Island residents evacuated after volcano's eruption

A volcano erupted on a small island in southern Japan on Friday, spewing black clouds of ash and rock into the sky and prompting authorities to tell residents to evacuate the island.

Thai official says upsurge of boat people 'alarming'

Thailand's foreign minister said on Friday that the upsurge of boat people in Southeast Asia has reached an "alarming level", and urged governments in the region to address the root causes of the crisis, a reference to the swelling number of refugees who have fled persecution in Myanmar.

US National Spelling Bee ends in tie for 2nd year

They couldn't be rattled. They couldn't be denied. Indian-Americans Gokul Venkatachalam and Vanya Shivashankar had worked too hard and come close too many times not to win the Scripps National Spelling Bee.

Alleged Nazi war criminal dies in Quebec

The second-most-wanted man on the Simon Wiesenthal Center's list of Nazi war criminals - charged this month by Russia with genocide - has died at age 93, his lawyer said.

Immigration talk toughens ahead of election

"Unwanted" and "uncivilized" - foreigners are sometimes shocked by the blunt tone of Denmark's debate on Muslim immigration, and with a general election around the corner, politicians show no sign of toning it down.

Hundreds seek safety from Texas floods; severe weather kills 17

Hundreds of people fled areas near Texas rivers that overflowed their banks on Thursday as the state reeled from severe storms this week that killed at least 17 people, flooded cities and set a record for the wettest month.

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Heat wave set to continue as death toll reaches 800

At least 800 people have died in a major heat wave that has swept across India, melting roads in New Delhi as temperatures neared 50 C.

Kenyans get training to run railway

The Chinese company constructing the Mombasa-Nairobi Standard Gauge Railway in Kenya said it would transfer more technology and help Kenya train personnel in railway maintenance and operation, as Kenyan President Uhuru Kenyatta inspected a bridge construction site at the ongoing project on Tuesday.

Academics urge honesty over 'comfort women'

Japanese academics have called on the conservative government to face up to its responsibility over "comfort women", echoing an open letter from leading foreign scholars urging an honest accounting for wartime wrongdoing.

UN officials knew of sex abuse for months

For months, the UN's top human rights officials knew about allegations of child sexual abuse by French soldiers in Central African Republic, but they didn't follow up because they assumed French authorities were handling it, statements marked "strictly confidential" show.

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Malaysian police forensic teams began removing the remains of dozens of suspected human-trafficking victims on Tuesday from shallow graves discovered at a jungle camp near the border with Thailand.