Chinese dissident artist and free speech advocate Ai Weiwei said that authorities in Beijing returned his passport on Wednesday, more than four years after it was confiscated following his 81-day secret detention.
Dashboard camera video released on Tuesday involving the traffic stop in Texas of a woman later found hanging dead in her jail cell showed how the incident quickly escalated into an altercation between her and a state trooper.
China reserves the right to a "necessary reaction" after Japan issued a defense review that called on Beijing to stop building oil and gas exploration platforms close to disputed waters in the East China Sea, the Defense Ministry has said.
The United Nations envoy for Syria has voiced deep concern about civilians in the city of Zabadani, the focus of an offensive by the Syrian military and Lebanon's Hezbollah aimed at wresting control of the area from insurgents.
