BBC World News

The US Secretary of State John Kerry calls the Afghan leader to defuse tension over the opening of a Taliban office, an Afghan official tells the BBC.

The government in North Korea is willing to restart talks over its nuclear programme which broke down five years ago, according to Chinese officials.

Shops belonging to Asians are targeted in a violent protest in DR Congo's capital over the arrest of Congolese students in India over the weekend.

One in nine bridges in the US - more than 66,000 in total - are structurally deficient, a number likely to grow amid US budget woes, a report finds.

US President Barack Obama has addressed thousands of Germans in Berlin, almost 50 years to the day since President John Kennedy delivered his famous ""Ich bin ein Berliner" speech.

There should be "no hiding place" for anyone involved in a cover-up by England's NHS regulator after baby deaths at a Cumbria hospital, the health secretary says.

Mars' atmosphere could have been rich in oxygen four billion years ago - well before Earth's air became augmented with the gas.

Egypt's tourism minister quits and protests erupt as a man with links to Islamists behind the deadly 1997 attack in Luxor is named as city governor.

Britain's Laura Robson, Heather Watson and Elena Baltacha all lose in the second round of the Aegon International.

A rodent that never gets cancer could hold the key to preventing or treating malignant tumours, say scientists.

Military police are being deployed in several cities in Brazil to help control a wave of violent protests.

Italian fashion designers Domenico Dolce and Stefano Gabbana have been sentenced to jail in Italy for one year and eight months for tax evasion

Italian fashion designers Domenico Dolce and Stefano Gabbana are sentenced to jail in Italy for tax evasion but have appealed against the verdict.

England cruise into the final of the Champions Trophy with a convincing seven-wicket victory over South Africa at The Oval.

Nine drug companies are fined for delaying cheaper generic drugs coming to market.

A hunger-striking Guantanamo Bay detainee tells of the 'ordeal' of force-feeding, as doctors call for inmates to get independent medical care.

The Afghan government will not take part in peace talks with the Taliban unless the process is "Afghan-led", President Hamid Karzai announces.

Flooding in India is continuing to disrupt daily life on a massive scale.

At least 15 people, including four foreigners, are killed in an assault by militant Islamists on a UN office in the Somali capital, Mogadishu.

Yohan Blake will not run the 200m at the World Championships after pulling out of the Jamaican national championships.