Hundreds of scantily clad and nude cyclists took to the streets of Peru's capital, Lima, to call attention to safety conditions on the city's roads.

Japan is marking the first anniversary of the devastating earthquake and tsunami which struck the north-eastern coast, leaving about 20,000 dead or missing.

Israeli air strikes have pounded Gaza for a second day, as Palestinians unleash a barrage of rockets in retaliation for the killing of a militant leader.

Indigenous Ecuadoreans march against a major Chinese mining project in the Amazon, while government supporters stage a counter-protest.

UN-Arab League envoy Kofi Annan is due to hold a second round of talks with Syrian President Bashar al-Assad in Damascus.

Chinese police rescued more than 24,000 abducted women and children across the country in 2011, a new government report reveals.

A US soldier in Afghanistan is reported to have killed a number of Afghan civilians after walking off his base in Kandahar province.

A bomb attack at a funeral in north-west Pakistan has killed at least nine people and wounded 30, police say.