A protester was killed by security forces after hundreds of anti-government demonstrators flooded the streets of Iraq's capital and southern provinces, defying a powerful Iraqi religious leader who recently withdrew his support from the popular movement. Separately, five Katyusha rockets crashed into a riverbank near the U.S. Embassy in Baghdad's heavily fortified Green Zone without causing any injuries or serious damages, a statement from U.S. Joint Operations Command said. One rocket landed inside the embassy walls, an Iraqi security official told AP.

It was the third such attack this month and the perpetrators were not immediately known.

Shiite cleric and political leader Muqtada al-Sadr, who often mobilises his followers on the street to buttress his political influence, was using the anti-U.S. element of the protests as leverage in political negotiations. He also dropped his support for the anti-government element last week, but the street has seemingly defied him.

A powerful magnitude 6.8 earthquake hit Turkey's east, killing at least 38 people. The quake also injured over 1,600 people but at least 45 survivors were pulled alive from the rubble in the 36 hours after the disaster, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan told a news conference. More than 780 aftershocks rocked the region as over 3,500 rescue experts scrambled through wrecked buildings to reach survivors, working around the clock.

Rescue teams concentrated their efforts in the Mustafa Pasa neighborhood of the city of Elazig, and the nearby town of Sivrice. Elazig lies 565 kilometres (350 miles) east of Ankara. It's not the first fatal quake for the city - a magnitude 6.0 earthquake killed 51 people there in 2010. Earthquakes are frequent in Turkey, which sits atop two major fault lines.

Officials from Libya's two rival governments said fighting erupted Sunday as the country's east-based forces advanced toward the strategic western city of Misrata, further eroding a crumbling cease-fire agreement brokered earlier this month. The clashes came just hours after the United Nations decried "continued blatant violations" of an arms embargo on Libya by several unspecified countries. The violations fly in the face of recent pledges to respect the embargo made by world powers at an international conference in Berlin last week.

Libya is divided between rival governments based in its east and west, each supported by various armed militias and foreign backers. The weak but U.N.-recognized government is based in the capital, Tripoli, and led by Prime Minister Fayez Sarraj. It is backed by Turkey, and to a lesser degree Qatar and Italy. Rival forces based in the east and loyal to military commander Khalifa Hifter receive support from the United Arab Emirates and Egypt, as well as France and Russia, are the ones advancing.

There is an even balance in the share of US businesses reporting decreases and increases in employment for the first time in a decade, a survey showed, the latest suggestion that the labour market has likely peaked and job growth could slow this year. The findings of the National Association for Business Economics' (NABE) fourth-quarter business conditions survey followed on the heels of a government report this month showing job openings falling by the most in more than four years in November.

"However, this may have been due to difficulty finding workers rather than a pullback in demand," said NABE Business Conditions Survey Chair Megan Greene. The survey is based on the responses of 97 NABE members on business conditions in their companies or industries. It was conducted between Dec. 23 and Jan 8. and reflects conditions in the fourth quarter and the near-term outlook.