Convicted loyalist murderer Stephen Irwin abandons an appeal against his sentence in the High Court.

AP - Protesters beat two police officers to death after clashes broke out during a demonstration Thursday to demand the closure of a U.S.-owned gold mine in Papua province, police and witnesses said.

Reuters - A series of blasts rocked Baghdad on Sunday morning, killing at least two people and wounding 11, after a night of violence in the capital in which a major hospital reported 20 people killed in separate incidents.