Almost 6,000 Rohingya boat people fleeing communal violence in western Myanmar have illegally entered Thai waters since October, an army spokesman said Thursday.

Of the 5,899 Rohingya who entered Thai territory, 1,752 are now in Thai immigration holding centers, police stations or welfare shelters, according to the military's Internal Security Operations Command (ISOC).

The United States on Wednesday tightened sanctions on Iran to further choke off its oil income, saying it was necessary to increase pressure on Tehran over its suspected nuclear weapons program.

It also set sanctions against Iranian media organizations and Tehran's Cyber Police for what it called human rights abuses for censorship.

South Korea on Thursday confirmed it would implement the latest U.N. sanctions imposed on North Korea, despite dire warnings from Pyongyang about the consequences.

The sanctions were ordered in response to the North's long-range rocket launch in December and prompted Pyongyang into threatening an imminent nuclear test.

Child victims of sex assaults in India often find themselves humiliated by the police and mistreated by doctors when they pluck up the courage to report abuse, Human Rights Watch said Thursday.

In a report released amid continuing anger at the handling of sex cases in the wake of a deadly gang-rape in Delhi, the rights watchdog said the authorities had to become more sensitive towards victims.

Disaster relief agencies were struggling Thursday to reach remote tsunami-hit villages in the Solomon Islands, and warned the death toll following a powerful 8.0-magnitude quake is likely to rise.

At least six people were confirmed dead after Wednesday's quake generated a wave that swamped coastal communities on Ndende island in the eastern Solomons and triggered warnings of a more widespread tsunami that was later lifted.

The hard-nosed architect of the U.S. drone war against al-Qaida, John Brennan, will face tough questions about secret assassinations Thursday from senators weighing his nomination to lead the CIA.

The confirmation hearing before the Senate Intelligence Committee promises to focus a rare public spotlight on President Barack Obama's covert campaign to hunt down al-Qaida suspects worldwide in drone bombing raids.

Japan's prime minister said Thursday he wants to find a "mutually acceptable solution" to a decades-old territorial row with Russia and sign a long-delayed peace treaty with Moscow.

Shinzo Abe's apparently conciliatory comments are in marked contrast to his uncompromising stance on a dispute with China over the sovereignty of a different set of disputed islands.

Once again fueling speculation about whether she will run for president in 2016, Hillary Clinton launched a new website even before she officially stepped down as secretary of state.

HillaryClintonOffice.com only features a picture of Clinton -- without the black glasses she took to wearing in the last few weeks of her reign at the State Department -- and a contact sheet.

Colombia's leftist FARC guerrillas on Wednesday called for the decriminalization of the cultivation of marijuana, coca leaf and poppies in the country.

The rebel group, which allegedly finances its operations in part through drug trafficking, said some cultivation of these crops should be legalized for "therapeutic or medicinal uses, industrial uses or for cultural reasons."

About 20 opposition lawmakers have spent the night in the Ukrainian parliament chamber after blockading it in a voting dispute.

Deputies from the opposition Udar (Punch) party, led by world heavyweight boxing champion Vitaly Klitschko, spent the night from Tuesday to Wednesday in the parliament chamber.