Pope Francis promised that concrete actions against child sexual abuse by priests would result from a conference he opened on Thursday, countering scepticism from some survivors who said the meeting looked like a public relations exercise.

Barclays reported a lower than forecast attributable profit of 3.5 billion pounds ($4.56 billion) for 2018, as it set aside cash to cushion against Brexit losses and its trading business weathered a difficult fourth quarter.

Vietnamese police have stepped up security at a remote rail station on the Chinese border where North Korean leader Kim Jong Un is expected to enter the country by train next week ahead of a summit with U.S. President Donald Trump.

British pensions minister Amber Rudd said she hopes Prime Minister Theresa May will get her revised Brexit deal through parliament next week, according to BBC's political correspondent Ben Wright.

President Vladimir Putin has said that Russia is militarily ready for a Cuban Missile-style crisis if the United States is foolish enough to want one and that his country currently has the edge when it comes to a first nuclear strike.

Signs the United States and China were tackling some of the stickiest issues in their trade war kept world shares near a four-month high on Thursday, though it could not prevent a favorite Chinese proxy, the Aussie dollar, hitting the skids.

As many as 70 people died in a major fire that engulfed several buildings in a centuries-old neighborhood of the Bangladesh capital, a fire official said on Thursday, warning the toll could climb as fire fighters scour the rubble.

British lawmakers could be given a vote on a revised Brexit deal as soon as next week as negotiators in Brussels scramble to clinch last-minute changes to divorce accord that would avoid a potentially disorderly exit from the European Union.

President Vladimir Putin calls improving the Russian navy's combat capabilities a priority.

In three cavernous former Royal Air Force hangars at an old airbase in Wales, luxury carmaker Aston Martin is forging ahead with construction of a new vehicle assembly plant.

The death toll from a fire in a centuries-old area of the Bangladesh capital, Dhaka, jumped dramatically to 70 on Thursday, a fire official said, and could keep climbing as fire fighters combed the wreckage of the destroyed building.

It's not the most conventional journey, but Kim Jong-un could be making his way to Vietnam by rail.

The Hayabusa-2 probe is ready to descend to the Ryugu asteroid to collect a sample from its surface.

China's customs administration is testing coal imports for reasons including environmental protection, a foreign ministry spokesman said on Thursday.

Asian shares pulled ahead to fresh 4-1/2-month highs and U.S. equity futures rose on a Reuters report that the United States and China have started to tackle the stickiest issues in their trade war.

The fire spread quickly in the tightly-packed, centuries-old area of the Bangladeshi capital.

Julie Bishop has been the highest-ranking woman to serve in the two-term government.

NASA has warned SpaceX and Boeing Co of design and safety concerns for their competing astronaut launch systems, according to industry sources and a new government report, threatening the U.S. bid to revive its human spaceflight program later this year.

A deadly blaze has swept through the historic district of Chawkbazar, where tragedy has previously struck.

Customs at China's northern Dalian port has banned imports of Australian coal and will cap overall coal imports for 2019 through its harbours at 12 million tonnes, an official at Dalian Port Group told Reuters on Thursday.