Dubai: Al Qaeda leader Ayman al-Zawahri, in a video recording posted on the Internet on Sunday, urged Syrians not to rely on the West or Arab governments in their uprising to topple President Bashar al-Assad. In the eight-minute video, entitled "Onwards, Lions of Syria" and posted on an Islamist website, the Egyptian-born Zawahri also urged Muslims in Turkey, Iraq, Lebanon and Jordan to come to the aid of Syrian rebels confronting Assad's forces.

Cairo/Amman: Syrian forces resumed their bombardment of the city of Homs on Monday after Arab countries called for UN peacekeepers and pledged their firm support for the opposition battling President Bashar al-Assad. Opposition campaigners said tank fire was concentrated on two large Sunni Muslim neighbourhoods that have been at the forefront of opposition to Assad.

Zeenews Bureau Islamabad: Pakistan's embattled Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani was on Monday indicated by the Supreme Court for contempt of court over his refusal to reopen graft cases against President Asif Ali Zardari. A seven-member bench of the Supreme Court said that Gilani was given two years to act on its repeated orders to revive cases of alleged money laundering against Zardari in Switzerland but he failed to comply.

Caracas: Youthful state Governor Henrique Capriles won Venezuela's opposition primary on Sunday, setting up a potentially close battle with socialist President Hugo Chavez in an October election. The ballot marked a step forward in the historically fractured opposition's attempts to oust Chavez, whose 13-year rule has galvanized the poor but divided the South American OPEC nation and spooked foreign investors.

ISLAMABAD, Feb. 13 (Xinhua) - Pakistan Prime Minister Yusuf Raza Gilani appeared in the Supreme Court on Monday to face formal charges over his failure to accept the apex court's orders to reopen graft cases against President Asif Ali Zardari. The Supreme Court has issued repeated orders to the government to write to the Swiss authorities to revive cases of alleged money laundering against the President in Switzerland.

By Wang Hongyi BEIJING, Feb. 13 (Xinhuanet) - The publisher of the city's first sex education textbook for primary schools, the release of which last year was a source of controversy, has put out a new edition tailored for family use. Titled Boys and Girls, which is the same as the first printing, the new edition will work as a complement to the previous.

By REUTERS Published: February 12, 2012 ADEN, Yemen (Reuters) - Islamist militants in southern Yemen said they executed three men on Sunday for giving the United States information used to carry out drone strikes in the area. Related Christmas Day Bomb Plot Detailed in Court Filings (February 11, 2012) Connect With Us on Twitter Follow @nytimesworld for international breaking news and headlines. Twitter List: Reporters and Editors

Meridith Kohut for The New York Times Henrique Capriles Radonski won an election to run against President Hugo Ch'avez.

By TAIMOOR SHAH and ALISSA J. RUBIN Published: February 12, 2012 KANDAHAR, Afghanistan - Two boys equipped with suicide vests were arrested here over the weekend, less than a year after one of them had been pardoned by President Hamid Karzai for the same crime, and presented to reporters on Sunday. Connect With Us on Twitter Follow @nytimesworld for international breaking news and headlines. Twitter List: Reporters and Editors

Nasser Nasser/Associated Press The chair for the Syrian representative sat empty as the Arab League met in Cairo on Sunday.