Is he alive or isn't he? Fresh claims have emerged in Nigeria that Boko Haram leader Abubakar Shekau, or at least someone impersonating him, may be dead -- and not for the first time

Rumours have been flying since last Thursday when the military tweeted that "a seriously wounded high ranking terrorist leader" had been captured during clashes in Konduga, Borno state, in the country's strife-torn northeast.

World leaders are gearing up to confront grim life or death challenges this week at the United Nations, seeking ways to halt jihadist militants in Iraq and Syria and stem the spread of Ebola.

More than 140 heads of states and governments are converging on New York for the annual U.N. General Assembly, as crises on many fronts put multilateralism back in fashion.

The Red Cross said Monday that Sudan had ended a ban on its aid operations, imposed by the government in February.

In a statement, the International Committee of the Red Cross said Khartoum had opted to lift the suspension even though discussions on the issue had not yet wrapped up.

A senior separatist from eastern Ukraine said on Monday he believed there was a chance a peace plan for eastern Ukraine could succeed.

"The agreements will be carried out, but with great difficulty," Andrei Purgin, the deputy prime minister of the self-proclaimed Donetsk People's Republic, told Agence France-Presse.

Pakistan-controlled Kashmir's parliament on Monday called upon India to open the de facto border separating the two sides of the disputed territory to allow rescue officials to reach residents hit by devastating floods.

Monsoon-induced flooding has wreaked havoc on both sides of the Himalayan region, which is divided between the two nuclear-armed rivals.

Afghan President-elect Ashraf Ghani congratulated the country Monday on what he called its first democratic transfer of power, but the former rival with whom he signed a power-sharing deal was absent from the celebrations.

Ghani and Abdullah Abdullah struck an agreement Sunday to form a "unity government", after months of disputes over who was the rightful winner of the fraud-tainted June 14 presidential election.

An Indian teenager died after allegedly being set on fire during an attack by four men when she went outside to relieve herself in the country's east, police said Monday.   

The family of the girl, thought to have been 17, has told police she was attacked on Saturday night when she went outside because her home in Uttar Pradesh state -- like many in India -- does not have a toilet.

Poland's president on Monday swore in the government of incoming Prime Minister Ewa Kopacz, calling on her to prepare the country for a debate on eurozone membership. 

Kopacz took over this month as head of government from Donald Tusk, who resigned after he was tapped to become the next European Council chief in December. 

Myanmar's efforts to secure a historic ceasefire agreement with ethnic armed groups are "at a crucial moment", the government's chief negotiator said Monday, at the start of a fresh round of negotiations.

The government has made ending over half a century of civil strife in the country's minority border areas a key priority as the nation emerges from decades of junta rule.

A fragile truce between pro-Russian insurgents and Ukrainian forces appeared to be consolidate Monday as clashes subsided and attention focused on the unresolved status of the separatist east.

Ukraine said it lost two soldiers in sporadic overnight raids by "armed gangs" on small towns surrounding the main rebel stronghold of Donetsk, but that nevertheless the military was preparing to pull back, as agreed under a new ceasefire deal.