Middle East

• A wave of car bombings targeting Shiite neighborhoods in Basra and Baghdad killed at least 40 people.
• Yair Lapid, Benjamin Netanyahu's senior coalition partner, said in an interview that Israel should pursue an interim -- rather than final -- peace agreement with Palestine.
• A U.S. drone strike killed two suspected militants in Yemen.

Asia

• North Korea test-fired short-range missiles into its eastern waters for the third straight day.
• The leaders of China and India pledged economic cooperation and downplayed their recent border dispute during a summit in New Delhi.
• Afghan President Hamid Karzai said that he will seek military aid from India, a move that could increase tensions between Afghanistan and Pakistan.

Europe

• Ryan Fogle, the American diplomat accused of working as a spy in Moscow, flew out of Russia Sunday.
• David Firestone, a former U.S. embassy official in Moscow, was declared a persona non grata earlier this month possibly because he turned down an attempt to be recruited as a spy.
• British Prime Minister David Cameron urged his country's overseas territories, many of which are considered tax havens, to sign up to international tax treaties.

Africa

• Fighting between government forces and rebels who had overrun a town claimed 24 lives and injured dozens.
• The Nigerian army said 14 suspected Islamist rebels and three government soldiers were killed in its ongoing offensive against the group Boko Haram.
• The rebel group M23 attacked a government outpost north of Goma.

Latin America

• Negotiators from the Colombian rebel group FARC asked for more time to reach a peace agreement during talks in Havana.
• The leaders of El Salvador's two main street gangs said a Supreme Court ruling threatened to end a truce between the gangs.
• A report from the Organization for American States called for a serious discussion about whether marijuana should be legalized, making it the first multilateral body to issue such a call on drug policy reform. 

Middle East

• Hamas and Fatah agreed to form a unity government within three months.
• Thousands of Palestinians are taking to the streets of Gaza and the West Bank today to protest their displacement in 1948 during the war that marked Israel's founding.
• Kurdish fighters affiliated with the PKK began crossing into Iraq from Turkey as part of a peace deal between the group and the Turkish government.

Asia

• Wal-Mart announced that it will not join a European plan to help improve safety conditions at garment factories in Bangladesh.
• Taiwan recalled its representative from Manila amid a deepening row over the killing of a Taiwanese fisherman by the Philippine coast guard.
• Distrustful of the government, many of members of the Rohingya ethnic group in Burma are refusing to evacuate low-lying camps ahead of an approaching cyclone.

Europe

• British Prime Minister David Cameron, facing a rebellion within his party, was forced to bring forward a bill enforcing a referendum on continued U.K. membership in the European Union.
• The French legislature passed a modest package of pro-business labor law reforms.
• The European Union will pledge 520 million euros directed at helping to rebuild Mali.

Africa

• Nigerian President Goodluck Jonathan declared a state of emergency in his fight against Islamist militants, who, he now says, control some villages and towns in the country's northeast.
• The Congolese government will name a new city in honor of the country's first prime minister, Patrice Lumumba, who was assassinated in 1961.
• Activists released three dozen piglets and spilled animal blood at the entrance to the Kenyan parliament in a protest over salaries for legislators.

Americas

• The council overseeing the Brazilian judiciary effectively legalized same-sex marriages in the country.
• The Venezuelan opposition TV channel Globovision, one of the few vehement critics of the Chávez government inside Venezuela, has been sold, and it is expected it will move its editorial direction "toward the center."
• Because of delays in completing the city's new stadium, Sao Paulo may lose the right to host soccer matches during the 2014 World Cup.

Middle East

• Syrian troops pushed into the strategic town of Khirbet Ghazaleh south of Damascus.
• Israeli activist groups said Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has stopped approving new settlement activity in the West Bank.
• Under the terms of a ceasefire, Kurdish rebel fighters are leaving southeastern Turkey for safe havens in northern Iraq.

