Gunmen killed 10 people including a Canadian tourist and police officers on Sunday in southern Jordan, before security forces killed four attackers in a siege lasting several hours.

Some 350 people were able to leave a rebel-held pocket of east Aleppo on Sunday, a medical official said, despite the official postponement of evacuations of civilians and fighters from the devastated Syrian city.

Polish President Andrzej Duda launched mediation talks Sunday to try to diffuse the nation's seething political crisis, as protesters staged a third day of mass anti-government demonstrations.

Venezuelans lined up Thursday to deposit 100-unit banknotes before they turned worthless, but replacement bills had yet to arrive, increasing the cash chaos in the country with the world's highest inflation.

The UN Security Council on Thursday decided to extend for one day the mandate of the peacekeeping mission in South Sudan to allow more time for negotiations on a new measure to bolster its mandate.

Greek lawmakers on Thursday approved a pension handout that has set the country on a collision course with hardline European creditors who accuse the struggling eurozone member of defiance.

 Russia's federal security service said Thursday it had thwarted a series of attacks by Islamic State militants in Moscow and the southern city of Samara, detaining six people.

 South Korea today issued its top bird flu alert for the first time, giving officials extra powers to contain an outbreak that has already triggered the slaughter of more than 10 per cent of national poultry stocks.

France's parliament voted early Wesday to extend a national state of emergency until July 15, after next year's elections.