Australian Prime Minister Julia Gillard on Friday set about rebuilding her Labor party's shattered image after a botched leadership coup dealt a huge blow to its already slim election prospects.

New Zealander George Lowe, the last surviving climber from the expedition led by Sir Edmund Hillary that conquered Everest in 1953, has died aged 89.

Two Italian marines charged with murder in India are on their way back to New Delhi after the government in Rome agreed they should return to face trial, the foreign ministry said on Friday.

Angry mobs took to the streets of a riot-hit Myanmar town for a third day on Friday, as international pressure mounted for an end to communal unrest that has left 10 people reported dead.

North Korea posted a new propaganda video Friday, showing paratroopers descending on Seoul in an invasion scenario that envisages taking around 150,000 US residents in South Korea hostage.

Japan will send Deputy Prime Minister Taro Aso to China next month in what would be the first high-level meeting of the Asian powers' new governments amid diplomatic tensions, a report said on Friday.

Former prime minister Margaret Thatcher faced opposition from within her own government over the Falklands War, with one MP warning her "it'll make Suez look like common sense".

In a fresh blow to South Korea's new president, Park Geun-Hye, her nominee for defence minister stepped down on Friday at a time of elevated military tensions with North Korea.

Cyprus is scrambling to overhaul its banking sector to avoid financial meltdown, after the European Central Bank threatened to pull the plug on emergency funding for the island's lenders.

North Korea posted a new propaganda video on Friday, showing paratroopers descending on Seoul in an invasion scenario that it said would see thousands of US citizens living in South Korea taken hostage.

A suicide bomb attack on a central Damascus mosque has killed 42 people, including Syria's most prominent pro-regime Sunni cleric, wounding dozens of others, the health ministry said.

Former president Nicolas Sarkozy has been charged with taking financial advantage of France's richest woman, allegations connected with a probe into illegal party funding that could shatter his hopes of a political comeback.

Russia's President Vladimir Putin and China's new leader Xi Jinping are to hold landmark talks on Friday in the hope of further cementing the two countries' partnership with a range of economic and strategic agreements.

With a blend of patriotism, adrenaline and testosterone, Americans can gird for what might be the first big thriller flick of the year -- and with North Koreans as the bad guys, to boot.

US lawmakers approved a funding stopgap Thursday that prevents a government shutdown, but their clash over budget blueprints signaled a contentious debate over the future of federal spending.

Nicolas Sarkozy's hopes of a political comeback lay in tatters Friday after the former French president was charged in connection with a criminal probe into illegal party financing.

In a powerful direct appeal to Israelis, President Barack Obama insisted that a two-state peace with the Palestinians could still be forged and is their only hope of true security.

Italy said two marines on trial for murder in India would return to the country by Friday, a stunning turnaround after Rome earlier unleashed a diplomatic furore by saying they would not go back.

Nicolas Sarkozy's hopes of a political comeback lay in tatters Friday after the former French president was charged in connection with a criminal probe into illegal party financing.

A sobering image of John Lennon's bloodstained glasses ricocheted around the Internet on Thursday after his widow Yoko Ono posted them on Twitter in an appeal for tougher US guns laws.