Dozens of wildfires raging in rain-starved Texas are now known to have engulfed more than 1,000 homes, say state officials. The biggest of the blazes - 16 miles (26km) wide - in rural Bastrop County remained completely uncontained early on Tuesday.

A former minister in India's southern state of Karnataka has been arrested in connection with a mining scandal. G Janardhana Reddy, who is also a mining businessman, had been named in an anti-corruption report that alleged the scam cost the exchequer more than $3bn (£1.8bn) between 2006 and 2010. Federal investigators also held BV Srinivasa Reddy, the head of a mining company owned by the former minister, in connection with the alleged scam.

Jerusalem (CNN) -- Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Sunday refused to give ground in an increasingly harsh diplomatic confrontation with Turkey, once his country's strongest ally in the region. The two countries are at odds over last year's Israeli raid on a ship trying to break its blockade of Gaza. Netanyahu said Sunday that his country did not need to say it was sorry for the incident, in which nine people aboard the Mavi Marmara were killed and several Israeli troops were injured.

Tripoli, Libya (CNN) -- Fighters pushed Sunday to the outskirts of one of Moammar Gadhafi's last bastions of support, setting the stage for possible clashes ahead of this week's deadline for loyalists of the ousted leader to surrender. Libya's new leaders gave Gadhafi loyalists in Sirte, Bani Walid and a handful of towns until Saturday to surrender or face military force.

German Chancellor Angela Merkel's party has suffered a loss in elections in her home state, exit polls suggest. The Christian Democrats (CDU) won 24% of the vote in the north-eastern state of Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania, down from 28.8% in 2006, the TV poll found.

Iran's first nuclear power station has been connected to the country's electricity grid, state news reports. Bushehr was supplying 60 megawatts of its 1,000 megawatt capacity to the national grid, officials said. The reactor's generating unit began operating at a low level in May, prompting Israel and other nations to express fears the reactor could help Iran develop nuclear weapons.

Amid the hum and rumble of downtown Manhattan -- not to mention the clang of steel and the tangle of cranes -- hard-hatted workers in fluorescent orange vests yell orders, spread cement, move machines. Empty boxes litter the ground. Shop lights hang from extension cords like Christmas bulbs. Stacks of paving stones, cinderblocks and plywood are everywhere. Scaffolding andmesh divide work areas from visitors. Chain-link fencing marks a perimeter; beyond it, iron and steel rise from bedrock.

Indian forces have killed three Pakistani soldiers in firing across the Line of Control in the disputed region of Kashmir, the Pakistani army says. It has accused Indian forces of opening "unprovoked" fire across the LoC - which divides Kashmir between India and Pakistan - in the Neelum valley.

Sitra, Bahrain (CNN) -- Bahrain's interior ministry is offering a reward for information leading to the killer of a 14-year-old boy whose death has fueled protests, the state news agency reported Thursday. Witnesses said Wednesday they saw Ali Jawad al-Sheikh collapse after riot police fired a tear-gas round at him and other protesters in Sitra, southwest of the capital Manama.

A Kosovo man has told a German court he regrets shooting dead two US servicemen at Frankfurt airport and does not understand why he did it. Arid Uka, 21, told the court he had been radicalised by jihadist propaganda videos he watched online. Prosecutors believe he acted alone in carrying out the first deadly attack by an Islamist on German soil.

(CNN) -- Despite sunny skies, flood warnings remained in effect Wednesday for areas of several states hard-hit by Hurricane Irene, as authorities struggled to clean up and rebuild roads and bridges in the aftermath of the storm. "Nobody that got hit with this flooding dodged a bullet," Craig Fugate, Federal Emergency Management Agency administrator, said Wednesday. "Loss of life, extensive damages, homes flooded ... it may not have been as big a deal on the coast, but these flood areas definitely got hit hard."

Amnesty International has said it believes that at least 88 people have died in detention in Syria during the past five months. It says those who died, including 10 children, were subjected to beatings, burns, electric shocks and other abuse.

Libya's interim leaders have given pro-Gaddafi forces until Saturday to surrender or face military force. Mustafa Abdul Jalil, who leads the National Transitional Council (NTC), said the ultimatum applied to loyalists of Col Muammar Gaddafi in his hometown of Sirte and in other towns. The announcement came after Col Gaddafi's wife and three of his adult children fled to neighbouring Algeria.

Rescue efforts are intensifying in flood-hit parts of the north-eastern US, as the death toll continues to rise two days after a fierce storm. Authorities have struggled to deliver supplies to Vermont and to New York towns isolated by washed-away roads.

Anti-government demonstrations are reported to be breaking out across Syria after morning prayers on the day of Eid al-Fitr, which marks the end of the Muslim fasting month of Ramadan. Thousands took to the streets, including in suburbs of the capital, Damascus, demanding the downfall of President Bashar al-Assad's government.

Brattleboro, Vermont (CNN) -- The torment from Irene isn't over as parts of the Northeast grapple with dangerous floodwaters, widespread power outages and stranded residents. At least 21 deaths across eight states were blamed on Irene, which had fizzled to a post-tropical cyclone and was headed over eastern Canada by Monday morning.

Kathmandu, Nepal (CNN) -- Nepal's parliament on Sunday elected a leader of the former Maoist rebels as the new prime minister with a simple majority. Baburam Bhattarai, 57, vice-chairman of the Unified Communist Party of Nepal (Maoist) will become the fourth prime minister since Nepal became a republic in 2008.

Baghdad (CNN) -- A series of bomb attacks throughout Iraq left 35 people dead and scores injured, officials with Iraq's Interior Ministry and police said Sunday. At least 28 people were killed in a suicide bombing attack in a Sunni mosque in the Ghazaliya neighborhood in western Baghdad late Sunday, an Interior Ministry official said. At least 37 others were wounded in the attack. A Sunni member of Parliament, Khalid al-Fahdawi, was among the dead.

Ocean City, Maryland (CNN) -- After slamming into the East Coast and knocking out power to almost 2 million people, Hurricane Irene is now taking aim at the biggest cities in the Northeast. Irene pummeled Ocean City, Maryland, early Sunday while en route to New York City, threatening to flood parts of Manhattan and bring the bustling city to a virtual standstill.

Fugitive Libyan leader Col Muammar Gaddafi is ready to begin talks to transfer power, US media has been told. The spokesman told the Associated Press news agency negotiations would be led by Col Gaddafi's son, Saadi. He also said Col Gaddafi was still in Libya.

(CNN) -- The death of al Qaeda's No. 2, Atiyah Abdul Rahman in Pakistan, is a hammer blow to the terrorist organization. According to a U.S. official, Abdul Rahman, a 43-year-old veteran Libyan operative, rose to the number two spot after the death of Osama bin Laden in May, which saw the Egyptian Ayman al Zawahiri take over the leadership of the terrorist group. In that capacity Rahman ran daily operations for the group, according to the official.