will hold joint art performances in Phnom Penh, Cambodia in December 18.

A winter storm brought snow and bone-chilling wind to Chicago Sunday morning, causing more than 1, 000 flights to be canceled, according to local media.

China will enhance and improve macro-economic regulation to ensure stable and healthy economic development next year, said a statement released Sunday after the annual Central Economic Work Conference.