Brazil's Congress approves controversial changes to the country's forest code which environmentalists say will spur Amazon deforestation.

The three widows and children of Osama Bin Laden are deported to Saudi Arabia following a year in Pakistani custody since the death of the al-Qaeda leader.

Five policemen go on trial accused of shooting protesters during deadly clashes in the western Kazakh oil town of Zhanaozen last year.

Syrian state TV says a suicide bomber has struck in the capital Damascus, killing at least nine people and wounding 20 others.

The Palestinian Authority's communications minister resigns, claiming it is moving to silence its critics by blocking access to opposition websites.

US economic growth slowed to an annualised pace of 2.2% in the first quarter of the year, from 3% in the final three months of last year.

Malawi's new leader Joyce Banda sacks her foreign minister, Peter Mutharika, the brother of the late president who had been anointed as his successor.

India and Russia boycott a major international trade fair in Zimbabwe in protest against the country's policy of taking control of foreign companies.