Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump has cast a shadow over the WGC-Cadillac Championship in Miami, even though he has yet to make an appearance at this week's edition as owner of the hosting venue.

US Republican presidential candidate Ted Cruz gained momentum on Saturday, projected as the winner of the nominating contest in Kansas and the winner of a "straw poll" of conservative activists.

US Senator Ted Cruz of Texas beat out rivals in the 2016 Conservative Political Action Conference straw poll as the first-choice pick for the US presidency.

Hassan al-Turabi, the Sudanese Islamist who played a key role in the 1989 coup that brought President Omar al-Bashir to power and who once hosted Osama bin Laden, died Saturday at the age of 84, Sudan's state-run news agency said.

Thousands of gay rights activists and LGBT families rallied in Rome Saturday in protest at the watering down of Italy's civil union's bill, which no longer envisages adoption rights for homosexual couples.

Republican Donald Trump and Democrat Hillary Clinton are each looking to strengthen their front-runner status in five presidential nominating contests on Saturday, as Trump tries to weather a barrage of blistering attacks from his party's establishment.

The Philippines said today it had seized a North Korean freighter that was covered by harsher United Nations' sanctions against Pyongyang over its nuclear programme.

A new survey by the language learning site Babbel has come to surprising conclusions. "Our data shows that men have a bias towards learning German, Portuguese and Russian, whereas women seem to choose Dutch, French, Italian and Spanish," Thomas Holl, the company's co-founder and president, explained in an email. The survey is based on data provided by Babbel's 1 million customers from around the world - the majority being based in Europe and North America.

Syrian President Bashar al-Assad must leave office as soon as a transitional authority is set up, Saudi Foreign Minister Adel al-Jubeir said Saturday, insisting there is no way he can retain power.

Hundreds of supporters of Brazil's charismatic ex-president Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva gathered outside his house in Sao Paulo Saturday to show their resolve, a day after his dramatic -- and polarizing -- detention for questioning in a corruption probe.

ISIS is losing a battle against forces arraigned against if from many sides in Iraq and Syria and the focus would turn to stabilising cities seized back from them, the US envoy to a coalition fighting the group said today.

Yemeni authorities have blamed the ISIS group for an attack on an elderly care home run by missionaries that killed 16 people and was condemned by Pope Francis as "diabolical".

Turkish police fired tear gas and plastic pellets today to disperse some 2,000 protesters gathered outside the country's biggest newspaper after the authorities seized control of it.

With Pakistan having a nuclear arsenal that could fall into wrong hands in the event of the south Asian country becoming unstable, India could act as a check, US presidential aspirant Donald Trump has asserted.

The Taliban today refused to resume long-stalled peace talks with the Afghan government, reiterating their preconditions for holding dialogue, a statement said.