TUNISIA: The constituent assembly yesterday set parliamentary and presidential election dates for this October and November in a bid to go further down the rocky road to democracy.

The birthplace of the so-called Arab Spring has had a fraught journey to free voting but still impresses over and above its militia-wracked neighbours that have seen more direct Western intervention.

NORTH KOREA: Pyongyang branded Hollywood “comedy” The Interview an “act of war” yesterday.

The Seth Rogen film centres around a plot to assassinate Kim Jong Un.

A Foreign Ministry spokesman said there would be “consequences” if Washington condoned the film, adding the “criminals who mocked our leader” would be “punished according to the law — wherever they hide on this globe.”

NIGERIA: At least eight people were killed yesterday when an explosion tore through an Abuja shopping centre.

Islamic extremists Boko Haram were blamed for the attack on Emab Plaza.

MIDDLE EAST: A group of fighters from al-Qaida’s Syrian affiliates have defected and joined rival breakaway the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (Isis), the British-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said yesterday.

It gives Isis — the powerful jihadist group blitzing through Iraq — control over a huge swathe of territory on both sides of the border.

EUROPE: Former Finnish prime minister Jyrki Katainen will become the EU’s next top economic official, European Commission president Jose Manuel Barroso said yesterday.

The Finnish Tory will be responsible for overseeing the harsh austerity measures imposed on the peoples of Europe.