At least 31 people have been killed and more than 200 wounded in Tripoli after militiamen opened fire on protesters who had marched to the headquarters of a militia to demand that it leave the Libyan capital.

The militias are holdovers from the 2011 uprising that ousted dictator Moammar Gadhafi and are a powerful force in the increasingly lawless North African country.

The protesters marched to the Gharghour neighborhood, home to the headquarters of a militia originally from the city of Misrata that has a powerful presence in Tripoli.

The news from China today was indeed historic.As announed social reforms and include:relaxation of the government "one-child" policy for families.And it will abolish the country's "re-education through labor" camps, which police have used for years to imprison hundreds of thousands of people without trial.

China says development of a "mixed ownership" economy is a key part of sweeping financial and social reforms announced Friday.

Details of 60 reform proposals endorsed this week by Communist Party leaders show private investment will soon be allowed in projects that have been dominated by state-owned forms. A summary of decisions by members of the party's central committee includes a call for market-oriented reforms, to be achieved, in part, by breaking up monopolies and introducing competition.

The Philippine government is defending its efforts to deliver assistance to victims of Typhoon Haiyan, many of whom have received little or no assistance since the deadly storm struck a week ago.

Interior Secretary Mar Roxas says that in a situation like this, speed is of the utmost importance.

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The Nigerian military says soldiers have killed nine members of the Islamist militant group Boko Haram during a shootout in the country's northeast.

Officials say the fighting took place Thursday about 85 kilometers south of Maiduguri, the center of the Boko Haram insurgency, which is blamed for thousands of deaths over the past four years.

An army spokesman says one soldier was also injured in the violence.

Albanian Prime Minister Edi Rama has rejected a U.S. request that Albania host the destruction of Syria's chemical weapons stockpile.

In a speech Friday, Mr. Rama said it is "impossible" for the Balkan nation to take part in the operation. He said no other countries have stepped forward to house a facility that will dismantle the weapons.

U.S. President Barack Obama is meeting with health insurance executives Friday, his latest effort aimed at rescuing the balky start-up of his signature health care reforms.

The White House has been faced with a barrage of complaints that millions of people are losing their insurance on New Year's Day because of the new law, popularly known as Obamacare, even though Mr. Obama promised voters they could keep their policies if they wanted to.

Mr. Obama, in an unusual admission, took full blame for the slow roll-out of the reforms.

The U.S. has destroyed six tons of ivory it had seized, crushing the tusks of elephants in an effort to combat the world trade in the contraband.

The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service had collected the tusks - some with intricate carvings on them - over the last 25 years. But on Thursday, workers pulverized the stash in an industrial rock crusher in Colorado in an attempt to curtail elephant poaching and cut the market for the tusks.

Experts say there is a $10 billion annual illegal business in animal trafficking, and the tusks that were destroyed represented 2,000 dead elephants.