Cambodia's UN-backed war crimes tribunal is to issue a verdict in the trial of the former Khmer Rouge prison chief Duch - the first from the court.

Israel and the United States have signed an agreement to make the Arrow II ballistic shield capable of shooting down missiles at a higher altitude, the Israeli Defense Ministry said on Sunday.

Suspected al Qaeda gunmen killed six Yemeni soldiers in an eastern oil region on July 25, in the fourth assault since June on state targets blamed on the militant group's resurgent regional arm.

Top officials in Mexico said on July 25 that authorities at a prison released and armed several inmates to attack a group of people during a birthday celebration last week, in a killing spree that left 17 dead.

Amid heightened tensions with the DPRK, the United States and South Korea began joint military exercises on July 25.  

A stampede killed 18 people after mass panic broke out in a tunnel at a "Love Parade" techno music festival in Germany on July 24.

Ships involved in the effort to secure BP's blown-out oil well are preparing to resume work after a tropical storm in the Gulf of Mexico weakened.

Missiles fired by a US drone aircraft have killed at least 16 militants in north-west Pakistan on July 24, officials say.

A candidate for Afghanistan's September parliamentary elections was killed and 20 others wounded by a bomb planted in a mosque in Khost, officials said on July 24.

A convoy of US-Cuba friendship caravans run by Pastors for Peace arrived in capital Havana on July 23, bringing material aid to Cuban people.