Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong said increasing real incomes to improve the lives of Singaporeans is a key challenge for the government.

With about 87 percent of the election protocols from polling places counted, the ruling United Russia party is now slightly above the 50-percent mark, which, however, is still a far cry from the commanding two-thirds constitutional majority the party has held in the State Duma, the lower house of parliament, for the past four years, according to the official count.

Clinton's remarks, made Saturday behind closed doors at the Saban Forum in Washington, made headlines in most Israeli newspapers, which reported them without explaining how they obtained the comments.

Citing an anonymous military source, Iran's Arabic-language al- Alam TV network said a U.S. reconnaissance drone aircraft has been shot down in eastern Iran.

The troubled US economy and President Barack Obama's embattled administration received a substantial confidence boost on Friday, as unemployment sank to a 32-month low of 8.6 percent in November.

Diplomats at the Iranian embassy in London left Britain on Friday after being expelled following the storming of the British embassy in Tehran, the Foreign Office said.

US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton on Friday offered US$1.2 million in new aid aimed at civil society in Myanmar in a bid to bolster reforms on a landmark visit to the long-isolated nation.

Ms Clinton met with President Thein Sein, Myanmar’s Foreign Minister and other officials in Naypyitaw capital on December 1.

The report, led by the World Health Organization, found that the number of new HIV infections has dropped by 15 percent in the past decade. It also reported a 22 percent decrease in AIDS-related deaths over the past five years.

Crane ships and frogmen began sifting through the wreckage of a collapsed bridge in Indonesian Borneo on Tuesday, as more bodies were fished out of the river, raising the death toll from the weekend disaster to 18.

The United States said on Monday that Europe needed to act "now" with force and decisiveness to attack the eurozone debt crisis, as President Barack Obama hosted a summit with top European officials.

Egyptians flocked to the polls on Monday for a first post-revolution election, making a mostly orderly and joyous start to their transition to democracy after a week of violence and political crisis.

China penalized 113 people, including 17 government employees, over a chemical tainted pork scandal, official state media reported on Saturday.

The 14th ASEAN Ministerial Meeting on Science and Technology (AMMST-14) opened in Ho Chi Minh City on Nov. 26.

An inexpensive drug that treats Type 2 diabetes has been shown to prevent a number of natural and man-made chemicals from stimulating the growth of breast cancer cells, according to a newly published study by a Michigan State University researcher.