Aung San Suu Kyi was set to turn her attention to Burma’s long-standing refugee crisis with a visit to a sprawling camp on Thailand’s border, where she will get her first glimpse of the hardships faced by some of the hundreds of thousands of civilians who have fled war in her homeland.

The six-day journey abroad this week is Ms Suu Kyi’s first in 24 years, and she has used it primarily to draw attention to the plight of her compatriots abroad.

The trip marks a dramatic vote of confidence in Burma’s reform-minded government, whose rule contrasts starkly with that of the former military junta, which the opposition leader and long-time political prisoner always feared would never have let her return had she left.

Student demonstration

Police fired tear gas at several hundred students and unemployed youths in Nigeria’s largest city as they protested over a presidential decision to rename one of the nation’s top universities.

The demonstration began peacefully outside the gates of the University of Lagos as students surrounded an armoured police truck and placed palm fronds on it – a symbol of protest in Africa’s most populous nation.

Many had begun to return to campus when an altercation broke out between some protesters and police. Officers responded by firing tear gas, sending screaming students running back inside the university’s gate. Some students began throwing stones and glass bottles at the officers. A senior police officer threw stones back at the students in between firing tear gas canisters.

Corruption crackdown

Honduran President Porfirio Lobo has said a newly installed five-member commission will be responsible for purging the judicial system and national police of corrupt officials.

Mr Lobo said both institutions have been corrupted by drug traffickers. He said the commission will help address Honduras’ “many security challenges”.

The country of seven million people had the world’s highest homicide rate in 2010.

Its 6,200 killings came to 82.1 homicides for every 100,000 inhabitants

Drug trafficking has spiked in recent years in remote, lightly patrolled regions where planeloads of cocaine from South America land on clandestine airstrips.

Marathon man’s quest

Hungarian Norman Varga has begun a quest to run the length of 50 marathons in 50 days and arrive in London in time for the opening ceremonies of the Olympic Games.

Varga is a 25-year-old former cage-fighter who had his left arm reattached after being pushed under a tram at the age of 16. He will cover some 2,000km from Budapest to London to draw attention to the importance of supporting young people.

Varga runs a foundation in his native Budapest district of Csepel dedicated to helping young people develop a healthy lifestyle and support their goals in education, science and art. His journey will take him to Slovakia, Austria, Germany, France, Luxembourg, Belgium and the Netherlands before reaching London on July 27.

Villagers forced to evacuate

More than 800 villagers have been evacuated after land sank in southern China’s Guangxi province, which is known for its karst topography.

The land subsidence occurred near a middle school in Nanning city’s Xixiangtang district after the school dug a well to ease a water shortage.

The official Xinhua News Agency said the sink hole caused one building to collapse, six to tilt and another to crack.