Argentinian photographer Alejandro Chaskielberg is the Sony world photographer of the year, it is announced.

The mayor of Paris urges an end to the "shocking" arrest of dozens of mainly Tunisian migrants in France as detentions continue.

Police fire their guns in the air in the Burkina Faso capital, Ouagadougou, as protests over price rises spread.

Israeli officials say they will not talk to a Palestinian unity government set up under a deal between Fatah and Hamas.

Further shooting is reported from several parts of Syria, including the southern city of Deraa which has been at the centre of six weeks of unrest.

The governor of the main Kandahar prison is arrested days after the escape of about 500 prisoners, many of them Taliban militants.

Researchers in Italy begin a search for the tomb of a woman who may have been the model for Leonardo Da Vinci's painting Mona Lisa.

More than two million Canadians have cast early votes ahead of the 2 May general election, marking a 35% rise compared with the 2008 election, officials say.