Asia

• Imran Khan, the Pakistani cricketeer turned politician, was seriously injured when he fell head frist from a mechanical lift.
• Chinese exports surged 14.7 percent in April, beating analysts expectations.
• The death toll in the collapse of a Bangladesh garment factory reached 761.

Europe

• Russian Deputy Prime Minister Vladislav Surkov, a longtime political adviser to Vladimir Putin, was forced to resign amidst a power struggle.
• Police arrested 31 people in connection with a massive diamond heist at the Brussels airport earlier this year.
• A cargo ship crashed into the control tower at the port in Genoa, killing four.

Africa

• A youth political activist will spend another week in jail after he allegedly called President Robert Mugabe a "limping donkey."
• A Pakistani U.N. peacekeeper was killed in an ambush in the Democratic Republic of the Congo.
• A raid by the Islamist militant group Boko Haram in northeastern Nigeria killed 55.

Americas

• The Argentine government announced a new tax amnesty scheme aimed at pulling undeclared cash into the banking system.
• A Chilean court sentenced two former navy officers to three years of house arrest in the Pinochet-era disappearance of a left-wing priest.
• The explosion of a natural gas tanker killed 22 people in a Mexico City suburb.

Middle East

• Hassan Nasrallah, the head of Hezbollah, said that fighters from his organization may intervene in Syria to protect the Assad regime.
• Israeli forces killed a Palestinian militant in a missile strike after an Israeli settler was stabbed to death in the West Bank.
• The Arab League revised its proposal for achieving peace between Israel and Palestine by offering concessions to Israel.

Americas

• President Obama said that he would decline to assess Mexico's decision to scale back security cooperation with the U.S. until he meets with Mexican President Enrique Pena Nieto later this week.
• A fistfight broke out in the Venezuelan parliament amid an ongoing dispute over the country's recent presidential election. 
• The Mexican Congress passed a bill aiming to introduce more competition into the country's telecommunications industry.

Asia

• The death toll in the collapse of a factory in Bangladesh passed 400.
• Insurgents killed an Afghan official tasked with setting up peace talks with the Taliban.
• A Pakistani court issued Pervez Musharraf, the country's former military ruler, a lifetime ban against holding public office.

Europe

• Russian security officials placed Tamerlan Tsarnaev, the elder of two brothers alleged to have carried out the Boston Marathon bombings, under surveillance during a six-month visit to Russia.
• Greek labor unions have launched a 24-hour general strike to protest austerity measures.
• Europe's human rights court ruled that the jailing of former Ukrainian Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko was a politically motivated violation of her rights.

Africa

• A French convert, Gilles Le Guen, fighting with Islamist militants in Mali was captured.
• Rebels in eastern Congo say they are preparing to fight a new peacekeeping force due to arrive in the country with an expanded mandate to take aggressive action against armed rebels.
• Human Rights Watch said that satellite images reveal that 2,275 homes were destroyed in a raid by the Nigerian army on the town of Baga.

Asia

• South Korea and the United States failed to reach a compromise solution on a civilian nuclear deal that would the South to enrich nuclear material.
• The Burmese government pardoned 93 prisoners, at least 59 of them political prisoners, though hundreds more are believed to remain in jail.
• An eight-story building housing garment factories collapsed near the Bangladeshi capital, Dhaka, killing at least 70.

Middle East

• A deadly government raid on a Sunni protest camp in northern Iraq sparked widespread anger and violent clashes in several cities.
• Alleging that the Muslim Brotherhood is inappropriately consolidating power, the top legal adviser to Egyptian President Mohamed Morsy resigned.
• The government of Jordanian Prime Minister Abdullah Ensour won a confidence vote amid price hikes and concerns over escalating violence in neighboring Syria.

Europe

• After a lengthy, deeply polarizing debate, the French National assembly voted to legalize same sex marriage. 
• The European Union is likely to launch legal proceedings against Hungary for changes to its constitution widely seen as undermining democracy.
• The trial of Russian opposition leader Alexey Navalny resumed Wednesday.

