US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton has said that there is never any justification for violent acts as a response to offensive religious materials.

A blizzard pummeled the Northeastern United States, killing at least one person, leaving hundreds of thousands without power and disrupting thousands of flights, media and officials said.

Thousands of Russian activists gathered in Moscow on Sunday to hold a protest march against a law banning US nationals from adopting Russian children.

UN-Arab League envoy Kofi Annan is battling to save an international meeting on the Syria crisis set for Saturday following Russian objections to his proposed transition plan, diplomats said.

US President Barack Obama, would visit Israel along with Jordan and the West Bank, the White House said on Tuesday.

North Korea on Thursday said that it is planning a new nuclear test and more rocket launches.

In the wake of the huge public outcry over the deadly Connecticut elementary school massacre, President Barack Obama has set a January deadline for proposals to deal with gun violence in the United States.

Indian doctor Rajan Daniel's throat was slit inside a hospital in Abu Dhabi by a Pakistani man who blamed him for his relative's death, a media report said on Saturday.

A man was arrested after firing about 50 shots in the parking lot of a Southern California shopping mall, prompting a lockdown of stores crowded with holiday shoppers.

The shooting spree in a Connecticut school that left 20 small children and six adults dead capped a tragic year for the US, which saw similar massacres in a Colorado theatre and Wisconsin gurdwara, putting pressure on the Obama administration to take action on the country's gun laws.