Just when Kosovo appeared to be heading for a degree of stability and normalcy, feuding politicians and fresh corruption scandals have plunged the fledgling Balkan nation into its worst political crisis to date.

A quirk in the young nation's constitution has left Kosovo in a seemingly unfixable political deadlock that could yet force fresh elections only five months after the last vote.

The United States on Monday condemned the killing of the head of a Yemeni liberal political party and called for a full investigation.

Secretary general of the Union of Popular Forces party Mohammed Abdulmalik al-Mutawakil was shot dead on Sunday by a gunman on a motorbike on a street in central Sanaa.

The U.S. Navy has cancelled visits to the Philippine port of Subic amid public anger over accusations that a U.S. Marine killed a Filipino on the city's outskirts, officials said Monday.

Foreign Department spokesman Charles Jose said the visits of three U.S. ships to Subic this month had been cancelled, while the head of the Subic freeport said nine such visits scheduled for this year had been called off.

With global attention focused on the fight against jihadists, Syria's regime has in recent weeks stepped up its use of deadly barrel bomb strikes, killing civilians and wreaking devastation.

In less than a fortnight, warplanes have dropped at least 401 barrel bombs on rebel areas in eight provinces, according to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a monitoring group.

The U.S. State Department called on the military in Burkina Faso to hand over power to civilian authorities amid a power vacuum left by the ouster of president Blaise Compaore.

"We call on the military to immediately transfer power to civilian authorities," State Department spokeswoman Jen Psaki said in a statement Saturday, adding that "the United States condemns the Burkinabe military's attempt to impose its will on the people of Burkina Faso."

Suspected al-Qaida militants killed 13 Yemeni troops and captured 15 others in an attack in the Red Sea port city of Hudeida, security and tribal sources said Sunday.

The overnight attack targeted security headquarters in Hudeida, which Shiite Huthi rebels seized in mid-October as they expanded across several towns and cities with almost no resistance from government forces.

At 70 years old, Taiwan's World War II-era "Hai Pao" submarine would not be out of place in a museum, but the antique vessel is still part of the navy -- a sign of the island's ongoing struggle to strengthen its fleet.

The sub's interior gleams with highly polished copper and is the pride of its crew.

The Islamic State organisation is starting to attract the attention of radicals in Pakistan and Afghanistan, long a cradle for Islamist militancy, unnerving authorities who fear a potential violent contagion.

Far from the militants' self-proclaimed "caliphate" in Iraq and Syria, the name of IS has cropped up several times in jihadi circles in recent weeks in Pakistan and Afghanistan, the historic homeland of the Taliban and al-Qaida.

The months-long, $4 billion U.S. midterm election battle comes to a head with Tuesday's vote, and President Barack Obama's bloodied Democrats face an uphill struggle to hold their ground in Congress.

Republicans have the momentum and are ideally positioned to snatch a Senate majority that would put Obama's rivals in charge of both chambers of Congress during his last two years in the White House.

Israel's defense minister is dropping the purchase of U.S. V-22 Osprey aircraft, raising concerns that this could further chill already frosty relations with Washington, Israel Hayom daily said Thursday.

The mass-circulation freesheet, considered close to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, said Moshe Yaalon's decision went against the Israeli military's wishes.