Turkish police have stormed the offices of a leading opposition paper linked to President Recep Tayyip Erdogan's arch foe, in the latest crackdown on government rivals.

As riot police armed with water cannon massed outside, officers and lawyers searched the Istanbul offices of the Zaman newspaper late Wednesday, the paper said.

Zanzibar has formally annulled October's elections meaning a rerun appears more likely, despite continued negotiations to strike a political deal on Tanzania's semi-autonomous islands.

Despite fierce opposition criticism, the government gazette on Wednesday formalized the nullification of the October 25 polls, canceled after the Zanzibar Electoral Commission (ZEC) cited "violations of electoral law".

South Korea's Supreme Court on Thursday upheld a murder conviction and life sentence for the captain in the Sewol ferry disaster, saying he had effectively drowned more than 300 passengers to save himself.

The Sewol was carrying 476 people when it went down off the southwest island of Jindo on April 16, last year. Of the 304 who died, 250 were pupils from the same high school.

Australian Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull hailed a "great future" for relations between his country and Indonesia during his first trip to the key ally since taking power, seeking to turn the page after a series of crises.

Ties between the neighbors sank to their lowest level in years under his conservative predecessor Tony Abbott, over rows about Jakarta's execution of Australian drug smugglers, Canberra's hardline policy of turning migrant boats back to Indonesia and espionage allegations.

Myanmar's military establishment pledged Thursday to ensure a smooth transition of power as Aung San Suu Kyi's pro-democracy party stood on the verge of a crushing election win.

The country has been dominated by the military for half a century through direct junta rule and -- since 2011 -- by a quasi-civilian government run by its allies.

A two-day riot at an Australian immigration center, in which detainees set fires and reportedly armed themselves with makeshift weapons including a chainsaw, caused Aus$10 million (U.S.$7 million) in damage, the government said Thursday.

The unrest began late Sunday at the facility on Christmas Island, a remote Indian Ocean territory which houses both non-citizens convicted of crimes awaiting deportation and asylum-seekers.

The Vatican said Wednesday it has launched a probe into two Italian journalists over confidential documents that were leaked to the media revealing gross financial mismanagement at the heart of the secretive city-state.

Journalists Gianluigi Nuzzi and Emiliano Fittipaldi are being investigated for possible complicity "in the offense of divulging confidential news and documents", Vatican spokesman Federico Lombardi said.

Turkish police arrested a Frenchman suspected of being an Islamic State fighter on Wednesday after he had a hair transplant procedure at a beauty salon, local media reported. 

The Dogan news agency quoted police sources saying the man, identified as Mehdibend Said, was under surveillance after entering the country from Syria, where he was plotting a terrorist attack on Turkish soil.

The United Nations voiced alarm on Wednesday over moves by European countries to cut development aid in a bid to free up funds to support the large influx of refugees.

Finland, Norway and Sweden -- traditionally generous aid donors -- are all preparing major cuts in aid to poor countries in budgets now before their parliaments, while Denmark has approved a major decrease in foreign aid.

Thousands of people aligned with the political opposition demonstrated in the Haitian capital on Wednesday against President Michel Martelly, accusing him of orchestrating an "electoral coup d'etat."

The protest comes after seven presidential candidates called Monday for an independent investigation of initial vote results that determined Jovenel Moise, backed by Martelly, drew 32 percent of the ballots on October 25.