A civilian protester and a suspected militant were killed in clashes with government forces Wednesday in disputed Indian-administered Kashmir, police said.

After receiving a tip-off about suspected rebels in Naina, some 35 kilometres (22 miles) south of the main city of Srinagar, soldiers cordoned off the village Tuesday night, triggering a gun battle.

The mediation skills of Spain's King Felipe VI are being put to the test this week as he meets with political leaders to try to end the impasse the country has faced since an inconclusive general election.

The political crisis is the biggest challenge Felipe, 47, has faced since he took over the throne when his father Juan Carlos abdicated 18 months ago to try to revive the popularity of the scandal-hit monarchy.

Three policemen were killed by suspected jihadists in an overnight attack in central Mali, police and military sources told Agence France Presse Wednesday.

Shortly before news of the attack, in a televised speech to mark the 55th anniversary of the Malian army, President Ibrahim Boubacar Keita had paid tribute to "some of our valiant soldiers, some of the worthy sons of our country (who) paid with their lives in this patriotic commitment", insisting that "their sacrifice is not in vain".

At least 21 people died when gunmen armed with grenades and Kalashnikovs attacked a university in Pakistan Wednesday, with all four attackers killed by security forces who moved in under thick fog to halt the bloodshed.

The assault was claimed by a Pakistani Taliban faction but branded "un-Islamic" by the umbrella group's leadership, who vowed to hunt down those responsible.

Calling North Korea the greatest source of instability in Asia, a top U.S. diplomat urged China on Wednesday to "show leadership" in international efforts to sanction Pyongyang following its fourth nuclear test.

U.S. Deputy Secretary of State Tony Blinken, who was in Seoul on a two-day visit, noted China had a particular role to play given its "special relationship" with its reclusive neighbor.

Police in Haiti's capital Port-au-Prince fired tear gas at opposition demonstrators Tuesday who rallied in their thousands, five days before a presidential vote runoff is scheduled.

The poorest country in the Americas has been on edge for months after legislative and presidential elections that the opposition branded a fix and that were marred by violence.

Former vice presidential nominee Sarah Palin endorsed Republican billionaire Donald Trump on Tuesday, saying the bombastic real estate mogul would "lead the charge" as America's next president.

Palin, who flirted with her own White House run, emerged as a conservative icon and political powerbroker following her failed 2008 vice presidential bid. Since then she has endorsed several far-right candidates who went on to win seats in Congress.

Colombia's government and FARC rebels said Tuesday they have asked the United Nations to monitor the eventual end of their five-decade conflict, raising hopes they are close to a peace deal.

Negotiators from both sides said they had asked the U.N. Security Council to send an unarmed observer mission to Colombia for 12 months to oversee the disarmament of the Marxist guerrilla group and the end of the conflict.

Tributes poured in Tuesday following the death of a Franco-Moroccan photographer, the 30th and latest victim of a bloody attack by al-Qaida gunmen on a top Burkina Faso hotel.

Leila Alaoui, 33, whose pictures featured in the New York Times and Vogue magazine, and whose latest Paris art show wound up at the weekend, died of a heart attack shortly before her evacuation after being shot twice in the leg and thorax.

U.S. authorities on Tuesday evacuated at least nine schools in New Jersey after receiving a bomb and shooting threat, a sheriff office's spokesman said.

The schools affected are located in Bergen County in the northeastern part of the state, across the Hudson River from Manhattan.