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CAIRO - The leader of the Muslim Brotherhood was arrested by Egyptian security forces on Thursday in a crackdown against the Islamist movement after the army ousted the country's first democratically elected president.
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FUKUSHIMA, Japan - Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, riding high in opinion polls on hopes he can revive a stagnant economy, urged voters on Thursday to back his ruling bloc in this month's upper house election and end a six-year policy deadlock.
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AMMAN - Syria's fractious opposition coalition meets on Thursday under pressure to name a new leader and prove to its Western and Arab backers it can be trusted with advanced weapons to beat back a concerted offensive by President Bashar al-Assad.
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BERLIN/WASHINGTON - German Chancellor Angela Merkel said after a phone call with Barack Obama on Wednesday night that she believed the U.S. president took Germany's concern over reported U.S. spying very seriously, and she hoped coming talks would bring answers.
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MOSCOW - Edward Snowden should find another country to seek refuge in, a Russian official said on Thursday, signalling Moscow's growing impatience over the former U.S. spy agency contractor's stay at a Moscow airport.
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LISBON - Portugal's prime minister has found a way to maintain government stability with the junior partner in the ruling coalition, but the full details still need to be agreed to end a political crisis that has threatened Lisbon's adjustment under a bailout.
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MEXICO CITY - A year after winning the Mexican presidency, Enrique Pena Nieto needs a solid performance by the opposition in state elections on Sunday to keep alive a fragile alliance he built to steer reforms through Congress.
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MTHATHA - A feud between factions of Nelson Mandela's family descended into soap opera farce on Thursday when his grandson and heir, Mandla, accused relatives of adultery and milking the fame of the revered anti-apartheid leader.
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LASHKAR GAH, Afghanistan - Unknown gunmen killed one of Afghanistan's most high-profile female police officers on Thursday, the latest in a series of attacks targeting top women officials amid a drawdown of foreign combat forces in the country.
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MOSCOW - Russia voiced concern on Thursday that no progress has been made towards organising new talks between Iran and six world powers on Tehran's nuclear programme, despite the election of a relative moderate as Iran's president.
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LONDON - Rupert Murdoch belittled a British police inquiry into bribes allegedly paid by his journalists in a secret recording made by his staff, in sharp contrast to the profuse public apologies he made to defuse anger at news gathering practices.
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SEOUL - North and South Korea agreed on Thursday to hold talks aimed at reopening a jointly run factory park that was a rare source of cash for the North three weeks after their last attempt at dialogue collapsed in bickering over protocol.
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HARARE - Zimbabwe's Constitutional Court rejected a series of government appeals on Thursday to delay a July 31 general election in order to allow more time for reform of the security forces and state media.
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