India's army chief said on Friday he opposed ending tough emergency laws in insurgency-hit areas of Kashmir and the northeast that offer security forces near complete legal immunity.

An Irish property developer who claimed he was kidnapped for eight months has been arrested on suspicion of wasting police time, Irish media reported on Friday.

North Korea on Friday accused the United States and South Korea of carrying out a "persistent and intensive" cyber attack against its official websites in recent days.

Counter-terrorism police in Indonesia shot dead three suspected militants and seized 14 homemade explosives Friday, officials said, in the latest of a series of deadly raids by the elite unit.

India's airports have been put on alert to prevent Italy's ambassador leaving the country amid a dispute over two Italian marines who skipped bail while on trial in Delhi, a home ministry source said Friday.

Australia's largest casino has alerted police to a betting scam in which a high-roller reportedly netted Aus$32 million (US$33 million) in an "Ocean's Eleven" style heist.

Police said on Friday they had shut down one of the largest child sex exploitation rings seen in Australia which was dealing in "abhorrent and disgusting" images.

Japan moved one step closer to adopting a long-delayed treaty on child abductions on Friday when the cabinet of Prime Minister Shinzo Abe gave its approval, a government spokesman said.

US federal authorities charged a former Web producer, now working with Reuters, with conspiring with the hacktivist group Anonymous to break into and alter an online Los Angeles Times article.

Pope Francis must redouble efforts to excise the "cancer" of sex abuse, a US victim said Thursday after winning a $1 million payout -- and urged the new pontiff to defrock the cardinal involved.

A media online producer has been indicted on charges of conspiring with the hacktivist group Anonymous to break into the website of the station's parent the Tribune Co., officials said Thursday.

The mother of a teenager fatally shot by police in New York demanded Thursday that the officers be arrested for the incident that has sparked rowdy protests in the boy's neighborhood.

A two-year-old Israeli girl was seriously injured on Thursday after she, her two sisters and their mother were in a West Bank car crash police said was apparently caused by stone-throwing Palestinians.

The Catholic Church has an opportunity to begin to excise the "cancer" of sex abuse under its new pope, a US victim who just won a $1 million settlement and his lawyer said Thursday.

Italian financial police said Thursday that they have sequestered assets worth 46 million euros ($60 million) owned by executives at luxury group Bulgari accused of tax evasion.

Pakistani police on Thursday shot dead a militant commander suspected over the killing of a prominent woman development worker a day earlier, a spokesman said.

Dozens of people were arrested as protesters and police clashed at a vigil over the recent fatal police shooting of a New York City teenager, authorities said Thursday.

Italian financial police said Thursday that they have sequestered assets worth 46 million euros ($60 million) owned by executives at luxury group Bulgari accused of tax evasion.

Hateful graffiti messages against Shiite Muslims are scrawled along main roads. The striped flags of a banned militant faction accused of hundreds of murders flutter from homes.

India's cabinet Thursday gave the green light to a bill for harsher punishments for rapists, reports said, following a brutal gang-rape in New Delhi that sparked outrage and demands for tougher laws.