Thousands converged onto Cairo's Tahrir Square on Friday ahead of nationwide mass rallies planned to push the ruling military council to speed up the pace of reform, an AFP correspondent said.

 

At least 29 people were killed in different firing incidents in Pakistan's southern port city of Karachi on July 7, taking death toll of the political and ethnic violence in the city to 65 in the last three days, reported local media.

New IMF chief Christine Lagarde promised equal treatment for all countries and urged Greek politicians to unite behind an austerity plan as she took the helm of the global crisis lender Wednesday.

Bhumjai Thai got 34 seats, Chart Thai Pattana got 19 seats, Chart Patana Puea Pandin got 7 seats, Phalong Chon got 7 seats, Rak Thailand got 4 seats, Matubhum got 2 seats, Rak Santi got 1 seat, Mahachon got 1 seat and New Democratic got 1 seat, said Suthipol Thaweechaikarn, Secretary-General of the EC said at a press briefing on July 5.

Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez on Monday gave a speech in the People's Balcony of Miraflores Palace in Caracas, after he returned from Cuba, where he got a surgery to remover a cancer tumor.

Exit polls showed Yingluck Shinawatra's Puea Thai (For Thais) party winning a clear majority of parliament's 500 seats, paving the way for the 44-year-old business executive to become Thailand's first woman Prime Minister.

Political campaigning in Thailand drew to a close on July 2, taking a day to cool off before an election which could exacerbate the country's six-year-old political crisis just as easily as end it.

Moroccans have approved constitutional reforms put forward by King Mohammed VI in response to recent pro-democracy protests, preliminary results show.

 Leon Panetta sworn in as US defense secretary on July 1.