Colombia and the country's second-largest rebel group announced Wednesday that they will hold peace talks, heightening expectations for a definitive end to a half-century of political violence in the Andean nation.

The government has been in exploratory talks in Ecuador with the National Liberation Army, or ELN, for more than a year. Negotiators for the two sides announced at a news conference in Caracas, Venezuela, that those talks will now be formalized around a six-point agenda, including justice for victims, disarmament, and reintegration into society.

For Kim Vaillancourt, pregnant while staving off aggressive brain cancer, it comes down to this: "The baby saved me. Now it's my turn to save him."

Vaillancourt was diagnosed with glioblastoma after going to the hospital for headaches and nausea that came on over Christmas. Were it not for concern for the boy she's carrying, she and her husband, Phil, said it was a life-saving trip she would not have made.

Israeli and American energy companies controlling Israel's natural gas say they are dissatisfied with a ruling the day before by Israel's Supreme Court that struck down a government deal to begin pumping from offshore deposits.

David Stover, the chairman of Houston-based Noble Energy, said on Monday that the ruling is "disappointing."

Pope Francis on Sunday spoke out against the "rejection" of migrants and refugees in his Easter message, as Europe struggles with its biggest migration crisis since World War II.

Security was tight as he delivered his Easter mass to crowds of people gathered below the central balcony of St Peter's Basilica, just days after the deadly bombings in Brussels.

Taiwan's China-friendly Nationalist Party has elected its first female leader after ousting her as its presidential candidate ahead of January elections that were won by pro-independence rivals.

The Kuomintang had ditched Hung Hsiu-chu as her abrasive style and strongly pro-China positions were seen as alienating voters. The veteran legislator and former teacher was elected as leader over three other candidates Saturday and likely faces a difficult time rebuilding the party after its January electoral defeat.

A fire started by rioting prisoners at a penitentiary in western Indonesia has killed five inmates, police said.

The fire at Malabero prison in Bengkulu on Sumatra Island began Friday night after officers of the anti-narcotics agency entered the facility and took away a drug kingpin, said regional police chief Brig. Gen. M. Ghufron.

For decades, Hong Kong thrived as an Asian business hub thanks to its killer combination of Western freedoms, independent courts and closeness to mainland China's booming market. Now political and economic ills from the mainland are eroding that edge.

Swedish-Chinese author Gui Minhai was counting on Hong Kong's freedoms when he chose the city as the base for the publishing empire he has built up over the past decade, churning out exposes on elite Chinese politics that were snapped up by visitors from mainland China, where they are prohibited.

U.N. Secretary General Ban Ki-moon visited on Friday the Nahr al-Bared Palestinian refugee camp in northern Lebanon that was destroyed in fierce battles against al-Qaida-inspired militants almost a decade ago.

He urged the international community to provide necessary funding to help finish the rebuilding of the camp.

After struggling in the final three months of 2015, the U.S. economy is thought to be rebounding in the current quarter, though not as strongly as most analysts had once expected.

On Friday, when the Commerce Department issues its third and final estimate of growth for the October-December quarter, it's expected to say the economy expanded at a 1 percent annual rate. That would be the same estimate it made a month ago and would amount to just half the 2 percent annual growth in the July-September period.

Helicopters dropping money in the streets: it's a vivid metaphor for a drastic form of central bank stimulus that is gaining attention as a possible way to help the global economy out of its malaise.

The idea of "helicopter money" is straightforward: central banks would create new cash and give it to people, like an air drop of supplies. As people spend or invest it, economic growth and inflation would rise.