ROME, Vatican City, Jan. 3 (UPI) -- The Bank of Italy said it is blocking all credit card transactions in the Vatican because the city-state does not meet EU banking standards, officials said.
ISLAMABAD, Turkey, Jan. 3 (UPI) -- Refugees from Afghanistan and some Middle East countries are being turned away in many Eurozone countries, causing a humanitarian problem, officials said.
CHICAGO, Jan. 3 (UPI) -- U.S. prosecutors Thursday dropped an escape charge against a prisoner who made a daring escape from Chicago's high-rise South Loop jail.
BANDA ACEH, Indonesia, Jan. 3 (UPI) -- An Indonesian town is set to ban women from straddling scooters or motorcycles because it strays from Islamic standards, town leaders said.
LIBREVILLE, Gabon, Jan. 3 (UPI) -- Envoys from central Africa, the United States and Japan met in Gabon Thursday seeking an end to the unrest in the Central African Republic, officials said.
WASHINGTON, Jan. 3 (UPI) -- Transocean Deepwater Inc. has agreed to pay more than $1 billion in fines and penalties for the BP oil spill, the U.S. Justice Department said Thursday.
WASHINGTON, Jan. 3 (UPI) -- Two militant groups in the Democratic Republic of the Congo have been designated for sanctions, the U.S. Treasury said Thursday.
WASHINGTON, Jan. 3 (UPI) -- The last of 19 states got federal approval to start their new healthcare exchanges, created under the Affordable Care Act, the Obama administration said.
JERUSALEM, Jan. 3 (UPI) -- Violent erupted for a second time this week when Israeli police raided a West Bank refugee camp Thursday looking for a Palestinian militant, officials said.
KILLINGLY, Conn., Jan. 3 (UPI) -- Parishioners and young students at a Connecticut church school got a scare when a naked man broke into the church and exposed himself, police said.
ADDIS ABABA, Ethiopia, Jan. 3 (UPI) -- Ethiopia's security and intelligence agency announced 15 members of an East African terrorist cell affiliated with al-Qaida have been arrested.
KIEV, Ukraine, Jan. 3 (UPI) -- A man searching for kidney donors, allegedly part of an organ trafficking ring in Ukraine, will be charged in court, prosecutors in Kiev said.
PENDETON, Ore., Jan. 3 (UPI) -- The youngest passenger on a tour bus which plunged down a 200-foot embankment in Oregon, killing nine people, was released from the hospital, officials said.
WASHINGTON, Jan. 3 (UPI) -- U.S. House Democratic leaders urged defeat of the chamber's rules, in part because they reauthorized use of public funds to defend the Defense of Marriage Act.
WASHINGTON, Jan. 3 (UPI) -- Republican U.S. Sen. Mark Kirk was surrounded by Democrats as he walked up the steps of the Capitol on Thursday, almost a year after a stroke.
MONROE, Conn., Jan. 3 (UPI) -- Schools in Newtown, Conn., got extra security Thursday as students at Sandy Hook Elementary returned to class for the first time since the mass shooting.
LOS ANGELES, Jan. 3 (UPI) -- An unidentified Los Angeles man died New Year's Day when his refrigerator fell on him as he reached for a beer, the county coroner's office said.
ANKARA, Turkey, Jan. 3 (UPI) -- Turkey does not aim to assume a role in the Arab world although some may see it as a model, President Abdullah Gul says in a recent wide-ranging interview.
BAMAKO, Mali, Jan. 3 (UPI) -- The non-government organization community in Mali is doing more to address the consequences of conflict than the government, an advocate said.
DAILLON, Switzerland, Jan. 3 (UPI) -- The suspect in a shooting in which three people were killed and two wounded in the Swiss village of Daillon had been in a psychiatric facility, officials said.
RAMALLAH, West Bank, Jan. 3 (UPI) -- Israeli security forces have stirred unrest in the West Bank by arresting Palestinian activists in what appears to be a campaign to head off a third intifada.
BEIRUT, Lebanon, Jan. 3 (UPI) -- The ruling March 8 alliance in Beirut is credited with preventing the Syrian war from spilling over the Lebanese border, the leader of Hezbollah said Thursday.
UNITED NATIONS, Jan. 3 (UPI) -- The government of Myanmar is reminded of its obligation to ensure the safety of civilians living in rebel territory in Kachin state, the U.N. chief said.
