Blind activist Chen Guangcheng said Thursday China had agreed to issue him a passport within 15 days, allowing him to go to the US after a bitter row between Beijing and Washington. It was the first indication of when Chen would be allowed to leave the country since he left the US embassy more than [...]

Love-struck teenagers, angry parents, rowing couples: Somali youth tired of seeing their homeland portrayed as a war-torn famine zone have started making films to show a different side to their country. “The world knows Somalia for war,” said Adirahman Ali Suge, a 19-year-old writer and film director, part of a group of refugee Somali film [...]

Police in northern India are probing alleged fraud in the construction of giant sculptures of elephants and low-caste political heroes that were the $1.2-billion pet projects of former leader Mayawati. Mayawati, the populist chief minister of Uttar Pradesh state until March, built memorial parks containing sandstone and granite statues despite criticism that the money could [...]

Greece will go to the polls for the second time in less than two months on June 17, the Athens News Agency said Wednesday, as fears grew of more instability over the country’s eurozone future. State-controlled ANA said Council of State president Panagiotis Pikrammenos, the head of Greece’s top administrative court, will be caretaker prime [...]