REUTERS/Jason Lee Lei Jun, founder and chief executive officer of China's mobile company Xiaomi, demonstrates the new features of the new Xiaomi Phone 4 at its launching ceremony, in Beijing July 22, 2014. 
1. Hundreds of pro-democracy demonstrators in Hong Kong have vowed to stay at protest sites, despite calls from the student leaders who founded the movement to retreat.
2. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu called for early elections after firing his finance and justice ministers for opposing government policy.
3. President Barack Obama is said to have picked Ashton Carter, the former deputy secretary of defence, to replace outgoing defence secretary Chuck Hagel.
4. Xiaomi, the world's third-biggest smartphone manufacturer, made its first US investment as part of a $40 million funding round for a Silicon Valley wearables startup called Misfit.
5. The Iraq government and the autonomous Kurdish region reached a long-term deal to share the country's oil revenues and military resources.
6. China said on Wednesday that it hoped to keep strengthening relations with Taiwan after the island's pro-China nationalist governing party suffered a stunning electoral defeat.
7. The captain accused of causing the Costa Concordia cruise ship disaster, Francesco Schettino, said in a testimony that he manoeuvred the ship too close to an island to impress passengers with a better view.
8. Japan launched a space probe on a six-year journey to land on an asteroid and then bring samples back to earth.
9. Qatar released the design of their fourth stadium for the 2022 World Cup.
10. Archaeologists in South Carolina think they have uncovered the remnants of an 18th century wharf where some 100,000 African slaves arrived in America at the height of the slave trade.
And finally ...
North Korea has banned its citizens from using the name Kim Jong-Un.