Reuters

Ireland has announced a new property tax, a move likely to be unpopular with homeowners at a time when many are deep in negative equity and struggling to pay mortgages.

Playboy founder Hugh Hefner is headed to the altar again - with the blonde Playmate who ditched him five days before their planned wedding in 2011.

Even though he hasn't sent a single tweet yet, Pope Benedict has more than half a million Twitter followers in eight languages a day after the Vatican unveiled his handle: @Pontifex.

Egyptian police battled thousands of protesters outside President Mohamed Mursi's palace in Cairo, prompting the Islamist leader to leave the building, presidency sources said.

A former Boy Scout who says he was sexually assaulted when he was 10 by his now-imprisoned former troop leader sued the Boy Scouts of America today, citing recently released files the group secretly maintained on suspected molesters in its ranks.

Britain's Prince William and his wife Catherine are expecting a baby, destined to be the country's future monarch, although the mother-to-be is in hospital with a type of very acute morning sickness that sometimes indicates twins.

Typhoon Bopha, the strongest tropical storm to hit the Philippines this year, slammed into a southern island, destroying homes, cutting power and forcing the cancellation of flights and ferry services, officials said.