North Korean leader Kim Jong-Un on Wednesday led tens of thousands of military and party officials in a ceremony to mark the end of three years of mourning for former supremo Kim Jong-Il.

Clad in a black winter coat and a black fur hat, the young leader stood stony-faced as he listened to speeches idolising his late father, who ruled the secretive communist nation for 17 years before his death in 2011.

Accused Boston Marathon bomber Dzhokhar Tsarnaev is due to make his first public appearance in 17 months when he steps into court Thursday for final preparations for his January trial.

Held in Fort Devens prison hospital around 70 kilometers (44 miles) from the federal court in Boston where he will face trial, 21-year-old Tsarnaev, has not been seen in public since he pleaded not guilty in July 2013.

An Iraq War veteran suspected of killing his ex-wife and five of her relatives was found dead of self-inflicted knife wounds Tuesday in the woods, ending a day-and-a-half manhunt that closed suburban Philadelphia schools and left people on edge.

Bradley William Stone's body was discovered a half-mile from his Pennsburg home, about 30 miles (48 kilometers)northwest of Philadelphia. He had cuts in the center of his body, District Attorney Risa Vetri Ferman said.

U.S. President Barack Obama will sign into law a bill passed by Congress to tighten sanctions against Russia over its actions in Ukraine, the White House said Tuesday, amid a dramatic run on the ruble.

Israel and the United States on Tuesday tested Tel Aviv's Arrow 3 ballistic missile interception system, the defense ministry said, with local media reporting the trial was cut short.

Jeb Bush, son to one former U.S. president and brother to another, threw his hat into the ring for the 2016 race Tuesday, announcing he had consulted his family and decided to explore a bid.

Washington has reportedly warned the Lebanese army against cooperating with Hizbullah in its war against terrorism and takfiris, hinting that any cooperation could impact the U.S. aid to the military.

According to a report published in al-Akhbar newspaper on Tuesday, U.S. Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense for Middle East Policy Matthew Spence, who visited Beirut last week, warned in his meetings with Lebanese officials, in particular with Army Commander General Jean Qahwaji, of cooperating with Hizbullah as an partner in the war against terror.

North Korea has accused the U.S. of trying to topple the hermit state by targeting it with allegations of human rights abuses, and threatened to hit back with the "toughest-ever counteraction". 

The comments in state media Monday came as the U.N. Security Council is due to meet next week to discuss North Korea's rights record, amid calls for Pyongyang to be referred to the international court for crimes against humanity.

About half of Americans believe that the CIA was justified in its harsh interrogation methods of "war on terror" detainees, a poll found Monday, days after a damning U.S. report revealed harrowing details of torture.

The U.S. Senate report released last week said the Central Intelligence Agency's interrogation of al-Qaida suspects, including beatings, rectal rehydration and sleep deprivation, was far more brutal than acknowledged and did not produce useful intelligence.

A record 15,000 people marched Monday in eastern Germany against "asylum cheats" and the country's "Islamization" in the latest show of strength of a growing far-right populist movement.

Chancellor Angela Merkel earlier cautioned Germans against falling prey to xenophobic "rabble-rousing", reacting to the nascent movement called "Patriotic Europeans Against the Islamization of the Occident" or PEGIDA.