Thousands of people protested in Rome on Saturday against austerity policies and high unemployment, urging new Prime Minister Enrico Letta to focus on creating jobs to help pull the country out of recession.

It's all about the odds, and one single ticket in Florida has beaten them all by matching the numbers drawn for the highest Powerball jackpot in history at an estimated $590.5 million, lottery officials disclosed Sunday.

The investigative team that the government dispatched to Manila, in order to investigate the recent killing of a Taiwanese fisherman by Philippine coast guards, returned yesterday after the Southeast Asian country's officials refused to cooperate.

Taiwan's representative in the United States has maintained that he has clearly explained Taipei's position to Washington in the wake of the ongoing row with Manila over the deadly shooting of a Taiwanese fisherman by the Philippine coast guard.

North Korea on Saturday launched three short-range missiles into the Sea of Japan, apparently as part of a military drill, South Korea's defense ministry said.

France on Saturday became the 14th country to legalize same-sex marriage after President Francois Hollande signed the measure into law following months of bitter political debate.

Europe's top trade official for the first time late on Friday officially cited Chinese mobile telecommunications equipment makers Huawei and ZTE Corp. for violating anti-dumping and anti-subsidy guidelines.

A commuter train traveling eastbound from New York City derailed near the Connecticut suburb of Fairfield during the evening rush hour on Friday and collided with a westbound commuter train, injuring up to 60 people, three critically, officials said.

German Chancellor Angela Merkel met Pope Francis on Saturday and, apparently responding to his criticism of a heartless "dictatorship of the economy," called for stronger regulation of financial markets.

South Korea says North Korea has fired three short-range guided missiles into its eastern waters. Pyongyang routinely test-launches such missiles.

A commuter train traveling eastbound from New York City derailed near the Connecticut suburb of Fairfield during the evening rush hour on Friday and collided with a westbound commuter train, injuring up to 60 people, three critically, officials said.

A delegation currently in Manila to investigate the fatal shooting of a Taiwanese fisherman by a Philippine state vessel is expected to return to Taiwan soon, a diplomatic source said yesterday.

President Ma Ying-jeou said yesterday that a Philippine government vessel's use of automatic weapons to strafe an unarmed and unprovocative fishing boat was "cold-blooded murder."

The United States reiterated its call Thursday for Taipei and Manila to work out a resolution to their row over the fatal shooting of a Taiwanese fisherman by the Philippines on May 9.