• Russia's Lavrov seeks peace in Syria as forces bombard Homs (Reuters)

Reuters - Russia won a promise from Syrian President Bashar al-Assad on Tuesday to bring an end to bloodshed in Syria, but Western and Arab states acted to isolate Assad further after activists and rebels said his forces killed over 100 in the city of Homs.

  • Iran shrugs off latest U.S. sanctions, trade suffers (Reuters)

Reuters - Iran castigated its U.S. adversary on Tuesday over new financial measures to disrupt Iranian commerce, and a default on payment for rice purchases highlighted the encroachment of sanctions on the staples of everyday life.

  • Maldives president quits after police mutiny, protests (Reuters)

Reuters - President Mohamed Nasheed of the Maldives, widely credited with bringing democracy to the Indian Ocean archipelago, resigned on Tuesday after weeks of opposition protests erupted into a police mutiny and what an aide said amounted to a coup.

  • Netanyahu can't fly solo in Israel to attack Iran (Reuters)

Reuters - Three decades ago, an Israeli prime minister faced his cabinet and invoked the Holocaust in an emotional appeal to approve an air strike against an Arab atomic reactor.

  • Exclusive: Iran defaults on rice payments to India (Reuters)

Reuters - Iranian buyers have defaulted on payments for about 200,000 tonnes of rice from their top supplier India, exporters and rice millers said on Tuesday, a sign of the mounting pressure on Tehran from a new wave of Western sanctions.

  • Rio's Olympic Preview: Erupting Manhole Covers and Collapsing Buildings (Time.com)

Time.com - Will the Brazilian mega-city's crumbling infrastructure spoil the World Cup and the Olympics?

  • Hungary's leader defends his new constitution (AP)

AP - Hungary's prime minister defended his nation's new constitution on Tuesday and questioned the motives of those who are criticizing it.

  • Gaza's Hamas would cede power to Abbas government (AP)

AP - Gaza's ruling Islamic militant Hamas is ready to cede power to an interim unity government led by its longtime rival, Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, a spokesman said Tuesday, but problems loomed over government policy and international recognition.

  • Coca growers whip police officers in Bolivia (AP)

AP - Bolivian authorities say coca growers have whipped four police officers for trying to destroy their coca crop in an application of what the growers call "community justice."

  • Bomb attacks strike military bases in Nigeria (AP)

AP - Bombs exploded Tuesday at two major military bases on the outskirts of a central Nigerian city at the heart of ethnic and religious unrest in Africa's most populous nation, injuring an unknown number of people.

  • VIDEO: Syria's first lady stands by husband

The wife of Syria's president Bashar al-Assad has spoken out to defend her husband in a letter to a British newspaper.

  • VIDEO: Skydiver: My mum's still scared

An Austrian adventurer planning the highest skydive in history has announced he will make the attempt later this year.

  • VIDEO: Children flee artillery attack on Homs

As the Syrian army launched a fresh assault on Homs, pounding the city with mortars and artillery fire, footage has been released showing the impact on civilians and children in particular.

  • VIDEO: Barlow on 'massive' Jubilee concert

Gary Barlow says he wants to represent "the whole world" at the Queen's Diamond Jubilee Concert in June.

  • VIDEO: Woman found alive in Lahore rubble

Rescue workers in Pakistan have found a 65-year-old woman alive in the rubble of a Lahore factory, 31 hours after the building collapsed.

  • Scotland referendum: We need a poetry of the Union to defeat Salmond's freedom shtick

The Tories are the natural romantics of the Union and should be supplying the passion to hold us together, says Graeme Archer.

  • Fred Goodwin: a modern-day knight made to suffer a medieval punishment

Fred Goodwin should challenge the judgment of David Cameron's kangaroo court, argues Charles Moore.

  • Alex Salmond: will disgraced Lords now be stripped of honours?

Scottish First Minister suggests other bankers involved in financial crisis and convicted peers should lose titles.

  • Ed Miliband: cabinet of millionaires will not fight soaring City bonuses

Affluent backgrounds of Cameron and cabinet put them in "worst position" to curb soaring bonuses for bankers, says Labour leader

  • Fred Goodwin: decision to strip knighthood was result of 'anti-business hysteria'

Decision to strip former RBS chief executive Fred Goodwin of knighthood criticised by leading business figure.