1. Russia said it would hold a military exercise that will include practice for the use of tactical nuclear weapons.

2. Israel told Palestinians to evacuate parts of Rafah in what appeared to be preparation for a long-threatened assault on Hamas holdouts in the southern Gaza Strip city.

3. Chinese President Xi Jinping is on a trip to Europe that risks laying bare the region's divisions over trade.

4. Panama's former security minister Jose Raul Mulino stormed to victory in a presidential poll dominated by his old boss, the popular ex-leader Ricardo Martinelli.

5. The US Navy's efforts to build a fleet of unmanned vessels are faltering because the Pentagon remains wedded to big shipbuilding projects.