Nursultan Nazarbayev did not seem particularly happy with the results of the test, since they were not focused on selecting the most competent candidates, but rather on selecting the most knowledgeable.
The Brazilian official in charge of indigenous affairs resigned Friday amid protests by natives locked in land feuds with white farmers and opposing construction of a huge dam in the Amazon.
Two employees of the US embassy in Venezuela were shot and wounded early Tuesday in the capital Caracas, in a murky incident that local media and a police source said took place at a strip club.
Officials in the east of the Democratic Republic of Congo accuse a rebel force of replacing traditional leaders and extorting heavy taxes from the people, while peace talks take place in Uganda under a ceasefire.
Officials sent mixed signals Sunday about the condition of cancer-stricken Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez, fueling growing political uncertainty in the oil-rich country.
A city in east China suspended 12 officials Wednesday, including a vice mayor, policemen and education administrators, after 11 children were killed in a road wreck involving an overloaded vehicle.
Italy's highest court has accepted a complaint over the wire-tapping of the president as part of an inquiry into negotiations between state officials and the Mafia.