Communist Cuba expands its free-market reforms, opening more of the retail services sector to small private businesses.

Ultra-orthodox Jews and police clash in the Israeli town of Beit Shemesh in a dispute over the segregation of the sexes in the town.

A Chilean newspaper is ordered to pay compensation to 13 readers who were injured by exploding pastries when they followed a recipe it published.

Medellin in Colombia opens a giant outdoor escalator to connect a poor hillside neighbourhood with the city centre.

China gains potential access to millions of barrels of oil as it wins a key approval for oil exploration in Afghanistan.

India's parliament is to begin a key three-day debate on a new anti-corruption bill amid a fresh hunger strike by campaigner Anna Hazare, who wants a stronger law.

Five patients at a clinic in Mexico's Guadalajara die after eating poisoned sausage, sparking an investigating into possible deliberate contamination.

A train is derailed and two people are swept from their car in Australia's flood-affected Northern Territories, hit by Tropical Cyclone Grant.