Syria’s state news agency is reporting intense clashes between government forces and Turkish troops in the country’s north.

An Italian prosecutor says a heavily indebted man seeking to make a false insurance claim has confessed to setting off explosions at a farmhouse he owned that killed three firefighters.

Iran is defending its decision to block an U.N. inspector from a nuclear site last week.

The fires started in 1916. More than a century later, coal pits in Jharia, in a remote corner of India’s eastern Jharkhand state, continue to spew flames and clouds of poisonous fumes into the air.

Japanese Emperor Naruhito has thanked tens of thousands of well-wishers who gathered outside the palace to congratulate his enthronement at a ceremony organized by conservative political and business groups.

Lionel Messi is still going strong but Barcelona’s club president has already started to look ahead to that unwanted day when the club’s all-time great steps off Camp Nou’s field for the very last time.

Iraqi medical officials say security forces have cleared a flashpoint bridge in Baghdad of anti-government protesters using stun grenades and tear gas, in clashes that are among the heaviest since the unrest began last month.

A local witness and the U.S. mission in Afghanistan say a joint U.S.-Afghan military convoy has confronted several civilian vehicles with flares, after a confrontation on the road.

Germany is marking the 30th anniversary of the opening of the Berlin Wall, a pivotal moment in the events that brought down Communism in eastern Europe.

The Latest on exiled Malaysian opposition leader Sam Rainsy’s effort to return to his home country (all times local):