Americas

• The Venezuelan government is carrying out a campaign of reprisals against state workers who did not support or did not show sufficient enthusiasm for the ruling party candidate, Nicolas Maduro, in the recent election.
• The U.S. military announced a hunger strike at the prison at Guantanamo Bay now includes 84 prisoners, 17 of whom are being force-fed liquid nutrients.
• Nicaraguan police captured a former U.S. teacher wanted in connection with a child pornography investigation and who had landed on the F.B.I's 10 most wanted list.

Africa

• A Sudanese rebel charged with war crimes committed in Darfur and set to go on trial in 2014 at the ICC was killed in fighting in North Darfur.
• Following heavy fighting in Bagu between Boko Haram and the Nigerian Army believed to have killed as many 185 people, the army seized heavy weapons believed to belong to the group.
• A new militant group in Nigeria, an offshoot of Boko Haram known as Ansaru, says that it eschews killing Nigerians and will instead concentrate its attacks on foreigners.

Middle East

• Salam Fayyad, the prime minister of the Palestinian Authority, resigned, creating an early stumbling block for the Obama administration's nascent peace initiative.
• A series of bombings and shootings across Iraq killed 27 and wounded over 100 people.
• A prominent Kuwaiti opposition leader was sentenced to five years in jail on charges he insulted the country's emir.

Asia

• Opium production in Afghanistan increased for the third year in a row, raising fears that the crop will become the country's main economic activity after NATO's withdrawal.
• Chinese authorities reported 11 additional cases of the H7N9 strain of bird flu, bringing the total number of reported cases to 60.
• The operator of the crippled Fukushima nuclear reactor discovered yet another leak, which has likely resulted in contaminated water seeping into the ground.

Europe

• The London School of Economics accused the BBC of endangering its students after the broadcaster used a student trip to North Korea to covertly send a group of reporters there.
• Pope Francis announced the formation of an international panel of advisers to guide reform efforts and wrest power from the Curia.
• Total worldwide military spending dropped for the first time since 1998 -- though China and Russia still saw major increases -- according to data compiled by a Swedish watch dog group.

Africa

• Al-Shabab militants stormed the supreme court complex in Mogadishu, Somalia, in an attack that killed at least 35.
• Sudan and South Sudan agreed to resume oil exports and border trade after a period of violent tensions along the frontier.
• Chad announced that it will begin withdrawing its troops from Mali, a move that could set back the military mission there.

Americas

• Using makeshift weapons, inmates at the Guantanamo Bay prison clashed with guards carrying out a raid on a communal living area.
• The United States released the names of Russian officials to be targeted by sanctions under the so-called Magnitsky act, a move that led to retaliatory designations of U.S. officials by the Russian government.
• The family of Chilean poet Pablo Neruda agreed to send his remains to a U.S. lab that will seek to definitively determine the cause of his death. 

Middle East

• U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry, who is expected to take up shuttle diplomacy to broker a peace deal between Israelis and Palestinians, expressed interest in reviving the Arab Peace Initiative.
• The Syrian army launched a counteroffensive to roll back extensive rebel territorial gains in the south of the country and elsewhere.
• Heavy fighting between Coptic Christians and Muslims on the streets of Cairo claimed the lives of two people.

Asia

• Speaking at an Asian regional forum, Chinese President Xi Jinping said that no one country should be allowed to cause "chaos for selfish gain," a comment interpreted as a rebuke of North Korea.
• Amid fighting between Afghan forces and the Taliban, an airstrike in Afghanistan killed 11 children.
• Pakistan's top court ordered Pervez Musharraf, the country's former president, to appear before the body on charges he committed treason.

