Japan fell into a trade deficit in April as exports tumbled at the fastest pace in 18 months on supply chain disruptions after the March 11 earthquake and tsunami, according to statistics from the Finance Ministry on May 25.

Egypt is to open the Rafah border crossing into Gaza permanently to most Palestinians from May 28, Egyptian state news agency Mena has said.

A suicide bomber in an explosive-laden car rammed into a police station in Peshawar, Pakistan, on May 25, in a Taliban attack that killed seven police officers and injured several others, a senior police official said.

German officials say they will shut down airspace over northern Germany Wednesday, because of the ash cloud from Iceland's Grimsvotn volcano.

US President Barack Obama has hailed his country's "special relationship" with the UK.

NATO has carried out its heaviest air strikes against Libya's capital in more than two months of bombing, amid upbeat comments from France and the United States on progress toward ending Muammar Gaddafi's rule.

Former Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak and his two sons will face trial before a criminal court for the killings of protesters and the waste of public money, the Egyptian general prosecutor's office announced on Tuesday.

Suspected militants drove a car packed with explosives into a police station in the Pakistani town of Peshawar on Wednesday, killing a policeman and wounding 15 people, the latest attack since Osama bin laden was killed this month.

Nuclear fuel rods in two more reactors at the damaged Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant in Japan are believed to have melted during the first week of the nuclear crisis, the owner of the facility said on Tuesday.

Rights envoy Robert King became the first US official to visit the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (DPRK) in 17 months on Tuesday, as Washington considers whether to resume food aid and as momentum builds to resume nuclear disarmament talks.