The death of a suspect after apparently being raped with a bottle in custody has cast shame on Russia's police, the interior minister said Thursday, as calls mounted for top officials to resign.

Activists have called for the entire Russian interior ministry leadership to quit over the horrific death of 52-year-old Sergei Nazarov after he was arrested in the city of Kazan in the mainly Muslim Volga region of Tatarstan.

U.S. Vice President Joe Biden, throwing punches as a warrior for the middle class, plunged into the 2012 election race Thursday, hailing President Barack Obama as a man with "steel in his spine."

With Republicans still haggling over their candidate for November's vote, Biden launched a new phase of the Democrats' campaign for Obama, with a fiery speech in the swing state of Ohio, which often decides U.S. elections.

Ethiopia attacked an Eritrean military base on Thursday over the killing five European tourists on its territory earlier this year, accusing its neighbor of training "hit-and-run terrorists".

Government spokesman Shimeles Kemal also threatened further attacks against its neighbor so long as it posed a threat to its security and warned Eritrea against any retaliation.

The International Criminal Court's chief prosecutor said Thursday he would seek "close to the maximum sentence" for Congolese warlord Thomas Lubanga, convicted of using child soldiers.

Luis Moreno-Ocampo also vowed to ratchet up pressure for the arrest of Lubanga's co-accused, fugitive warlord Bosco Ntaganda, who according to rights groups is currently in the eastern Democratic Republic of Congo.

The Taliban said Thursday it had suspended contacts with the United States in Qatar, just days after an American shooting spree left 16 Afghans dead, dealing a blow to hopes of a peace process.

"It was due to their alternating and ever-changing position that the Islamic Emirate was compelled to suspend all dialogue with the Americans," a statement posted on the Taliban website said, making no mention of Sunday's murders.

Afghanistan wants to take over control of the nation's security in 2013 not 2014 and for U.S. troops to pull out of villages, President Hamid Karzai said Thursday, just days after a U.S. soldier massacred 16 villagers.

Karzai told visiting U.S. defense chief Leon Panetta that "Afghanistan is ready to take overall security responsibility", a statement from his office said.

Police arrested Thursday a Moroccan man suspected of having links to al-Qaida and planning terrorist attacks on targets including a synagogue in Milan, Italy's counter-terrorism unit said.

"A 20-year-old Moroccan man was arrested at dawn, after investigators discovered messages he had posted on websites talking about a possible attack on sensitive targets," said the unit's head in Cagliari, Alfonso Polverino.

A Taliban roadside bomb tore through a civilian vehicle in southern Afghanistan on Thursday, killing nine children and four women, police said.

The bombing in the troubled province's Dihrawud district comes a day after a similar incident killed eight civilians in the neighboring province of Helmand and while U.S. Defense Secretary Leon Panetta was holding talks in Kabul.

An Afghan died Thursday after trying to ram a truck at U.S. Marines waiting to greet the Pentagon chief in an unprecedented security breach overshadowing what was billed as a fence-mending visit.

The still puzzling incident, which American officials took 10 hours to confirm, took place as Leon Panetta flew into the high security Camp Bastion base in southern Afghanistan on Wednesday ahead of talks with Afghan leaders.

A Swiss couple held captive by the Pakistani Taliban for over eight months were on Thursday recovered safely, claiming they escaped their captors in the lawless tribal belt, the army said.

Olivier David Och, 31, and Daniela Widmer, 28, were abducted at gunpoint on July 1 in the southwestern province of Baluchistan, apparently on holiday.