Washington - The FBI was Thursday hastily seeking to identify victims of a serial paedophile who drugged and molested dozens of children over four decades teaching at international schools around the world.

Havana - Scott Gilbert who is the attorney for American Alan Gross serving a 15 year prison term in Cuba pleaded with the Obama government to "sit down with the Cuban government" and try to negotiate a deal for his release.

Sydney - President Obama’s surprising confirmation of the US role in any conflict between Japan and China has done little to ease regional tensions. The Diaoyu/Senkakku islands dispute drags on with no resolution, but the stakes have now been raised.

San Francisco - State Sen. Mark Leno blamed Thursday's defeat of his proposal to require a "kill-switch" on cellular telephones on intense industry lobbying but promised to bring his bill up again this year.

Washington - A Mexican crime boss who ordered the killings of three people linked to the US consulate in the border city of Ciudad Juarez was jailed for life in Texas.

San Francisco - Butterflies in the stomach, knees shaking and stumbling of words, these are the classic nervous symptoms of speaking before an audience. Yet for almost a century Toastmasters has been helping everyday people

Bunkerville - Erstwhile conservative supporters of Cliven Bundy spent Thursday distancing themselves from the rebel rancher after he launched into a racist rant in which he claimed the American "Negro" is less free today than when bound in slavery.

The Law Society of Upper Canada has in effect barred future graduates of the new law school at Trinity Western University from practicing law in Ontario. The society voted 28-21 to deny TWU law students accreditation.

Defying other states that are moving to increase gun control in the wake of recent shootings, Georgia Governor Nathan Deal signed a bill Wednesday that will expand licensed gun owners' rights to carry.

In a report released on Thursday by the American Road and Transportation Builders Association, it was learned that one in ten of America's bridges, most of them part of the interstate highway system, are in urgent need of repair.

United States Representative Stephen Lynch (D-Massachusetts) says his party will lose seats because of Obamacare. The Congressman, who voted against the Affordable Care Act, also said the worst provisions of the law haven't even taken effect yet.

Tuscaloosa - Fifty years after racist 'Jim Crow' segregation was outlawed in the South, the University of Alabama student government has finally voted in favor of integrating the college's fraternities and sororities.

Atlanta - Two new comprehensive, multidisciplinary centers to study Huntington's Disease have opened. The centers focus on care, education and research. Digital Journal has found out more about the project.

A new poll suggests that sizable chunk of U.S. citizens disagree with scientists and what is — and is not — scientific fact.

Denver - A new Colorado poll shows the Democratic Party cannot presume an early coronation of Hillary Clinton to be a sound political strategy, and that the state's Senate seat is up for grabs.

A new drug, part of the STAND trial, will test the first regimen designed to significantly shorten and simplify the treatment of drug-sensitive and drug-resistant TB.

A weekend that may prove to be a calm before the storm has arrived. "The Amazing Spider-Man 2" spins its web next weekend in North America, so now it is for the current three-time champ to ride it out or lose the title, finally.

Journalist, director and producer Simon Ostrovsky of VICE News has been freed from captivity in the eastern Ukraine town of Sloviansk.

An extra-legally wedded trio of Massachusetts lesbians is set to become what they believe is the world's first same-sex parental "throuple."

New York - The UN Security Council on Thursday brandished the threat of sanctions against South Sudan government forces and rebels responsible for escalating abuses in a worsening civil war.