Top story: Following a week-long general strike that paralyzed Nigeria, President Goodluck Jonathan partially restored the fuel subsidy whose removal had triggered popular anger. Under the deal agreed to with union leaders, the price of gas in Nigeria will drop from $3.50 to $2.27 - still above its previous level of $1.70, before the subsidy was removed.
The removal of fuel subsidies, which cost the Nigerian government approximately $8 billion a year, was recommended by international financial institutions such as the International Monetary Fund. But in Nigeria, with its large gap between rich and poor, anger at the subsidy's removal was one of the few issues that united Nigerians across religious and political lines.
Roughly three-fourths of Nigerians live on less than $1 a day, and the fuel subsidy allowed them to travel cheaply and drove down the price of food. It is also the only way that the vast majority of Nigerians see any benefit from their country's booming oil revenues, which predominantly go to the country's richest citizens.
U.S. presses South Korea on Iranian oil purchases: State Department special advisor for nonproliferation Robert Einhorn visited Seoul to urge South Korean politicians to reduce their country's imports of Iranian crude oil.
Asia
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Chinese figures show that, for the first time, more people live in urban areas than rural areas.
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Vietnam's navy took delivery of its first domestically-built warship.
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China's economic growth declined in the fourth quarter of 2011 to its slowest rate in two years.
Europe
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Rescue crews worked frantically in an attempt to locate 29 missing people aboard a capsized cruise liner off Italy's coast.
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A radical Islamist cleric won his appeal against deportation from Britain to Jordan.
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The European Union is preparing to warn Hungary over controversial reforms to its central bank.
Americas
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El Salvador's President Mauricio Funes apologized for the 1981 massacre of 1,000 civilians by Salvadoran soldiers.
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Gunmen shot and killed the police chief in the central Mexican town of Zacatepec.
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Food aid was rushed to Mexico's indigenous communities in the north of the country, which had been suffering shortages.
Middle East
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Former President Hosni Mubarak's lawyers began their defense of the deposed leader in his trial in Cairo.
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Yemen's foreign minister warned that unrest in the country may cause a delay in the presidential election.
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Five Iraqi policemen were killed in an attack on a checkpoint in the west of the country.
Africa
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Liberian President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf was sworn in for her second term in office.
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Tuareg rebels attacked towns in northern Mali.
- A new Human Rights Watch report suggests tens of thousands of Ethiopians have been forced of their lands so it can be leased to foreign investors.
PIUS UTOMI EKPEI/AFP/Getty Images
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