China demands an apology from the United States after a human rights activist emerged several days after taking refuge inside the U.S. Embassy in Beijing.

Men in plainclothes attacked protesters demonstrating against the barring of a presidential candidate in Cairo early Wednesday, killing one and leaving dozens injured, witnesses said.

As international envoy Kofi Annan negotiated a cease-fire in Syria, government forces raided opposition strongholds, killing and detaining residents in attacks amounting to war crimes, a rights group said Wednesday.

Media tycoon Rupert Murdoch is "not a fit person" to run a major company, British MPs say, accusing him of "willful blindness" over the phone-hacking scandal.

Myanmar opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi swears an oath to office, a symbolic step in the country's shift toward democracy after decades of military rule.