A minister from Britain's Foreign Office will travel to Iran on Sunday for talks with senior Iranian government officials amid escalating tensions in the Gulf region, the department said Saturday.

Sudanese protest leaders were to hold talks later Saturday with an Ethiopian envoy who has been mediating with the ruling generals and drafted a compromise blueprint for a political transition.

A light aircraft crashed in northern Hawaii killing nine passengers Friday, authorities said.

Iran warned the United States on Saturday that any aggression against the Islamic republic would have serious consequences for US interests across the Middle East.

UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Michelle Bachelet called on Venezuela to release jailed dissidents Friday and said the crisis-wracked country faced a "serious" humanitarian situation.

Her comments came at the end of a three-day visit to the country on the invitation of embattled President Nicolas Maduro, who has faced allegations of cracking down on political opponents amid rampant hyperinflation and shortages of basic goods.

China and the Philippines agreed to conduct a joint inquiry over the sinking of a Filipino fishing boat by a Chinese vessel in disputed waters, President Rodrigo Duterte's spokesman said Saturday.

Three people died and another was seriously injured in a fire that broke out in a building in central Paris in the early hours of Saturday, fire services said. 

Pyongyang's relationship with Beijing is "invincible" because the countries both endured Japanese rule, North Korea said Saturday, the day after the Chinese President's highly symbolic visit ended.

Dimitris Christofias, Cyprus' first communist president whose troubled tenure was marked by near financial ruin that necessitated an international rescue, uproar over a deadly Iranian munitions blast and failure to end the country's ethnic division, died Friday. He was 72.

Cyprus President Nicos Anastasiades confirmed his predecessor's death in a written message, expressing "deep sorrow." Anastasiades said he and Christofias may have been on divergent political paths, but he did what he thought was best for his country.

Hong Kong police on Saturday vowed to pursue anti-government protesters who launched a 15-hour siege of their headquarters as historic rallies aimed at ousting the city's pro-Beijing leader evolve.