Concerned residents abandoned their homes and fled as wildfires closed in on hundreds of suburban properties in Australia's northeast.
Iran headed into new talks with world powers on its nuclear programme vowing to step up uranium enrichment.
Three of the five members of the Norwegian Nobel Committee had objections to the Peace Prize being awarded to US President Barack Obama.
Brazilian officials say security won't be a problem for the 2016 Olympics despite drug-gang violence that plunged Rio de Janeiro into a day of chaos.
Teams of gunmen attacked three security sites today in the eastern Pakistani city of Lahore while a suicide bomber hit a northwestern town.
Militants fired on helicopter gunships and attacked Pakistani troops as the army pressed ahead with its offensive against al-Qaida and the Taliban.
Hezbollah has turned Lebanon into a powderkeg, Israel's president says, as the foreign ministry complained to the UN over the explosion of a rocket.
A cricketer from the Indian portion of Kashmir has been arrested on suspicion of carrying explosives in his bag.
"No explosives were found in his bag. But explosives might have been brought in that bag or might have been transferred elsewhere. There may be some residue in the bag."
Japan's Prime Minister Yukio Hatoyama on Tuesday voiced regret over the latest missile launches by North Korea, the isolated communist regime with which it has long had tense relations.
"I've heard of the reports. If it is true, I think it's very regrettable," Hatoyama told reporters in front of his house early Tuesday without making further comments.
A suicide car bomb tore through a police building in Pakistan, killing 11 people and exacerbating public anger over security breaches.
The World Health Organization hopes to begin shipping 60 million doses of swine flu vaccine to poor countries in November.