Europe

• U.S. Treasury Secretary Jacob Lew said at a meeting with Jose Manuel Barroso, the head of the EU's executive, that European governments should ease off austerity measures and seek to generate demand.
• Prime Minister David Cameron will visit Madrid, Paris, and Berlin this week to pitch skeptical European leaders on his vision for EU reform.
• Amid an ongoing crackdown in Russia in civil society groups, German Chancellor Angela Merkel urged her Russian counterpart, Vladimir Putin, to encourage civil society groups.

Africa

• Following treatment for pneumonia, former South African President Nelson Mandela was discharged from the hospital.
• Fighting between Christian and Muslim villagers in central Nigeria left 11 people dead.
• South Sudan restarted oil production, more than a year after tensions with its northern neighbor led to a halt in output.

Americas

• A group of independent prosecutors in Brazil opened an investigation into allegations that would directly connect former Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva.
• The head of a Cuban publishing house was fired from his post after he wrote an op-ed in the New York Times describing persistent racial discrimination in Cuba.
• The body of poet Pablo Nerudo is being exhumed in an effort to definitively establish whether he died of natural causes or was killed by the government shortly after the military took power in a coup in 1973.

Middle East

• Egypt's most prominent television satirist was released on bail and may face charges of insulting his country's leader and Islam.
• Syrian rebels seized a strategically important neighborhood of Aleppo in one of the most significant shift in the front lines in several months there.
• A suicide bombing targeting a police station in Tikrit, Iraq, killed seven policemen.

Asia

• Chinese authorities in Beijing and Shanghai unveiled measures to cool red-hot real estate markets that have raised fears of a housing bubble.
• India's Supreme Court ruled against the European drug maker Novartis in rejecting a patent application for a new drug that it deemed had not been significantly altered, a landmark ruling that may help expand access to generic drugs.
•  Privately owned newspapers hit the newsstands in Burma for the first time in 50 years.

Africa

• Malian troops are conducting house to house searches after repelling an attack on Timbuktu by radical Islamist forces.
• The death toll in the collapse of a 16-story building in Tanzania rose to 30.
• Michel Djotodia, the rebel leader who seized control of the Central African Republic, consolidated his hold on power, naming members of his government and allocating important positions to himself and his rebel allies.

Europe

• In his first Easter mass as pope, Francis I made a plea for world peace, urging an end to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, violence in Syria, and tensions on the Korean peninsula.
• The holders of large deposits in the Bank of Cyprus may have to pay a penalty of up to 60 percent on deposits over 100,000 euros.
• Italian President Giorgio Napolitano tapped a group of political experts to seek a way to overcome parliamentary gridlock over the selection of a new government.

Americas

• Hugo Chavez's political heir, Nicolas Maduro, accused his opponent in Venezuela's presidential election, Henrique Capriles, of seeking to foment violence.
• The Argentine government proposed the use of a mix of cash payments and bonds to pay off obligations related to its debt default.
• Mexican cartels have dispatched trusted agents deep inside the United States, a move that may be aimed at giving the criminal groups the ability to expand into other illicit activities inside the U.S., an examination by the Associated Press found.

Middle East

• Moaz al Khatib, the moderate head of the Syrian Opposition Council, resigned in protest of the selection of Ghassan Hitto to lead the interim Syrian government. 
• The head of the Free Syrian Army was injured in a bomb blast, resulting in his foot to be amputated. 
• In a surprise visit to Baghdad, Secretary of State John Kerry lobbied the Iraqi government to prevent Iran from sending arms to the Syrian regime but failed to produce a diplomatic breakthrough.  

Asia

• Pervez Musharraf, the exiled former president of Pakistan, returned to his country, where he faces myriad legal challenges and a highly uncertain political future. 
• The U.S. military transferred control of the last detention facility under its control in Afghanistan to the Afghan government, ending  a long-standing dispute.
• Sectarian violence in Burma spread to at least two additional cities over the weekend and saw tensions between Buddhists and Muslims boil over, leading to the burning of several mosques.

