Russia's proposal for Syria to place its chemical weapons under the supervision of international inspectors was given a cautious welcome by America, France and Britain. In a televised speech, Barack Obama asked Congress to postpone a vote authorising a military strike against the regime for using sarin in an attack in Damascus last month, but insisted that "If we fail to act, the Assad regime will see no reason to stop using chemical weapons." Goodluck Jonathan, Nigeria's president, sacked nine of his cabinet ministers following a split in the ruling People's Democratic Party (PDP). Seven state governors as well as a former vice-president have broken away to form the New PDP, to which 22 of 50 sitting PDP senators have also pledged allegiance. The new party has a northern flavour that could widen the country's north-south rift. William Ruto, Kenya's vice-president, pleaded not guilty before the International Criminal Court in The Hague to the charge of committing crimes against humanity in early 2008, in the wake of a disputed general and presidential election. Kenya's parliament voted to remove the country from the jurisdiction of the ICC, where President Uhuru Kenyatta is also due to stand trial, in November. Two huge aquifers holding 250 billion cubic metres of water have been discovered in the arid northern region of Kenya, according to a government spokesman. Boreholes are being tested and it is hoped the first water drawn from the aquifers will be available soon. Around 40% of Kenyans currently have little access to fresh water. Brooklyn's men Bill de Blasio won the Democratic primary in New York's mayoral election. He was the most liberal candidate in a field of five, and surged from behind to claim victory over more established runners. Joe Lhota, a former deputy mayor who served in Rudolph Giuliani's administration, won the Republican nomination. Eliot Spitzer was defeated in his bid to become New York's city comptroller. The former governor of New York, who resigned in 2008 because of a prostitution scandal, has been trying to return to politics. Two Democratic state legislators in Colorado who supported stringent gun-control laws were thrown out of office by voters in a rare recall election. The campaign had attracted national attention, with the National Rifle Association lined up against those who favour tougher checks on weapons, including Michael Bloomberg, the outgoing mayor of New York. Still angry Four men were found guilty of the fatal gang rape of a student in Delhi, the Indian capital. The attack on the 23-year-old woman last December sparked protests across India against official indifference to women's rights and safety. The convicted men's lawyers insist their clients were tortured and that some of their confessions were coerced. Prosecutors called for the death penalty. The family of a former South Korean president, Chun Doo-hwan, vowed to pay back $150m-worth of corruptly obtained assets. Mr Chun, now 82, was South Korea's leader from 1979 to 1988, but in 1996 he was convicted for treason, corruption and mutiny. He was pardoned in 1997. China's prime minister, Li Keqiang, told a group of Western executives that multinational companies will receive "equal treatment" with state-owned enterprises. Foreign businesses have complained about what they call an arbitrary anti-corruption campaign, as well as the lack of market access and the theft of intellectual property. Mr Li also admitted that China's economy needs modernising to keep growing fast. China issued new guidelines that would jail internet users who spread rumours online. Those who make defamatory comments on websites that are visited by 5,000 users or are reposted more than 500 times could face up to three years in prison. Anyone who posts information that leads to protests or ethnic unrest could also be prosecuted. How to lose friends Brazil reacted angrily to a media report suggesting that the United States" National Security Agency (NSA) may have spied on Petrobras, the national oil company. The report was based on a document provided by Edward Snowden, a former NSA contractor who is now in Moscow. Brazil's president Dilma Rousseff, who is due to make a state visit to Washington next month, demanded an explanation for the apparent spying. Mexico's government unveiled a fiscal reform, which would raise income and other taxes but, in a sop to opponents, would not extend VAT to food and medicine. The reform is aimed at increasing the tax take by about three percentage points of GDP, lessening the government's dependence on oil revenue. Colombia's president, Juan Manuel Santos, said in a televised national address that a ruling last year by the International Court of Justice granting waters around three of the country's Caribbean islands to Nicaragua was "not applicable." He said that he was ordering Colombia's navy to remain in the disputed waters. Against the odds Sergei Sobyanin was elected to a second term as Moscow's mayor by winning 51% of the vote, and thus avoiding what would have been an embarrassing run-off. His main challenger, Alexei Navalny, got 27%, an unexpectedly strong showing for an anti-corruption blogger who was given less media coverage than Vladimir Putin's man and is facing jail in a trumped-up criminal case. A parliamentary election in Norway saw a marked shift to the centre-right. The incumbent Labour Party, headed by Jens Stoltenberg, the prime minister, won the most seats, but a surge of support for the Conservative Party will allow its leader, Erna Solberg, to head a coalition government in partnership with the right-wing Progress Party, which lost a handful of seats. Hundreds of thousands of people in Catalonia formed a human chain across the region in support of independence from Spain. The Catalan government plans to hold a referendum next year, though its president, Artur Mas, has suggested he would be willing to postpone the date to 2016 if Madrid gives its consent to the poll. But the central government says it will ask the constitutional court to block any ballot seeking independence.