Senior citizens in a Massachusetts community told a town official to keep his hands off their doughnuts. Francis “Bill” Johnson, chairman of Ashburnham’s advisory board, said at a Council on Aging meeting this week that spending money on doughnuts and pas

A U.N. Security Council delegation began a four-day mission Wednesday in Haiti to encourage stability and economic progress weeks ahead of a critical donor conference and long-delayed Senate elections.

The White House plans to create a group of experts to advise President Barack Obama on women’s issues.

The General Assembly opens a new chapter Thursday in the nearly 30-year effort to reform the U.N. Security Council, a quest which has been plagued by national and regional rivalries that show no sign of abating.

Home repossessions in Britain jumped 12 percent to 11,300 in the third quarter from the previous quarter, the Council of Mortgage Lenders said Friday, more evidence that the financial crisis is taking its toll on households and the ailing housing market.

Mortgage lending in Britain was down 44 percent in October compared to a year ago, further evidence the economic downturn is hurting an already weak property market, the Council of Mortgage Lenders said Thursday.

Iran says its failure to win a seat on the U.N. Security Council is an injustice.

Austria, Turkey, Japan, Uganda and Mexico have won non-permanent seats on the powerful U.N. Security Council.

Iceland and Iran are among several nations seeking member seats on the U.N. Security Council, the powerful world panel that can impose sanctions and dispatch peacekeepers.

Russia and Georgia could be suspended from Europe’s top human rights body unless the two countries uphold their obligations to prevent abuses in the aftermath of their short but fierce war, the group’s head said Monday.