Europe

• Hundreds of thousands of people rallied in Paris against a law that would legalize same sex marriage, which has been passed in the lower house and is set to be taken up by the French Senate next month.
• In what will be his first overseas trip, Pope Francis announced that he will visit a youth festival in Brazil in July.
• After searching for chemicals and radiation at the home of deceased Russian oligarch Boris Berezovsky, British police said hey had found no trace of such materials or evidence of outside involvement in his death. 

Africa

• Radical Islamists infiltrated and attacked the city of Gao in Mali but were repulsed by Malian forces.
• In his second overseas trip since taking power, Chinese President Xi Jinping praised<> Africa as a continent "of hope and promise" during remarks in Tanzania. 
• Zambia's former President Rupiah Banda was arrested on charges he had stolen $11 million in connection with an oil deal.

Americas

• Police in Rio de Janeiro forcibly evicted a group of indigenous people who had been squatting in an old museum that authorities want razed in advance of next year's World Cup.
• Salvadorans marched through the streets Sunday urging sainthood for the slain archbishop Oscar Arnulfo Romero, who was killed in 1980 by a gunman believed to be working on behalf of El Salvador's military government. 
• The bodies of seven men placed in plastic chairs near a traffic circle were found in Michoacan, and another seven, including three federal agents, were killed in Guerrero.

Middle East

• With the amount of territory under its control steadily growing, the Syrian opposition is attempting to form an interim government capable of dispensing basic services.
• Israel released Ayman Sharawneh, a Palestinian man who has been on a hunger strike for several months, in a deal that will require him to be confined to Gaza for the next 10 years.
• Days ahead of the 10th anniversary of the U.S. invasion of Iraq, a car bomb struck just north of the southern city of Basra, killing at least 10 and wounding several others.

Asia

• Afghan opposition politicians have opened negotiations with the Taliban ahead of next year's election, which will determine the sucessor to Hamid Karzai.
• Five men were arrested in connection with the gang rape of a 39-year-old Swiss woman travelling by bicycle through central India together with her husband.
• When the clock hit midnight on Saturday, Pakistan's government became the first in the country's history to serve out its full term, a crucial milestone for a democracy with a history of coups and instability.

Europe

• A top Russian diplomat said that the United States' decision to move parts of its missile defense system out of Europe did not address Russia's concerns on the issue.
• Britain's three main political partise reached an agreement over how to regulate the British press, an initiative put forward after revelations of wide-spread phone hacking.
• The Italian parliament elected speakers in both its houses, but it is likely Italians will have to return to the polls in order for a government to be put in place.

Africa

• One day after a referendum on the country's new constitution, Zimbabwean security forces arrested three prominent opposition politicians and a renowned human rights lawyer.
• Prime Minister Raila Odinga filed a brief with Kenya's supreme court to overturn the decision that handed a narrow victory to Uhuru Kenyatta in the recent presidential elections.
• A massive car bomb struck the center of Somalia's capital, Mogadishu, killing at least 8 with casualties expected to rise.

Americas

• Lima's first elected female mayor, who has launched an effort to tackle corruption in the city, will likely survive a recall vote, according to exit polls.
• Venezuelan opposition politician Henrique Capriles launched a nation-wide tour as part of his effort to unseat Hugo Chavez's chosen successor, Nicolas Maduro.
• A fireworks explosion in rural Mexico during a religious procession killed at least 17 people.

Asia

• The United States and South Korea began a military exercise amid increasing tensions with North Korea, which has upped its bellicose rhetoric and threatened to strike the South with nuclear weapons.
• Japan is marking the two-year anniversary today of the earthquake that led to a devastating tsunami, the subsequent meltdown at the Fukushima nuclear plant, and the deaths of 19,000 people.
• The ringleader of the men alleged to have gang-raped and killed a 23-year-old Indian woman aboard a bus in New Delhi hanged himself in his jail cell, sparking allegations that police killed the man. 

