Spain's government is fighting off a two-pronged assault from new protest parties after it collapsed in a key regional election ahead of this year's national polls.

The vote in the poor southern Andalusia region was a key test for surging left-wing party Podemos, which hopes to emulate its Greek ally Syriza and win power nationally by campaigning against crisis austerity measures.

U.S. President Barack Obama on Monday called on Nigerians to reject violence in this weekend's general election, describing the vote as a "historic opportunity" for progress in Africa's most populous country.

"I call on all Nigerians to peacefully express your views and to reject the voices of those who call for violence," Obama said in a video message addressed "to the Nigerian people."

Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe will embark on a week-long U.S. tour next month as the two former enemies prepare to mark the 70th anniversary of the end of World War II.

In addition to talks in Washington, Abe will tour Boston, San Francisco and Los Angeles during the April 26-May 3 trip, Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshihide Suga said Monday.

President Barack Obama will host Iraq's Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi next month, the White House announced on Monday.

Officials said the meeting would take place on April 14.

At least 12 people were killed and 30 wounded on Monday in rebel fire on government-held districts of Syria's second city Aleppo, state television said.

In a breaking news alert, the channel said children were among the casualties in "terrorist shelling of the city."

An Afghan woman who was beaten to death and set on fire by a mob for allegedly burning a copy of the Koran was "innocent", the interior minister said Monday.

The woman named Farkhunda was lynched on Thursday by an angry crowd in central Kabul for allegedly burning a copy of the Islamic holy book.

Israel's representative was conspicuously absent from a U.N. Human Rights Council special session Monday on the situation in the Palestinian territories and the 2014 Gaza conflict.

Israel provided no immediate explanation for not being present at the session dedicated overwhelmingly to discussion of its policies and alleged abuses, but a source close to the council said its absence clearly amounted to a boycott.

The first names for a new Libyan unity government could emerge this week after progress in U.N.-mediated talks between its warring parties, U.N. special envoy Bernardino Leon said Monday.

Leon was in Brussels for a conference of Libyan mayors after visiting Morocco, where he has been working with representatives of Libya's rival parliaments to reach a deal to end months of fighting.

Head of the Mustaqbal bloc MP Fouad Saniora started on Monday giving his testimony at the Special Tribunal for Lebanon, focusing on the ties between former Premier Rafik Hariri and the Syrian regime during the 1990s and early 2000s, as well as the influence the Syrian security apparatus wielded on Lebanon.

He said before the trial chamber at The Hague: “The Syrian regime sought to extend the term of then President Emile Lahoud, promising us that a 'new Lahoud' would emerge in the aftermath of the constitutional amendment.”

Tunisia's prime minister fired police chiefs in the capital Monday as the country looks to restore faith in its tourism industry after last week's jihadist attack that killed 20 foreigners.

Prime Minister Habib Essid sacked the heads of police for Tunis and the area around the National Bardo Museum, site of the assault claimed by the Islamic State group, after finding "several deficiencies" in security.