As many as 700 people are feared dead after a boat carrying migrants capsized off the Libyan coast overnight, in one of the worst disasters seen in the Mediterranean migrant crisis, officials said on April 19.

The International Monetary Fund's member nations on April 18 warned of risks to the global economy from exchange rate shifts and geopolitical tensions as they took note of "moderate" global growth and "uneven prospects."

Yemen's government has rejected a four-point peace plan for the country that Iran submitted to the United Nations, a spokesman said on April 18.

A suicide bomb blast in Afghanistan's eastern city of Jalalabad killed 33 people and injured more than 100 outside a bank where government workers collect salaries, the city's police chief said on April 18.

Iran's foreign minister on April 17 submitted a letter to UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon outlining a four-point peace plan for Yemen, where Iranian-backed Houthi rebels have been targeted for three weeks by Saudi-led air strikes.

A car bomb killed three people on April 17 outside the US consulate in Erbil, the capital of Iraq's Kurdistan region, a ally of Washington in the war against Islamic State, which claimed the attack.

Yemen's newly-appointed Vice President Khaled Bahah said on April 16 he hoped to avert a Saudi-led invasion to restore unity to the country.

The US military option to prevent Iran from obtaining a nuclear weapon, and encourage a diplomatic solution, remains intact despite Russia's decision to deliver its S-300 missile defense system to Tehran, the top US general said on April 16.

Democratic presidential contender Hillary Clinton promised on April 15 to help small businesses, saying US tax rules were skewed in favor of big corporations and made it time consuming and costly for small employers to navigate the tax code.

China grew at its slowest pace in six years at the start of 2015 and weakness in key sectors suggested the world's second-largest economy was still losing momentum, intensifying Beijing's struggle to find the right policy mix to shore up activity.