Middle East

• An Iraqi group affiliated with al Qaeda claimed responsibility for an attack on Syrian soldiers in Western Iraq that left 48 Syrian soldiers dead.
• Syrian rebels freed 21 U.N. peacekeepers taken hostage near the Golan Heights.
• The Tunisian prime minister-designate submitted a reshuffled cabinet lineup that includes key concessions by Islamist parties to the country's president.

Africa

• Radical Islamists in Nigeria executed seven construction workers, including several Westerners, who had been taken hostage.
• French Defense Minister Jean-Yves le Drian said his country's forces had found weapons "by the ton" belonging to radical Islamists and stockpiled in caves.
• Former South African President Nelson Mandela returned home after being admitted to a hospital overnight for medical tests.

Americas

• Venezuelan opposition leader Henrique Capriles announced that he will run for president and challenge Hugo Chavez's hand-picked successor, Nicolas Maduro, in elections set for April 14.
• Lauded as a reincarnation of the famed revolutionary, Simon Bolivar, Hugo Chavez was given a state funeral Friday that served as a political hand-off to his chosen successor, Nicolas Maduro, who was sworn in as president shortly after.
• The residents of the Falkland Islands are voting in a two-day referendum on whether to remain a British territory.

Europe

• Cardinals gathered in the Vatican for the papal conclave are carrying out their final meetings today before going behind closed doors Tuesday afternoon for the start of the election.
• Hungary's right-wing ruling party is attempting to push through a slate of changes to the country's basic law that critics charge will undermine democracy.
• Amid criticism from European human rights officials, the trial of the dead lawyer Sergei Magnitsky has been delayed.

Middle East

• Iranian state television announced that the country's nuclear authority is building 3,000 advanced centrifuges for uranium enrichment.
• The exiled leader of the Syrian opposition, Moaz al-Khatib, visited his country for the first time since fleeing last year, meeting with rebel groups to shore up support for his coalition.
• In an interview with the Sunday Times of London, Syrian President Bashar al-Assad lashed out at Western leaders, accusing them of hypocrisy as they publicly seek to end the conflict while at the same time "militarize the problem."

Asia

• China is defending what is expected to be an increase in defense spending in a budget to be unveiled at the National People's Congress set to begin Tuesday.  
• A powerful car bomb targeting Shiites leaving a Karachi mosque killed at least 45 and wounded another 149, the latest in a string of sectarian violence to hit the country.
• Cambodian translators at a tribunal charged with prosecuting members of the Khmer Rouge went on strike after not being paid for three months, delaying the proceedings.

Africa

• Fighters believed to be affiliated with the militant Islamist group Boko Haram attacked a military base in Nigeria killing 20 as the group's leader denied that he is willing to enter into peace talks with the government.
• Congolese government troops, citing the need to preserve a fragile peace process, returned control of two towns to the M23 rebel group, which had withdrawn in order to put down a factional dispute that has split the rebel movement.
• The Chadian general overseeing the operation alleged to have killed the militant leader Mokhtar Belmokhtar, who is believed to have orchestrated  the attack on a gas refinery in southern Algeria, said he can not confirm that the militant leader has been killed.

Europe

• Cardinals convened in the Vatican for a series of meetings ahead of the conclave that will select the next pope.
• Swiss voters overwhelmingly enacted measures -- known as the "fat cat initiative'' -- that will impose strict limits on executive compensation.
• Germany threatened to veto the inclusion of Bulgaria and Romania in the Schengen-zone, which allows for passport-free travel for citizens of member states.

Americas

• Venezuelan Vice-President Nicolas Maduro said the country's ailing president, Hugo Chavez, has been receiving chemotherapy since battling back from a respiratory infection.
• The Brazilian economy posted anemic economic growth for 2012, growing by just 0.9 percent -- compared to  2.7 percent in 2011 -- according to government figures released Friday.
• Mexico's ruling party amended its party platform to allow for private investment in the state oil company, which may lay the groundwork for energy sector reform.

