ADDIS ABABA: South Sudan's president and rebel chief have signed a ceasefire deal vowing to end nearly five months of civil war, under international pressure to stem bloodshed and avert famine and genocide.

JOHANNESBURG: South Africa's ruling African National Congress won the 2014 national election with 62.16 percent of the votes, the electoral commission said on Friday.

Britain is drawing up plans with the US and other European countries to "disarm" the threat of Russian President Vladimir Putin using Russian gas and oil supplies as "a weapon" against Ukraine and its eastern European neighbours.

LONDON: Police officers across London will wear video cameras when responding to emergency calls as part of a year-long pilot project launched on Thursday.

BEIJING: China's escalating dispute with Vietnam over contested waters in the South China Sea sent new shudders through Asia on Thursday as China demanded the withdrawal of Vietnamese ships near a giant Chinese drilling rig and for the first time acknowledged its vessels had blasted the Vietnamese flotilla with water cannons in recent days.

 SANAA: Yemeni security forces killed an al-Qaida commander suspected of masterminding a wave of kidnap attempts against Western diplomats in a nightime operation in the capital, a spokesman said on Friday.

WASHINGTON: US President Barack Obama on Tuesday urged global action against Nigerian Islamic militants, as Washington sent in military experts to help track down more than 200 girls seized in a "heartbreaking" kidnapping.

 ISLAMABAD: Pakistan's National Assembly on Tuesday unanimously passed a resolution seeking an end to ban on video-sharing website, YouTube.

KANO, NIGERIA: Calls for the United States to help find and free hundreds of schoolgirls kidnapped in Nigeria are mounting after Boko Haram claimed the abduction and threatened to sell the girls as "slaves".

RAMALLAH: Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas began talks with Hamas chief Khaled Meshaal in Doha on Monday in the first meeting since their rival movements signed a surprise unity deal, an official said.