News stories by Correspondents* - IPS/Al Jazeera, page 3

Fighting is continuing in the eastern suburbs of Damascus, according to activists, as Syrian security forces appeared to be reasserting their control over the restive fringes of the country's capital.

At least six people have been killed as Syrian security forces continued attacks on protest hubs across the country, activists say.

Saudi Arabia will make up for any shortfall in world oil supply caused by sanctions against Iran, the country's oil minister has said, despite warnings from Iran that such a move would provoke unspecified 'consequences'.

A former Arab League observer in Syria has decried the organisation's monitoring mission to the country as a 'farce', as the U.N. Security Council heard security forces had stepped up the killing of protesters after the observers' arrival.

Police fired tear gas and beat protesters to force them out of a square they had occupied in an overnight sit-in in Nigeria's northern city of Kano as part of demonstrations over soaring fuel prices, an organiser said.

Damascus has accused Washington of interfering in the work of the Arab League after a U.S. official travelled to Cairo for talks with the bloc about the protest crackdown in Syria.

Arab League observers are to visit three key protest hubs in Syria as world powers have urged Damascus to give full access to monitor if the country is implementing a plan to end a crackdown on protests.

Kim Jong-un, the youngest son of Kim Jong-il, is widely believed to be his father's choice as heir to the North Korean leadership.

A standoff between villagers and police is continuing in southern China, where police have sealed off the village of Wukan in an attempt to quell an uprising, witnesses say.

More than 70 Syrian army commanders and officials have been named by former soldiers as having ordered attacks on unarmed protesters in that country, says the U.S.-based Human Rights Watch.