Middle East

• Amid allegations that a Palestinian prisoner was tortured to death in an Israeli jail, protests erupted in Gaza and the West Bank, and over 4,000 Palestinian prisoners refused food.
• The Syrian foreign minister said that his government is willing to sit down for talks with armed rebels.
• Fresh off of seizing a military base that used to house an alleged nuclear reactor destroyed by an Israeli air strike, Syrian rebels are battling for control of a government housing complex near Aleppo.

Europe

• The center-left coalition led by Pier Luigi Bersani has a slim lead in Italian elections after the first day of voting amid a surge in protest votes and low turnout.
• Conservative Nikos Anastasiades won a decisive victory in presidential elections in Cyprus against his left-wing opponent.
• Britain's most senior Catholic cleric, Keith O'Brien, said he will resign amid allegations, which he denies, of sexual overtures toward fellow priests.

Asia

• Park Guen-hye was sworn into office Monday, promising a return of the country's economic boom years and issuing a warning to North Korea to end its pursuit of nuclear weapons.
• The president of the Philippines signed into law a measure that will provide compensation for victims of Ferdinand Marco's regime.
• Protests in the Bengladeshi capital of Dhaka over a ruling in a war crimes tribunal that have brought hundreds of thousands of people into the streets continued over the weekend.

Africa

• The leaders of 11 African nations signed a peace accord aimed at ending violence in eastern Congo and that may pave the way for the deployment of a new U.N. force there.
• The Guinean opposition has withdrawn in protest from legislative elections set for next month.
• The United States deployed 100 troops to Niger in order to assist the ongoing French intervention in Mali.

Americas

• The Guatemalan government announced that there was no evidence indicating that Mexican drug lord Chapo Guzman had been killed in a shootout in the country, calling reports to the contrary a "misunderstanding."
• Hundreds of opposition activists demonstrated in Caracas, Venezuela, over the weekend to demand answers regarding the health of the ailing president, Hugo Chavez.
• A member of former Mexican President Felipe Calderon's administration disputed the existence -- as announced by his successor's government -- of a list that documents the names of 27,000 missing people.

Middle East

• The Obama administration may revisit its decision about supplying Syrian rebels with arms, a move it rejected late last year.
• Some 800 Palestinians in Israeli jails joined in a hunger strike in solidarity with four inmates on a long-term hunger strike.
• Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said that the North Korean nuclear test shows that "sanctions alone will not stop" Iran from acquiring a nuclear weapon.

Asia

• The first time in six year, civilian casualties in Afghanistan dropped, according to a U.N. report, which noted that most civilian deaths are attributable to insurgent groups.
• Afghan intelligence officers arrested a senior Pakistani Taliban commander in eastern Afghanistan.
• At least 15,000 Shiite Muslims demonstrated in the streets of Quetta following a bombing at a produce market that killed 89. 

Africa

• Mamphela Ramphele, a veteran of the anti-apartheid struggle, has formed a new political party to challenge the ruling African National Congress.
• A Kenyan court ruled that Uhuru Kenyatta, who is charged with crimes against humanity for his role in the violence that followed 2007's election, can participate in next month's election. 
• South African prosecutors detailed charges against Oscar Pistorious, the Olympic runner, of first degree murder.

Europe

• A meeting of European foreign ministers renewed sanctions against Syria but rejected a move to arm Syrian rebels.
• British Prime Minister David Cameron promised cooperation in the investigation of alleged bribes offered to secure a helicopter contract between an Anglo-Italian firm and India.
• Armed robbers at the Antwerp, Belgium, airport made off with over $50 million in diamonds after a daring raid.

Americas

• Ecuadorean President Rafael Correa comfortably won reelection to a second term and vowed to continue the "citizen's revolution."
• Protesters in Brazil supporting the Cuban government blocked a screening of a documentary  featuring Yoani Sanchez, the Cuban dissident who has just begun a world tour following the easing of travel restrictions.
• A delegation of American lawmakers led by Sen. Patrick Leahy arrived in Cuba to assess political developments in the country.