Iran is turning to barter - offering gold bullion in overseas vaults or tankerloads of oil - in return for food as new financial sanctions have hurt its ability to import basic staples for its 74 million people, commodities traders said Thursday.

India has decided to buy 126 fighter jets from France, taken delivery of a nuclear-powered submarine from Russia and prepared for its first aircraft carrier in recent weeks as it modernizes its military to match China's. 

The spectacular uprising that ousted Hosni Mubarak a year ago turned the political order upside down in Egypt where the former ruler is now in jail and once-oppressed Islamists in parliament, but for most Egyptians the grievances remain unchanged.

Egypt's military leader told electoral officials Monday to speed preparations for presidential elections after a new eruption of street protests demanding that the ruling generals move more quickly to hand power to an elected government. 

With beach landings, 25 naval ships and an air assault, the United States and eight other countries are staging a major amphibious exercise on the US East Coast this week, fighting a fictional enemy that bears more than a passing resemblance to Iran. 

A developing Senate plan that would bolster the government's ability to regulate the computer security of companies that run critical industries is drawing strong opposition from businesses that say it goes too far and security experts who believe it should have even more teeth. 

The recording was forgotten, and so, too, was the odd twist of history that brought together Malcolm X and a bespectacled Brown University fated to become one of America's top diplomats. 

Voters from Mexico's ruling conservative party selected their first woman presidential candidate on Sunday, choosing a former education minister to battle the opposition's nominee, who has a big lead in the polls.

Western and Arab powers have reacted angrily to Russia and China's veto of a Security Council resolution on the Syria crisis, but Moscow and Beijing insisted the text had needed more work. 

Bosnia's government declared a state of emergency in its capital on Saturday after Sarajevo was paralyzed by snow, while in Rome residents dug out from the city's biggest snowfall in 26 years, which shut down the Colosseum.  

Three more people have set themselves on fire to protest China's policies toward Tibetans in a politically sensitive area that has already been the scene of ethnic violence this year, a report said Sunday. 

Bitterly cold weather that has claimed hundreds of lives in eastern Europe swept westwards over the continent on Saturday, blanketing Rome's Colosseum with snow for the first time in three decades and disrupting air and rail traffic. 

Syrian forces bombarded the protest city of Homs Saturday, killing more than 200 civilians in a “horrific massacre,” activists said.

A top US delegation led by Secretary of State Hillary Clinton will Saturday try to assure Europe that ties remain firm despite budget cuts, troop withdrawals and Washington's shift in focus to Asia.

A rare snowfall blanketed Rome on Friday, forcing the closure of the Colosseum over fears tourists would slip on the icy ruins, and leaving buses struggling to climb the city's slushy hills. Other parts of the country experienced frigid temperatures unseen in years.

Republican frontrunner Mitt Romney got a new poll boost Thursday two days before Nevada's caucuses, as real estate mogul Donald Trump endorsed him for the party's presidential nomination. 

Prince William arrived in the Falkland Islands on Thursday for a six-week deployment with the Royal Air Force (RAF), British officials said, a move Argentina has condemned as a ''provocation''. 

Republican presidential hopefuls took their campaigns to the American heartland Wednesday, with front-runner Mitt Romney seeking to seize on the momentum of his big Florida primary victory, while runner-up Newt Gingrich sought to convince the public he was still in the race.  

DR Congo President Joseph Kabila's party and its allies won a parliamentary majority in November elections, results showed Thursday some two months after polls slammed by the opposition and observers.  

Record-low temperatures in parts of Eastern Europe pushed the death toll from Arctic conditions to at least 89 people Wednesday, and have forced Russian gas provider Gazprom to warn over supplies to Europe.