US President Barack Obama will visit Pope Francis and Italian, Belgian, EU and Nato leaders on a three-country European tour in March, officials say.

The European Commission partially suspends EU-US talks on free trade amid fears that hard-won social protections in Europe might be at risk.

A former Halliburton manager who admitted destroying evidence in the inquiry into the 2010 Gulf of Mexico oil spill is given a year's probation.

The Georgian government protests after Russia temporarily moves its border with the breakaway Georgian territory of Abkhazia for the Sochi games.

A South Carolina judge hears arguments over whether to grant a new trial to a 14-year-old black boy executed for the murder of two girls in 1944.

The US and UN express horror at allegations in a new report that Syria has systematically tortured and executed about 11,000 detainees.

Former Virginia Governor Bob McDonnell and his wife are charged with illegally accepting lavish gifts from a businessman while he was in office.