Foreign Ministry response

Beijing voiced serious discontent and protested the "unreasonable attitude" of Japan toward President Xi Jinping's Berlin speech about Japan's wartime atrocities, the Foreign Ministry said on Monday.

French Socialists suffer huge losses in local polls

France's ruling Socialist Party suffered humiliating losses on Sunday in local polls marked by breakthrough successes for the far-right National Front and the historic election of the first female mayor of Paris.

A victory to savor for Hidalgo

As she bid to become the first female mayor of Paris, Spanish-born Socialist Anne Hidalgo had to endure taunts from her opponents about her modest origins and lack of Parisian roots.

Musharraf rejects charges in treason case

Pervez Musharraf, former president of Pakistan, pleaded not guilty to five counts of treason on Monday in the latest chapter of a long-running drama between the country's increasingly assertive judiciary and its former military ruler.

No proof torture helped find bin Laden: report

A hotly disputed US Senate report on torture concluded that waterboarding and other harsh interrogation methods provided no key evidence in the hunt for Osama bin Laden, according to congressional aides and outside experts familiar with the investigation.

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Guinea battles Ebola as virus spreads to capital

Ebola, one of the world's most deadly viruses, has spread from a remote forested corner of southern Guinea to the country's seaside capital, raising fears that the disease, which causes severe bleeding and almost always death, could spread far beyond this West African nation's borders.

Thais vote for Senate ahead of deadline for PM

Thais voted on Sunday for half of the country's 150-seat Senate in a key test for Yingluck Shinawatra's troubled government, a day before the prime minister is due to defend herself against negligence charges over a disastrous rice subsidy project.

Intl arbitration on S. China Sea 'will not be accepted'

China urged the Philippines on Sunday to stick to the countries' consensus and the Declaration on the Conduct of Parties in the South China Sea and return to the correct path of bilateral talks in resolving disputes.

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US Secretary of State John Kerry was scheduled to meet with his Russian counterpart, Sergei Lavrov, on Sunday for suddenly arranged talks in Paris as diplomatic efforts to resolve Cold War-style tensions over the Ukraine crisis gained momentum. Russian President Vladimir Putin phoned US President Barack Obama on Friday to discuss both sides' proposals on Ukraine's future.

Turkey labels YouTube leak a 'plot'

Turkey vowed action on Friday against the source of a bugged recording of a security meeting on Syria leaked on YouTube, labeling it a conspiratorial "plot" ahead of key local elections.

China, France toast continuing strong ties

Long-term friendship, common interests and complementary economies will take Sino-French relations into a new era, especially when the two countries mark their 50th anniversary of bilateral relations later this year, according to a Chinese former senior official.