Eurostat inflation estimates released April 16 showed that the headline consumer price index for the eurozone increased 1.4 percent year-over-year in March, while core inflation (which excludes energy, food, alcohol and tobacco) grew by 1 percent. However, core inflation for the troubled "Club Med" states -- Portugal, Ireland, Italy, Greece and Spain -- varied dramatically from the eurozone average.

Chilean President Sebastian Pinera has backed a proposal that would finance post-earthquake reconstruction with revenues from copper mining, Chile’s most significant industry.

The U.S. pullout from Korengal Valley has been completed, after five years of combat with the Taliban there. The withdrawal from the valley in eastern Afghanistan's Kunar province -- which also attracted transnational jihadists -- appears to have been made possible in part by recent Pakistani military successes in neighboring Bajaur.

Hungary’s economic turmoil since September 2008 appears to be reflected in the results of the April 11 election, which swept the center-right Fidesz party to a majority in parliament and brought substantial returns for the far-right Jobbik party.

Ethnic Dungans and Uighurs — minority groups with roots in China — reportedly have been targets of violence amid political turmoil in Kyrgyzstan.

The spread between Greek and German 10-year bonds fluctuated between 4 and 4.4 percentage points on April 8, marking the greatest difference since Greece joined the eurozone.

Opposition to Kyrgyz President Kurmanbek Bakiyev, which has been simmering with a number of demonstrations over the past month, boiled over into violent protests on April 7. In the capital, Bishkek, at least 17 people were killed and more than 140 injured as demonstrators clashed with riot police.

Some 75 local and national police were killed April 6 in an attack by India’s Naxalites — Maoists who have staged a long-running insurgency.

The Tehrik-i-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) has claimed responsibility for three coordinated attacks targeting the U.S. consulate in Peshawar.

Although election results for Iraq’s parliament were returned March 26, a three-way contest over who will take part in the next governing coalition has been unfolding. The contenders are Nouri al-Maliki’s State of Law coalition; Ayad Allawi’s secular al-Iraqiya List; and the Iran-backed Iraqi National Alliance, whose members include Ammar al-Hakim and nationalist Muqtada al-Sadr.