• China follows Russian admonishment of the Syrian government while the opposition Syrian National Council gains support in Egypt and is recognized by Libya. (CNN)
• The EU imposes further sanctions on Belarus, Iran, and Syria, expresses support for Libya's National Transitional Council, and reiterates call for Syria's President Bashar al-Assad to step down. (CNN)

• The Senate of the United States passes the Currency Exchange Rate Oversight Reform Act of 2011 designed to press the People's Republic of China to raise the value of the Renminbi. (Reuters)
• A measure to support expansion of the eurozone bailout fund is halted due to its failure to pass in the Parliament of Slovakia. (Market Watch via The Australian)
• Jaguar Financial Corp. claims that it has the support of 8% of the shareholders of Research in Motion in its campaign for corporate-governance changes at the Canada-based manufacturer of the BlackBerry. (Press Release)

• Hurricane Jova crosses the western coast of Mexico northwest of the port of Manzanillo, Colima, at Category 2 strength. (Reuters) (Bloomberg)
• An oil spill from the ship MV Rena off the coast of Tauranga in New Zealand becomes the country's worst environmental disaster. (New Zealand Herald)

• The Cabinet of Israel approves a prisoner swap deal with Hamas for the release of the Israeli Army soldier Gilad Shalit, who had been held in captivity for five years. In exchange, Israel agrees to release a thousand Palestinian prisoners held in Israel, among them hundreds of prisoners serving multiple life sentences for planning and perpetrating murderous attacks against Israeli civilians.(Xinhuanet) (Ynet)

• Yulia Tymoshenko, the former Prime Minister of Ukraine, is jailed for seven years for exceeding her powers by entering a gas deal with Russia. (BBC)
• The bodies of 12 Chinese sailors have been found and one remains missing in Mekong river, where Thailand, Laos and Myanmar meet, after the incident last week in which two Chinese cargo vessels were hijacked by suspected drug smugglers in the Golden Triangle, and later captured by Thai river police.(Xinhua) (The Wall Street Journal) (The New York Times)
• The US Federal Bureau of Investigation and Drug Enforcement Administration claim to have disrupted an alleged terrorist plot to assassinate the Saudi Arabian ambassador and bombings of the Saudi and Israeli embassies in Washington DC with possible links to Iran. (ABC News) (BBC)

• Voters in Liberia go to the polls for a general election with current President and recent Nobel Peace Prize laureate Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf facing a tight race. (Reuters)
• Myanmar's tightly controlled state newspapers call for a political amnesty indicating that reforms may soon be announced by President Thein Sein with the National Human Rights Commission recommending the pardon of some 6000 plus "prisoners of conscience". (CNN) (AP via Google News)
• Voters in the Canadian province of Newfoundland and Labrador go to the polls for general election with the Progressive Conservative Party winning its third straight majority and its leader Kathy Dunderdale becoming the first woman elected as Premier of the province. (CTV)
• In the Yukon Territory voters re-elect the Yukon Party under Premier Darrell Pasloski, with an NDP official opposition. (CBC)
• President of the United States Barack Obama's "jobs bill" stalls in the Senate. (Politico)