1 Subway dig: Archaeologists say excavations for a Mexico City subway extension have turned up what appears to be an unusual Aztec offering. Excavators found a dog's skull with holes that indicate it was displayed on a ritual skull rack normally reserved for human sacrifice victims. They also found a woman's skull with similar perforations around the temple. The find dates to between 1350 and 1521, the date of the Spanish conquest. Mexico's National Institute of Anthropology and History says several offerings were uncovered during the construction of the subway line between 2008 and 2012, but the finds were announced Tuesday.
2 Army leaving: Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki said Tuesday that the army will leave cities in the western province of Anbar, after security forces stormed a Sunni protest camp in the provincial capital Ramadi. Al-Maliki called on "the armed forces to devote themselves to continue operations pursuing al Qaeda hideouts in the desert of Anbar." He said the military would "turn over the administration of the cities to the local and federal police," according to his office.
3 Euro addition: Latvia celebrated the new year as the 18th member of the eurozone, which for all its dents and bruises still represents stability and security to the Baltic country's leaders. The euro became Latvia's official currency after midnight Tuesday as New Year's rockets exploded in the skies over the capital, Riga. After joining NATO and the European Union in 2004, entering the eurozone was seen as a natural step for Latvia's political leadership, deepening the Western integration they have sought since Latvia and its Baltic neighbors, Estonia and Lithuania, broke away from the Soviet Union in the early 1990s.
4 Rising death toll: More than two weeks of aerial bombings by Syrian government forces in the northern city Aleppo and the surrounding area have killed more than 500 people, and the death toll for the entire conflict in the country has surpassed 130,000, a rights group that opposes President Bashar Assad said Tuesday. The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, based in Britain, maintains a network of contacts in Syria that has documented atrocities by combatants from both sides. It said the Aleppo assaults included a direct missile hit on a bus in a rebel-held area of Aleppo that killed at least 10 people. It was impossible to independently corroborate its reporting.
5 Airport siege: Thousands of angry people flooded the runway of the international airport in the chaotic capital of Central African Republic, shouting slogans against the nation's Muslim president, who grabbed power in a coup nine months ago. French forces deployed at the airport were unable to stop them, and international flights appeared to have been suspended. The Central African Republic has been in a state of near-anarchy since an attack on the capital, Bangui, earlier this month by a Christian militia aiming to overthrow Michel Djotodia, the Muslim coup leader. The number of displaced people in Bangui has increased 70 percent in the past two weeks, from 214,000 to 370,000, according to the U.N. Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs. Between 70,000 and 100,000 people have sought refuge at the airport, the agency said Tuesday.