Ukraine's president has replaced his army chief in the wake of yesterday's bloodshed. At least 26 people were killed in the violent clashes. There's now a tense standoff between riot police and protesters in the capital Kiev.

 

The wife of an Australian missionary who's been detained in North Korea has been told he could been sentenced to hard labor for possession of illegal materials. Seventy-five-year-old John Short has been arrested for distributing Christian pamphlets. Mr.Short's wife Karen says it was his second trip to North Korea and he knew the risks. 

 

The trial of an Australian journalist Peter Greste will begin in Egypt later today. Mr. Greste and two of his Al Jazeera colleagues are accused of aiding a terrorist organisation by reporting misleading news. The Foreign Minster Julie Bishop says the government is continuing to press Egypt to release him.

 

And the former British prime minister Tony Blair offered to act as an unofficial adviser to Rupert Murdoch during a phone-hiking scandal. The jury in the trial of the former News Corporate executive Rebecca Brooks has heard she had an hour-long phone chat with Mr. Blair just six days before she was arrested.