Hightlights
US House passes $1.1tn budget bill to avert shutdown
The House of Representatives averted a government shutdown on Thursday, narrowly passing a $1.1 trillion spending bill despite strenuous Democratic objections to ...Hong Kong police clear out main protest camp
Hong Kong authorities started clearing barricades Thursday from a pro-democracy protest camp spread across a busy highway as part of a final ...Afghan bomber targets military bus, kills 6 soldiers
A suicide bomber killed six Afghan soldiers in an attack on a military minibus on Thursday, officials said, in the first attack ...Australian Senate inquiry finds government responsible for deadly asylum-seeker riots
The Australian government failed to protect asylum seekers in its custody during a deadly riot at an immigration detention center earlier this ...CIA mistreated detainees, misrepresented intelligence, mismanaged program, Senate probe finds
CIA torture of Al-Qaeda suspects was far more brutal than acknowledged, did not produce useful intelligence and was so poorly managed it ...Iraq presses Hagel for more U.S. air strikes, weapons
Iraq\'s Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi pressed outgoing U.S. Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel on Tuesday for more air strikes and weaponry to accelerate ...Kerry urges flexibility in U.S. war powers against Islamic State
Any congressional authorization of U.S. military force against Islamic State should be flexible and not limit the fight to Iraq and Syria, ...Syria calls for U.N. sanctions on Israel over air strikes
Syria asked the United Nations Security Council on Monday to impose sanctions on neighboring Israel, a day after accusing the Jewish state ...Hong Kong protesters given Thursday deadline to clear sites
Hong Kong\'s High Court has ordered the main protest sites that have choked the financial city for more than two months to ...UN: $16.4 billion needed to aid most vulnerable
The United Nations appealed Monday for $16.4 billion to pay for global humanitarian needs in 2015, saying it needs that money to ...