A 120-mile oil slick advanced to within a few miles of the mouth of the Mississippi River on April 29 as authorities scrambled to keep the spill from damaging wetlands along the Gulf of Mexico.

Thai troops opened fire on Red Shirt protesters Wednesday during a tense confrontation on a highway in Bangkok's northern suburbs that left one soldier dead and 18 people injured.

Five people died and 10 were wounded, including several police officers, when two suspected suicide car bombers attacked police checkpoints in southern Baghdad on Wednesday, police said.

Egyptian forces pumped gas into a cross-border tunnel used to smuggle goods into the Gaza Strip on Wednesday, killing four Palestinians,said Hamas officials.

At least 42 journalists around the world have been killed so far this year and governments should take action to protect reporters and bring their killers to justice, a global media protection body said Wednesday.

A meeting of ASEAN-China Senior Officials’ Consultation Meeting took place in the central city of Hue on April 27, with the participation of assistant foreign ministers from the ten ASEAN countries and China.

The Chinese government has lifted a 20-year-old rule that banned foreigners with HIV and AIDS, sexually transmitted diseases and leprosy from entering the country, according to the country's state news agency.

Anti-government protesters forced Bangkok's elevated railway system to shut on April 27, and the government warned it would adopt tougher methods to quell growing unrest in a seven-week crisis that has killed 26 people.

The United States is seeking tough new sanctions "to sharpen the choices that Iran's leaders face" after weekend talks between the Iranian government and the International Atomic Energy Agency failed to make progress on a deal over Iran's nuclear program, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said on April 27.

Four policemen have died after a suicide car bomber targeted a checkpoint in the north-western Pakistani city of Peshawar.