North Korea on Thursday demanded the removal of US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo from stalled nuclear talks between Pyongyang and Washington, accusing him of derailing discussions.

President Donald Trump on Wednesday ramped up pressure on Cuba with new restrictions on US travel and remittances and a green light to lawsuits over seized property as he vowed to rid Latin America of leftists.

Indonesian authorities warned Thursday against mass protests as a firebrand ex-general rejected unofficial election results that appeared to hand President Joko Widodo a second term as leader of the world's third-biggest democracy.

Just days after flames ravaged the Notre Dame cathedral in Paris, a New Jersey man was arrested Wednesday night after entering St. Patrick's Cathedral carrying two cans of gasoline, lighter fluid and butane lighters, according to the New York Police Department.

The unidentified 37-year-old man had pulled up in a minivan outside the landmark cathedral on Fifth Avenue in Manhattan, walked around the area, then returned to his vehicle at 7:55 p.m. and retrieved the gasoline and lighter fluid, said NYPD Deputy Commissioner of Intelligence and Counterterrorism John Miller.

Iran's President Hassan Rouhani called on Middle East states Thursday to "drive back Zionism", saying that Israel and its US ally were the the root causes of the region's problems.

US Attorney General Bill Barr said Thursday that President Donald Trump took no action to thwart the special counsel's probe into Russian election interference, ahead of the long-awaited release of the final investigation report.

Gunmen killed at least 14 people after forcing them to disembark from buses in Pakistan's restive southwestern Balochistan province, officials said Thursday.

Greece's parliament on Wednesday began debate on a resolution to demand the payment of German war crime reparations, an issue long disputed by Berlin.

"These demands are always active. They were never set aside by Greece," parliament chairman Nikos Voutsis told reporters this week.

Ousted Sudanese president Omar al-Bashir has been transferred to a Khartoum prison following his toppling by the army last week, a source from his family told AFP on Wednesday.

Italy police on Wednesday arrested two men planning attacks in the name of the  Islamic State (IS) group.