France's President, Francois Hollande, has signed into law a bill legalising same-sex marriage, throwing out a last-ditch effort by opponents to scupper the country's biggest social reform since abolition of the death penalty. After months of sometimes violent street demonstrations, the Council gave the go-ahead to a law that will make France the 14th country to legalize gay weddings, in line with an electi ...

The French Police on Friday confirmed that more than $1 million worth of jewels have been stolen from a hotel in Cannes, where an international film festival is taking place. The items were reportedly taken from a room in Novotel hotel in the early hours of Friday morning. The room belonged to an employee of exclusive Swiss jewellers Chopard and according to police reports; the thieves pulled the safe conta ...

Greece's parliament evicted a far-right lawmaker of the Golden Dawn Party for insulting other deputies during a debate on a racism bill today, the first time in 20 years that a member of parliament has been evicted. The move prompted jeers of "Heil Hitler" from a leftist party deputy in the chamber. Tapping into resentment over budget cuts and illegal immigration in the crisis-hit country, Golden Dawn has e ...

Argentina's first military dictator, Jorge Rafael Videla, has died today at the age of 87. The Argentine military dictator, who according to report killed thousands of dissidents from 1976 to 1983 died of natural causes while serving a sentence for human rights crimes. Unrepentant till death concerning the kidnappings and murders ordered by the state, Videla accompanied by Emilio Massera and Orlando Agosti, ...

A Russian court has ordered the head of French banking giant Societe Generale's Russian unit,Vladimir Golubkov, placed under house arrest over bribery charges. Rosbank chief, Golubkov, was charged with commercial bribery and will be placed under house arrest until July 16. The court opted for house arrest despite a request by the investigation to put Golubkov, who is accused of soliciting a $1.5-million bri ...

More than $1 million worth of jewels due to be lent to movie stars at the Cannes film festival were stolen from a hotel room in the French Riviera town. Thieves ripped the safe out of the wall of the Novotel hotel room overnight where an employee of Chopard, a luxury jeweller, was lodged. The jewels were loaned to celebrities in Cannes for the world famous annual film festival which opened on Wednesday. The ...

Six-two people were injured after a light rail transit train derailed in Hong Kong on Friday. The accident happened while the train was making a turn, causing it to jump off the tracks, according to local media reports. Emergency crews carrying injured passengers off the train, some on stretchers, and treating people on the scene were seen. An eyewitness said after the crash the train flipped onto its side ...

Colombian President Juan Manuel Santos hinted that he will be vying for the first citizen's position come 2014, citing continuity of his policies and bringing to conclusion peace talks with Marxist FARC rebels as reasons. Though the Colombian President did not explicitly announce his candidacy< Mr. Santos also informed that Colombian housing minister German Vargas Lleras, who led the free housing program ...

Toronto Mayor Rob Ford on Friday denied allegations that he smoked crack cocaine. "Absolutely not true... It's ridiculous," Ford told reporters gathered outside his west Toronto house, before driving off in his SUV. Reporters for the Toronto Star newspaper and Gawker Media said late Thursday they had watched a cellphone video that appears to show Ford smoking crack. The video is allegedly being shopped arou ...

A proposed international conference to try to stop Syria's civil war should be held as soon as possible, U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said on Friday, but no date has yet been agreed for a meeting that appears to face growing obstacles. Ban spoke as U.N. officials announced that the number of refugees fleeing the fighting in Syria, a conflict that has claimed the lives of 80,000 people over the past tw ...