The US has recognised the Libyan opposition as the country's "legitimate governing authority".

Tribesmen intent on ending the regime of President Ali Abdullah Saleh fought with government forces on July 15, resulting in at least four deaths in the city of Taiz, according to medical staff in Freedom Square.

Syrian forces killed at least 32 civilians on July 15, including 23 in the capital Damascus, in an intensifying crackdown on protests against President Bashar al-Assad, activists said.

Libya's embattled government accused rebels and the NATO military alliance of carrying out a coordinated air, sea, and land attack on the strategic oil town of Brega on July 14, the same day a government spokesman vowed to "die for oil."

Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh vowed on July 14 to bring to justice those behind triple bomb attacks on India's financial capital Mumbai, and police questioned members of a home-grown Islamist militant group.

Thousands of people on an Indonesian island have been forced to flee a fierce volcanic eruption on July 15.

US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton will pay a brief visit this month to the southern Chinese city of Shenzhen for talks on the complex relationship between the Pacific nations, her spokesman said.

Rupert Murdoch and his son James first refused, then agreed on Thursday to appear before U.K. lawmakers investigating phone hacking and police bribery.

The General Assembly admitted South Sudan on Thursday as the 193rd member of the United Nations, sealing the new African country's independence after decades of conflict.

Mexican soldiers have found the largest marijuana plantation ever detected in Mexico, a huge field covering almost 300 acres (120 hectares), the Defense Department said Thursday.