Three people were killed on Saturday and dozens injured when an aircraft burst into flames before take-off on a runway at an airport in Russia's Far North, officials said.

 One of five wild ducks found dead in South Korea this week was on Saturday confirmed to have been infected with a lethal strain of the bird flu virus as the country battles its first outbreak in over two years.

Dilma Rousseff was sworn as Brazil 's first female president Saturday at the National Congress in Brasilia, taking over from Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva who had served the biggest South American country for eight years.

The Chinese mainland and Taiwan Saturday moved the first step in furthering their economic ties by implementing the "early harvest program" of the Economic Cooperation Framework Agreement (ECFA).

The Republic of Korea (RoK) on December 31 officially confirmed the outbreak of bird flu at two poultry farms in the central and southwestern parts of the country.

  Commuters in New York City faced more headaches on Tuesday as subways, buses and commuter trains continued to experience heavy delays due to Sunday's blizzard.

A fire broke out on December 28 on a railway car ferrying passengers in central Israel, injuring up to 40 people, mostly from shock or smoke inhalation, one of them in serious condition, local medics said.

Visiting Chinese Assistant Foreign Minister Cheng Guoping held talks with Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Alexei Borodavkin on December 28, exchanging views on the current situation of the Korean Peninsula.

Pakistan's ruling coalition suffered a blow on Monday when the second-largest party in the alliance announced it was withdrawing its two ministers from the federal cabinet.

Five Chinese were killed early Monday in an oil refinery blast in Zabaikalsky Kray in eastern Russia, Itar-Tass news agency reported.

A massive snow storm forced hundreds of flight cancellations at US airports Sunday, creating travel misery for thousands of Christmas travelers just as conditions in Europe began to ease.

Two bomb explosions respectively hit the Swiss and Chilean embassies in Rome Thursday, each injuring one person in the diplomatic missions, the ANSA news agency reported.

The UN Security Council area is being evacuated on Tuesday morning due to "unidentified odor," UN spokesman Farhan Haq told reporters here, adding the UN is working with the local authorities to find out the source of the odor.

Overnight snow from Sunday to Monday morning stopped large numbers of passengers on the way, with many flights and trains delayed or canceled.

Hexavalent chromium, a cancer-causing chemical, is found in the tap water of 31 cities out of a total of 35 tested by the Environmental Working Group (EWG), it was reported on Monday.