Malawa's President Joyce Banda admitted Friday she took a "political risk" in launching a major fight against corruption ahead of elections in May.

In late 2013 Banda dissolved her entire cabinet, sacking four ministers, amid allegations top government officials embezzled millions of taxpayer dollars.

More than 250 academics from around the world signed an online petition this week calling for an end to "blanket mass surveillance" by intelligence agencies.

The petition said revelations of mass surveillance in documents leaked by former U.S. National Security Agency (NSA) contractor Edward Snowden violate "a fundamental right" protected by international treaties, including the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights and the European Convention on Human Rights.

Spain vowed Friday to stand firm on its policy on ETA prisoners even though jailed members of the armed Basque separatist group have softened their stance on key demands.

Last week EPPK, a collective representing hundreds of jailed members of ETA, western Europe's last major armed secessionist group, dropped its long-standing demand for a general amnesty.

Bangladesh opposition leader made a last-ditch plea Friday for voters to boycott this weekend's "farcical" elections and accused the government of placing her under house arrest.

"I am urging my fellow Bangladeshis to completely boycott this scandalous farce," said Khaleda Zia, whose Bangladesh Nationalist Party has refused to take part in Sunday's election.

The driver of an excavator was killed and eight other people injured when a World War II-era bomb blew up during earthworks in Germany on Friday, police said.

The blast wave from the sleeper bomb blew out the windows of surrounding buildings and could be felt for several kilometers (miles), said police and residents.

Nelson Mandela's name was not raised once in an official meeting between Margaret Thatcher and South Africa's prime minister in 1984, records showed Friday, re-opening the debate into how much she pushed for his release from prison.

P. W. Botha was invited to talks with the Thatcher at the British prime minister's Chequers country residence to discuss South Africa's policy towards its black population, as the apartheid regime sought to emerge from its international isolation.

A Turkish court on Friday released two Kurdish lawmakers from prison after the country's top court ruled that their long pre-trial detention violated their rights, media reported.

Ibrahim Ayhan and Gulser Yildirim of the pro-Kurdish Peace and Democracy Party (BDP), were detained in 2010 suspected of links to the banned Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK).

Gunmen killed two senior members of a hardline Sunni Muslim group in a rare attack in the Pakistani capital on Friday, officials said, after weeks of sectarian tensions in the country.

The secretary-general of the Islamabad chapter of the Ahl-e-Sunnat Wal Jamaat (ASWJ) organisation, Mufti Muneer Muavia, and his colleague Qari Asad Mehmood were targeted in a residential area bordering the twin city of Rawalpindi.

A prominent Turkish-Armenian blogger has been sent to jail on charges of illegal construction amid a growing chorus of criticism over a graft scandal engulfing the government, local media reported on Friday.

Sevan Nisanyan was sentenced in December to two years in prison in a case he claims was punishment for his outspoken views about restrictions on freedom of expression in Turkey.

One person died and 15 were injured after a cyclone packing winds of 150 kilometers (95 miles) an hour brushed by the French Indian Ocean island of Reunion, officials said Friday.

A red alert asking residents to remain indoors was lifted on Friday.