WASHINGTON: Declaring that 2014 can be the "breakthrough year" for America and the US is "better-positioned for the 21st century than any other nation on Earth", US President Barack Obama warned the country's lawmakers on Tuesday that he would use his executive powers to boost economic recovery and narrow the gap between rich and poor if they did not move on critical legislation.

ATLANTA: Icy chaos gripped the US south on Wednesday after a rare winter storm that killed at least six people, stranded children in their schools overnight and paralyzed travel in several states, including hundreds of flight cancellations at the world's busiest airport.

KIEV, Ukraine: Ukraine's Parliament has passed a measure offering amnesty to arrested protesters, but only if demonstrators vacate most of the buildings they occupy.

HAVANA: Cuban President Raul Castro called on Latin American and Caribbean leaders on Tuesday to work together on pressing regional problems at a gathering of all Western Hemisphere nations except the US and Canada.

WELLINGTON: New Zealand Prime Minister John Key said on Wednesday he supported changing the national flag but would hold a referendum before any decision was made to ditch the existing banner.

 HONG KONG: The daughter of a flamboyant Hong Kong tycoon whose offer of a massive dowry inspired a movie wrote an open letter on Wednesday asking him to accept who she is after he reportedly raised the price.

GENEVA: Syrian peace talks in Geneva were deadlocked Monday over the issue of transferring power, but neither side walked away and the UN said the question of a political transition would be back on the table.
UN mediator Lakhdar Brahimi admitted that talks "haven't produced much". But he said he would bring the country's warring sides together again on Tuesday for another attempt at political discussions.

CHICAGO: Bitter cold and high winds from the arctic pushed wind chills to dangerous levels across the US upper midwest on Monday, forcing officials to close schools and slowing public transit and river traffic.

OSWIECIM, Poland: Gazing out from the main watchtower at the grim desert that is the crumbling chimneys and crematories, vanished prisoners' huts, barbed wire and ditches of Birkenau, it is hard to fathom that there were corners of the Nazi realm where, collectively, more killing occurred than in the Nazi death camps.

GENEVA: The Syrian government said women and children could leave the besieged rebel city of Homs on Sunday as negotiators from the warring sides discussed humanitarian gestures on a second day of face-to-face talks in Geneva.