U.N. chief Ban Ki-moon on Monday pledged the world body's solidarity with Japan after its quake, tsunami and nuclear disasters and encouraged radiation evacuees to "hang in there.”

Travelling in the disaster-struck northeast, Ban became one of the most senior foreign leaders to visit the region close to the crippled Fukushima Daiichi atomic power plant, which is still leaking radiation.

Lobsang Sangay, a 43-year-old Harvard scholar, took office Monday as head of the Tibetan government in exile, vowing to free his homeland from Chinese "colonialism.”

After being sworn in at a colorful ceremony in the Indian hill town of Dharamshala, Sangay warned China that the Tibet movement was "here to stay" and would only grow stronger in the waning years of the Dalai Lama.

A suspicious package that forced the evacuation of Rome's historic Colosseum on Sunday was destroyed but contained no explosives, authorities said.

The package, a metallic box wrapped in tape with a protruding wire, was destroyed at 1630 GMT after security forces had 90 minutes earlier evacuated visitors from the famed tourist attraction following a telephone bomb threat.

Pope Benedict XVI called Sunday for a redoubling of efforts to restore peace in conflict-torn Syria and Libya.

In his weekly address to pilgrims, the pontiff asked for the "legitimate aspirations" of the Syrian people to be met, while urging the international community to revive efforts for a Libyan peace plan.

The United States has vowed to "stay the course" in Afghanistan after 30 U.S. soldiers were killed there when, according to local officials, the Taliban shot down their helicopter.

The pledge from U.S. Defense Secretary Leon Panetta -- and a salute from President Barack Obama -- came Saturday, after the US troops, an interpreter and seven Afghan soldiers were killed during an anti-Taliban operation late Friday.

Emergency services worked to restore order to a London district Sunday after rioters torched vehicles and buildings and looted shops there in response to the fatal shooting of a local man by police.

Eight injured police officers, one with a head injury, were receiving hospital treatment following the violence in Tottenham, north London, late on Saturday, which sparked condemnation from Prime Minister David Cameron's office.

Faced with the threat of drought, Niger's president Mahamadou Issoufou took part in a national collective prayer Saturday asking for rain.

Several hundred Muslims joined with the president to recite the Koran and ask for rainfall in a televised ceremony at Niamey's grand mosque led by Sheikh Djabir Ismael, president of the AIN, Niger's largest Islamic association.

A bomb destroyed at least 16 tankers on Saturday carrying fuel for NATO troops in neighboring Afghanistan, Pakistan police said, the latest in a string of attempts to disrupt supplies.

A total of 28 NATO oil tankers were parked at a terminal on the outskirts of Peshawar, the main city in Pakistan's northwest, at the time of the explosion, which triggered a fire that engulfed 16 of the vehicles.

U.S. President Barack Obama on Saturday hailed the "extraordinary sacrifices" made by the 31 U.S. soldiers killed in Afghanistan when, according to local officials, the Taliban shot down their helicopter.

Obama also paid tribute to the seven Afghan soldiers killed during an anti-Taliban operation late Friday when a rocket fired by the insurgents struck their Chinook helicopter in Wardak province, southwest of the capital Kabul.

Newly independent South Sudan swore in its MPs on Saturday, two days ahead of parliament's opening session, with the speaker calling for cooperation regardless of background or political affiliation.

"You are the founders of the first ever parliament of the Republic of South Sudan," James Wani Igga told the National Legislative Assembly.