The family of former first minister and DUP leader Ian Paisley spend the night at his hospital bedside.

Reuters - BP said it was preparing "vigorously" for lawsuits related to its Gulf of Mexico oil spill, which are due to start later this month, as it unveiled a rise in fourth-quarter earnings boosted by higher oil prices and one-off gains.

The Syrian army resumes heavy shelling in the restive city of Homs as Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov is due in Damascus for talks.

AP - Russia's foreign minister was due in Damascus on Tuesday for talks with embattled President Bashar Assad amid escalating violence, a day after the U.S. closed its embassy and Britain recalled its ambassador from Syria.

Maldives President Mohamed Nasheed resigns after weeks of demonstrations and a mutiny by some police officers.

AP - The entire staff at a Los Angeles elementary school is being removed while authorities investigate horrific allegations of sexual abuse by two of the school's teachers, one of whom is accused of blindfolding children, taping their mouths and photographing them in a classroom.

Two boys killed with their father in an apparent murder-suicide suffered hatchet wounds before a fire in their Washington state home, police say.

One of India's most famous police officers is on trial—accused of being a killer-for-hire—in a case that embodies the difficulty of trying to clean up the nation's notoriously corrupt crime-fighting forces.

Students at Miramonte Elementary School will return to class later this week to a new staff because administrators do not want any more "surprises" at the Los Angeles school that is at the center of two child abuse cases.

On the 200th anniversary of Charles Dickens's birth, the Prince of Wales and Duchess of Cornwall will attend a special service at Westminster Abbey.

A report is being launched calling for a new law against stalking in England and Wales, to try to prevent harassment and intimidation turning to violence.

Seventy delegates and a whole lot of momentum: That's what's at stake Tuesday when three states hold contests in the race for the Republican presidential nomination.

An Austrian adventurer is making the final preparations to jump from the very point where the atmosphere ends and space begins.

Japan's push to enter a broad Asia-Pacific trade pact faces one of its toughest challenges this week: acceptance from Washington.

Australia's central bank surprised financial markets by keeping interest rates steady, citing reduced risks in Europe for the decision, which sent the Australian dollar surging to a fresh six-month high.