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Male/New Delhi: Ending eleven days of stalemate, ex- Maldivian President Mohamed Nasheed walked out of the Indian High Commission in Male where he was holed up to evade an arrest warrant.
Washington: The US military temporarily grounded its entire fleet of F-35 fighter jets - used in Air Force, the Navy and the Marines - as a precautionary measure after a routine inspection detected a crack on an engine blade.
Sunday
Islamabad: Cities across Pakistan, including the capital, Karachi, Lahore and Peshawar, plunged into darkness after a major breakdown in the national power grid, officials say.
Lahore: Police in Pakistan's most populous province of Punjab have detained over 50 people in a crackdown on the banned Lashkar-e-Jhangvi and Sipah-e-Sahaba Pakistan that was launched in the wake of terror attacks on the minority Shia community.
Monday
Moscow: The Syrian regime is ready for talks with armed rebels and anyone who favours dialogue, President Bashar al-Assad's foreign minister says in Moscow, in the first such offer by a top Syrian official.
Los Angeles: Ben Affleck's Iran hostage drama 'Argo' rode to victory by taking home the Best Picture Oscar, the highest honour at the 85th Academy Awards while 'Life of Pi' helmer Ang Lee pulled off a surprise best director win over Steven Spielberg for his India-set drama.
Tuesday
Cairo: Egypt's main opposition umbrella group - the National Salvation Front - announced that it would boycott the upcoming parliamentary polls to be held from April and a national dialogue called by President Mohamed Mursi.
Washington: In a sharp contrast to US view on India's role in Afghanistan, President Barack Obama's Defence Secretary nominee Chuck Hagel has alleged that India has over the years "financed problems" for Pakistan in the war-torn country.
Wednesday
Islamabad: Ahead of the general elections, Pakistan Premier Raja Pervez Ashraf asked the main opposition party PML-N to propose names of two "eminently qualified" persons for appointment as caretaker Prime Minister.
Washington: Former Republican senator Chuck Hagel was sworn-in as the new US Defence Secretary, in the midst of a controversy over his remarks that India "financed problems" for Pakistan in Afghanistan
Dhaka: Bangladesh says Pakistan-based banned terror group Lashkar-e-Taiba is active in the country but law enforcement agencies have tracked down their network and kept them under "security vigil".
Thursday
Castel Gandolfo (Italy): Benedict XVI became the first pope in 600 years to resign, ending an eight-year pontificate shaped by struggles to move the church past sex abuse scandals and to reawaken Christianity in an indifferent world.
Colombo: Sri Lanka says that a British channel video featuring the images of the alleged cold-blooded killing of LTTE chief Velupillai Prabhakaran's 12-year-old son would not be part of the official process of the ongoing UN Human Rights Council sessions in Geneva.
Washington: In a damage control exercise after Chuck Hagel's comments on India's role in Afghanistan kicked up a storm, the US says the Defence Secretary is "strongly committed" to a strategic partnership with India and it "strongly supports" India's positive role in the war-torn country.
Dhaka: A top leader of Bangladesh's fundamentalist Jamaat-e-Islami party was sentenced to death for "crimes against humanity", including genocide and religious persecution, during the country's 1971 war of independence against Pakistan.
Friday
Dhaka: Violence continued unabated in Bangladesh for the second day as the death toll rose to at least 46 in clashes that erupted after a top leader of fundamentalist Jamaat-e- Islami was sentenced to death for "crimes against humanity" during the 1971 liberation war.
Dubai/Islamabad: Former military ruler Pervez Musharraf, who has been living in self-exile for nearly four years, says he would return to Pakistan within a week of the formation of a caretaker administration later this month.
Lahore: Banned outfit Lashkar-e-Jhangvi's Mati-ur-Rehman, who carries a bounty of Rs 1 crore on his head, and two women members of the Taliban figure in a new list of 109 "most wanted" terrorists issued by Pakistan.
