The utility that operates Japan’s crippled nuclear plant says it deserves most of the blame for the crisis, in the company’s strongest remarks about its own shortcomings.

US secretary of state John Kerry met again today with Afghan President Hamid Karzai, a day after they put on a show of unity as they tried to end recent bickering over anti-American comments made by the Afghan leader.

US secretary of state John Kerry is in Iraq on an unannounced visit to urge Iraqi leaders to stop Iranian overflights of arms and fighters heading to Syria and to overcome sectarian differences that still threaten Iraqi stability 10 years after the American-led invasion that toppled Saddam Hussein.

Olympic boxers will fight without head guards in a pro-style scoring system starting this year after several significant rule changes by the sport’s international governing body.

President Barack Obama says each of his proposed steps to reduce gun violence should get a vote in the Congress, even an assault weapons ban that both parties agree stands little chance at passing.

Chinua Achebe, the internationally celebrated Nigerian author, statesman and dissident who gave literary birth to modern Africa with Things Fall Apart, has died at 82. Achebe died following a brief illness, said his agent, Andrew Wylie.

A collection of some of Princess Diana’s most memorable evening gowns, including one she wore to a White House dinner where she danced with John Travolta, fetched over $1.2 million at a London auction on Wednesday.

President Barack Obama is set to plunge into the turbulent Middle East on a mission aimed primarily at assuring America’s top ally in the region and its friends back home that it will not be forsaken amid bitter domestic political squabbles and budget crises in Washington.

Pope Francis thrilled tens of thousands of people today gathered for his installation Mass, taking a long round-about through St Peter’s Square and getting out of his jeep to bless a disabled man in a wheelchair in the crowd.

Afghan political parties united against President Hamid Karzai recently opened talks with the Taliban and US-declared terrorist Gulbuddin Hekmatyar, hoping to broker peace ahead of next year’s exit of international combat troops and a presidential race that will determine Karzai’s successor, Taliban and Opposition leaders have told The Associated Press.