UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon urged the world community on Tuesday to act on the situation in Syria.

A record 4 million people in Somalia need humanitarian aid and 750,000 people are in danger of "imminent starvation," the United Nations said on September 5.

Group of Seven financial leaders, worried about risks to global growth, are likely to agree this week to keep monetary policy accommodative, slow fiscal consolidation in countries where that is possible and implement structural reforms, a G7 source said.

The Pakistani intelligence service has arrested a senior al Qaeda leader who sought to attack targets in the United States, Europe and Australia, the Pakistani military said on September 5.

Allegations that MI6 was involved in the rendition of Libyan terror suspects will be examined by an existing inquiry, David Cameron has said.

Fighters pushed to the outskirts of one of Moammar Gadhafi's last bastions of support on September 4, setting the stage for possible clashes ahead of this week's deadline for loyalists of the ousted leader to surrender.

The trial of former Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak and his sons is set to resume in the capital Cairo.

The Philippines' largest Muslim rebel group is not ready to return to peace talks with the government next week after disagreements over proposals to end 40 years of conflict, the leader of the separatist group said on September 4.  

Hundreds of thousands of anti- government protesters marched on September 4 in Yemen's capital Sanaa to press President Ali Abdullah Saleh to resign.

At least 19 people have been killed and more than 50 are missing after powerful Typhoon Talas ripped through western Japan, local media reports.