International news of the week

Saturday

Damascus: Syrian security forces arrested 46 people on Saturday, rights groups say a day after nine people were killed as thousands of pro-reform protesters took to the streets on the Muslim day of rest.

Tokyo/Fukushima: Premier Naoto Kan inspected Japan's tsunami-hit northeast for the first time, as authorities say highly radioactive water was seeping into sea from a 12-inch crack in a containment pit at the troubled Fukushima nuclear plant, where IAEA termed the situation as "very serious".

Sunday

Sanaa(Yemen): Yemeni police killed an anti-regime protester and wounded scores more, medics and witnesses say, as President Ali Abdullah Saleh called for an end to protests demanding that he step down.

Islamabad: Three powerful blasts ripped through a crowded Sufi shrine near Dera Ghazi Khan in Pakistan's Punjab province today, killing at least 40 people and injuring 100 others, a government official says.

Monday

Abidjan: A United Nations helicopter fired at President Laurent Gbagbo's forces as France authorised its military forces to take out his heavy weapons, an unprecedented escalation in the international community's efforts at forcing the strongman from office.

Saana: Yemen came close to the brink as security forces shot dead 17 people among the thousands of anti-regime protesters who stormed the Governor's headquarters in the city of Taiz, and the US appeared to be distancing itself from longtime ally Abdullah Ali Saleh.

Tuesday

Tripoli/Washington: A fierce offensive by government troops pushed Libyan rebels attempting to take the key oil town of Brega further east, as diplomatic moves to end the over month-long conflict made little headway with the regime stating that it was open to negotiate all reforms except Muammar Gaddafi's exit.

Islamabad: Close on the heels of a spat over a CIA contractor who gunned down two men in Lahore, another diplomatic row is brewing between Pakistan and the US after Islamabad barred several American military personnel from leaving the country.

Wednesday

Jakarta: A 5.8-magnitude earthquake struck off Indonesia's coast, the US Geological Survey says, although there were no immediate reports of damage and no tsunami warning was issued.

Washington: India and the US, which enjoy "a truly global" strategic partnership, are working very closely to implement their landmark civilian nuclear deal despite the recent radiation crisis in Japan's quake-hit Fukushima atomic power plant, a top State Department official says.

Thursday

Tokyo/Fukushima: Japan's quake-devastated northeast faced a fresh tsunami alert after a massive 7.4 magnitude temblor shook the region, as engineers pumped in nitrogen into a reactor at the Fukushima nuclear facility in their desperate bid to prevent another hydrogen blast.

Abuja: Nigerian President Goodluck Jonathan appeals to voters to turn out in large numbers to the polling booths, after disarray in organisation forced parliamentary elections to be postponed last week.

Friday

Washington: The US appeared to be headed for a government shutdown, bringing the administration to a halt, but for a last minute deal between the Republicans, the Democrats and the White House as hectic talks were on to avert such a situation for the first time in nearly 15 years.

Beirut: A mass protest calling for sweeping changes in Syria's authoritarian regime turned bloody, with the government and protesters both claiming to have sustained heavy casualties as the country's three-week uprising entered a dangerous new phase.