India promised Wednesday to push for a "strong" UN resolution urging Sri Lanka to investigate alleged war crimes, a day after the issue caused a split in the ruling coalition.

Taiwan has set up a unit to create a comprehensive Internet shield against hackers, its intelligence chief said Wednesday, in response to what it claims is a growing cyber threat from China.

The former deputy editor of The Sun is being charged with authorising payments to public officials in return for information, prosecutors said on Wednesday.

Human Rights Watch on Wednesday called on Tunisia to "urgently" repeal its criminal defamation law, which can lead to two years in jail and which it said has a "chilling effect" on freedom of speech.

The South Korean military raised its cyber attack warning level Wednesday after computer networks crashed at major TV broadcasters and banks, with initial suspicions focused on North Korea.

A proposed ban on assault weapons like the one used in an elementary school massacre last year has been removed from a broader gun control package, with Democrats conceding it would not get through Congress.

The South Korean military sounded a possible high-level cyber attack alert Wednesday after computer networks crashed at major broadcasters and banks, with initial suspicions focused on North Korea.

Palestinians want President Barack Obama's milestone visit this week to lead to a more active US approach to resolving the conflict with Israel, before the West Bank is overrun by Jewish settlements and it is too late for a two-state solution.

Indian police said Wednesday that a British tourist who jumped off her hotel balcony to escape a feared sex attack would return home, as two men were set to appear in court over the incident.

Pakistani teenager Malala Yousafzai returned to school for the first time since October when she was shot in the head by the Taliban for campaigning for girls' education.

The Sea Shepherd anti-whaling fleet docked in Australia Wednesday claiming victory over Japan, as Canberra indicated fugitive founder Paul Watson would not face arrest if he came ashore.

China is pouring massive amounts of money and resources into cyberattacks aimed at stealing business secrets, security researchers told a congressional panel.

The German who posed as a Rockefeller family member after allegedly killing a man in California explained the freshly-dug soil in his back yard as plumbing work, a witness said.

A French hostage has been executed in Mali, a man claiming to be a spokesman for Al-Qaeda in North Africa told Mauritania's ANI news agency.

Former Guatemalan dictator Efrain Rios Montt went on trial on genocide charges over the killing of almost 1,800 indigenous people during the dark days of his country's civil war.

FBI director Robert Mueller warned that the sharp budget cuts affecting all US agencies, including the federal police force, threaten crucial counter-terrorist operations.

US lawmakers dropped an effort to include a ban on assault weapons in a broader gun control package Tuesday, conceding the difficulties of passing such legislation through Congress.

Could New York hold the record for most pot possession arrests? A new report out Tuesday said police there spent about a million hours taking offenders into custody between 2002 and 2012.

The number of detainees on hunger strike at Guantanamo military prison has nearly doubled since last week, officials at the detention center confirmed Tuesday.

An AIDS support group announced legal action Tuesday against a US porn film company for allegedly failing to enforce a new Los Angeles law requiring actors to wear condoms while on set.