French and Malian troops have recaptured the Malian towns of Diabaly and Douentza from Islamist fighters, France's defense minister said Monday.

After heavy fighting in Diabaly over the past week there was uncertainty over whether the Islamists had fled, but French and Malian troops met no resistance when they earlier Monday entered the town.

Two packed commuter trains collided head-on in the morning rush-hour in Vienna on Monday, leaving several dozen people injured including five in serious condition, the emergency services said.

In a large rescue operation involving around 25 fire engines as well as helicopter ambulances and a special accident train, many of the injured had to be extracted from the wreckage using special cranes.

Three Chinese government ships were in waters around islands at the center of a dispute with Tokyo on Monday, the day after China issued a rebuke to the US over comments seen as supporting Japan.

Japan's coastguard said the maritime surveillance boats were in waters around a chain of Toskyo-controlled islands known as the Senkakus in Japan, which Beijing calls the Diaoyus.

U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon has called for a "serious effort" to end the conflict raging in northern Myanmar, where ethnic minority Kachin rebels accused the military of breaking its ceasefire.

Prime Minister Thein Sein's reformist government announced on Friday that it was ending a military offensive against the Kachin rebels, but fresh fighting erupted over the weekend.

A U.S. Navy minesweeper that has been stuck on a World Heritage-listed coral reef in the Philippines since last week ignored warnings to avoid the area, a government official said Monday.

The comments from the superintendent of Tubbataha marine park, Angelique Songco, added to growing anger in the Philippines over the incident, for which the U.S. Navy has apologized but may still face fines.

Five men went on trial Monday over the fatal gang-rape of student on a bus in Delhi as the victim's father urged the special fast-track court to deliver swift justice and sentence her attackers to hang.

With the case being held behind closed doors and subject to a gagging order, it was left to one of the prosecutors to announce the start of the case to reporters packed outside the sessions court in New Delhi.

Algeria warned other nations to prepare for a higher body count after a four-day siege of a gas plant by Islamist militants ended in a bloodbath, amid fears as many as 50 hostages may have died.

Prime Minister Abdelmalek Sellal was expected to unveil the final grim tally at a 1330 GMT press conference on Monday.

NATO troops joined a fight against a Taliban suicide squad that stormed a Kabul police headquarters at dawn Monday, killing three police officers and unleashing a stand-off that lasted for more than eight hours.

The Taliban claimed the attack, which turned into the longest stand-off between the insurgents and security forces in Kabul since a major coordinated raid on the capital lasted 18 hours in April last year.

A teenager has been arrested and charged in the murder of five people, including three children, with a military-style assault rifle in the southwestern U.S. state of New Mexico, police said Sunday.

Police said they found the bodies of an adult male and female and two girls and a boy described as "elementary to middle school-aged," dead from multiple gunshot wounds, when they arrived at an Albuquerque home late Saturday.

Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez is "gaining strength" as he finishes post-operative care and enters a "new phase" of cancer treatment, Vice President Nicolas Maduro said Sunday.

Chavez anointed Maduro his political heir before flying to Cuba for a fourth round of cancer surgery on December 11. The longtime Venezuelan leader's condition has been the topic of much debate ever since.