Russia's Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov has warned of a bloody chaos in Syria unless as a dialogue between the government and the rebels. He said hopes for a political solution were fading and urged the United State to redouble efforts to get a peaceful settlement.
The Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has sacked his health minister, the only woman in his cabinet. No official reason has been given for the dismissal of Marziyeh Vahid Dastjerdi, the only female cabinet minister since the Islamic revolution of 1979. Kasra Naji reports.
Iran is pressed for hard currencies. Oil exports have been reduced to less than a half in the past six months as a result of European and American sanctions. The health minister Mrs Marzieh Dastjerdi had complained that the government had allocated hard currency to the import of luxury cars and not enough to the import of drugs. This indirect contradiction to president Ahmadinejad who has said the government has allocated the budgets bigger even than the last year's for the purpose.
World News from the BBC
The son of the assassinated Pakistani Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto has been setting out his plans for the country at a huge rally of governing party supporters. Bilawal Bhutto Zardari was speaking in southern Sindh province on the fifth anniversary of his mother's death. He told the rally his party would fight militancy, work for the poor and try to build a peaceful and democratic Pakistan.