North Korea responded to new UN sanctions on Friday with fresh threats of nuclear war, the scrapping of peace pacts with South Korea and the severing of a hotline with Seoul.

Venezuelan Vice President Nicolas Maduro will be officially sworn in as interim president after Hugo Chavez's state funeral Friday and he will then call for elections, the national assembly speaker said.

A senior army psychologist responsible for the mental health of Australia's deployed soldiers has accused the defence force of being more focused on covering up abuse cases than helping victims.

Late Venezuelan president Hugo Chavez will be moved to a barracks where he will lie in state for longer than had been planned then be embalmed "like Lenin," interim leader Nicolas Maduro said Thursday.

The UN pressed on with negotiations on Thursday to secure the release of 21 peacekeepers abducted in Syria as regime warplanes pounded the northern city of Raqa after it fell into rebel hands.

The UN Security Council on Thursday slammed tough new sanctions on North Korea amid escalating tensions as the isolated regime threatened a pre-emptive nuclear strike against the United States.

Israeli, Greek and US warships began a joint two-week Mediterranean naval exercise codenamed "Noble Dina" on Thursday, the Israeli military said.

A top US lawmaker warned North Korea Thursday that any pre-emptive nuclear strike against America would be suicide, as senators pushed for a review of policy towards the isolated state.

The UN Security Council slammed a new round of sanctions against North Korea on Thursday, amid escalating tension as it threatened a pre-emptive nuclear strike against the United States.

Israeli plans to grant final approval for a military academy in annexed east Jerusalem have been delayed to avoid tensions ahead of US President Barack Obama's visit, army radio said on Thursday.

North Korea threatened a "pre-emptive" nuclear strike against the United States and any other aggressors Thursday as the UN Security Council prepared to adopt tough sanctions against the isolated state.

The United States and China will on Thursday seek to tighten the UN sanctions screws on North Korea after its widely condemned nuclear bomb test last month.

Nigerian troops have recovered a cache of arms and explosives in a house near a military base in the restive northern city of Kaduna and arrested nine people, an army commander said Wednesday.

One million Syrians have fled their homeland since a revolt erupted two years ago, the UN said on Wednesday, as monitors said regime warplanes struck rebel enclaves in flashpoints across the country.

The UN Security Council will add two top North Korean arms dealers to a sanctions list following the country's nuclear test last month, according to a copy of a US-China draft resolution obtained by AFP on Wednesday.

The UN atomic agency's board of governors on Wednesday approved giving Japanese director general Yukiya Amano a new four-year term without even resorting to a vote.

The UN Security Council on Wednesday eased the arms embargo on Somalia, agreeing on a one year partial lifting of the oldest international weapons blockade to help the new government.

Venezuelans began Wednesday to bid farewell to late President Hugo Chavez, whose body was to lie in state for three days to honor the firebrand leftist who ruled the oil-rich nation for 14 years.

After nine fruitless meetings with Iran over its alleged nuclear weapons research, the UN atomic agency may have to change approach, the US envoy to the IAEA said on Wednesday.

One million Syrians have fled their homeland since a revolt erupted two years ago, the UN said on Wednesday, as fighting between rebels and loyalists raged across central and northern battlefields.