Two merchant ships and an Italian coast guard vessel went to the rescue of more than 600 migrants who sent emergency calls for help from their packed rubber boats near the Libyan coast on Saturday.
Germany's Foreign Minister warned Kiev, Moscow and separatist rebels in eastern Ukraine on Saturday of the "high price" of violating a ceasefire agreement as fighting intensified hours before its start.
The biggest political threat to Malaysia's government is behind bars after a court upheld a sodomy conviction for opposition leader Anwar Ibrahim, but more thorny problems confront Prime Minister Najib Razak.
Abderrahmane Sissako, the director of Mauritania's Oscar-nominated film "Timbuktu," says in a matter-of-fact tone reminiscent of his sober drama that his task was simply an exercise in humanizing harsh life under radical Islam.
