14 January 2015 Last updated at 08:20
Charlie Hebdo attack: Rush to buy new "survivors" issue
Long queues have formed at newsstands in France for the latest edition of satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo.
Three million copies are being printed - a week after Islamist gunmen murdered eight journalists at the magazine and four other people in Paris.
The cover shows a cartoon depicting the Prophet Muhammad weeping while holding a sign saying "Je suis Charlie" ("I am Charlie").
It is believed earlier cartoons of the Prophet prompted the attack.
The slogan "Je suis Charlie" has been widely used following the shootings.
In a separate attack in Paris two days later, four Jewish men died after an Islamist gunmen took hostages at a kosher shop in the French capital. A police woman was shot dead in a third shooting believed to have been carried out by the same attacker.
Japan reveals record defence budget as tensions with China grow
At US$42bn the budget is another yearly increase but it is still dwarfed by both China and the US
Japan has announced its biggest ever defence budget in response to China’s increasing military influence in the region and Beijing’s claims to a group of disputed islands administered by Tokyo.
The 4.98 trillion yen (US$ 42bn) budget approved by the cabinet on Wednesday is up 2% from last year and marks the third straight increase after more than a decade of cuts.
The rise is in line with Japan’s more assertive defence policy under the conservative prime minister, Shinzo Abe, as he seeks to counter Chinese influence and remove the postwar legal shackles from his country’s military.
France’s Jews question future in aftermath of Islamist killings
Members of country’s 500,000-strong Jewish community shaken by Paris killings
Benjamin Blum enters the security code at the entrance to the synagogue on rue Pavée, allowing nine soldiers with automatic weapons to make their way inside. Passersby stop on the narrow street, in the heart of the Marais, watching the troops in their combat colours and bulletproof vests mingling with a clutch of men wearing beards and black hats.
Similar scenes played out across France, where thousands of extra soldiers and police have been deployed to 717 Jewish schools and religious sites since the siege that resulted in the deaths of four hostages at a kosher deli in the east of Paris last Friday.
The killings have shaken members of France’s 500,000-strong Jewish community – the largest in Europe – and stirred debate on their position in the society.
North Koreans walk across frozen river to China to commit murder
Seoul: A spate of murders by North Koreans inside China's border is prompting some residents to abandon their homes, testing China's ability to manage both the 1400-kilometre shared frontier and its relationship with the reclusive nation.
The violence reflects a growing desperation among soldiers, including border guards, since Kim Jong-un took over as supreme leader in Pyongyang three years ago. As well as seeking food, they are entering China to steal money.
"Bribes were one of the key sources of income for these guards to survive, but after Kim Jong-un came to power and tightened controls, it became difficult for them to take bribes, thus the criminal deviations," said Kang Dong Wan, a professor of international relations at Busan's Dong-a University in South Korea.
Nigeria election causing more Boko Haram attacks, says U.S. State dept.
Boko Haram, the militant Islamic group responsible for terrorizing Nigeria, is attacking with greater frequency due to the impending presidential election.
WASHINGTON — Nigeria's election next month is a factor behind the sharp increase in attacks by Boko Haram Islamist militants in the north of the country, the U.S. State Department said on Tuesday.
Spokeswoman Marie Harf said, however, that the Feb. 14 presidential election should go forward despite the violence, which the United Nations and human rights groups say has forced about 20,000 Nigerians to flee to neighboring countries in recent weeks.
"There has been a sharp escalation in the number of reported casualties," Harf told a daily briefing. "We do believe the election is a factor."
Harf said Boko Haram previously used events such as elections to stir up tensions. The election is expected to be a close contest between President Goodluck Jonathan and his leading challenger Muhammadu Buhari.
Watchdog: Student jailed in Egypt's crackdown on atheism
Egypt's Constitution states that "freedom of belief is absolute," yet it says nothing about those who don't believe.
Watchdog groups are asking the predominantly Sunni Muslim nation to reconsider its stance toward atheists after authorities arrested a student and sentenced him to three years in prison for Facebook posts that insulted Islam.
Karim Ashraf Mohamed al-Banna was arrested with a group of people at a cafe in November, according to the Association for Freedom of Thought and Expression. An Egyptian minor offenses court sentenced him on blasphemy charges Saturday in what Human Rights Watch called "part of a wider government push to combat atheism and other forms of dissent."
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