Chinese President Xi Jinping on Monday vowed never to use force to achieve Beijing's goals, including in maritime disputes, just days after U.S. President Barack Obama warned of the dangers of outright conflict in Asia.

In an address to the Australian parliament, Xi said his giant and developing nation needed peace, noting that history showed no-one ever benefited from conflict.

Career diplomat Michel Kafando was named on Monday as Burkina Faso's interim president to steer the west African nation during a one-year transition back to civilian rule following the toppling of its veteran leader.

The appointment of the former foreign minister and U.N. ambassador is set to end weeks of uncertainty after violent protests brought down the 27-year regime of president Blaise Compaore and the military seized power.

A nuclear deal with Iran would be a rare coup for a beleaguered President Barack Obama already seeking to shape his White House legacy, but analysts caution that renewing full ties will take longer.

Iran and the United States have had no direct diplomatic relations since the 1979 storming of the U.S. embassy in Tehran, when radical students held a group of American diplomats hostage for 444 days.

Sudan's foreign ministry on Sunday again denied access to a U.N.-African peacekeeping mission seeking to enter a Darfur town to investigate a report government troops raped 200 women and girls.

A local news website had reported Sudanese troops entered the village of Tabit on October 31 after a soldier went missing and raped 200 girls and women, which Khartoum has denied.

German Chancellor Angela Merkel on Monday called on the West not to lose hope in what may be a long struggle with Russia over Ukraine, but vowed that the Kremlin "will not prevail".

Russia's annexation of Crimea in March "called the whole of the European peaceful order into question, and it has continued by Russia exporting its influence to destabilize eastern Ukraine," Merkel said after attending the G20 summit in Brisbane.

The Nigerian army said Sunday it had recaptured the northeastern town of Chibok, where Islamic militants abducted more than 200 schoolgirls in April, provoking a wave of global outrage.

Control of Chibok is crucial to the reputation of the government of President Goodluck Jonathan and the military, which have both come under fire at home and abroad for their failure to rescue the girls.

A powerful 6.7 magnitude earthquake shook the east coast of New Zealand Monday, but authorities ruled out an immediate tsunami threat. 

The quake, which struck at 10:33 am (2233 GMT Sunday) was centered at sea nearly 200 kilometers (120 miles) from the eastern North Island city of Gisborne and 35 kilometers deep, the US Geological Survey said. 

Seven men have been charged with "terrorist offences" in Northern Ireland and were due in court on Monday, the police said following an investigation into militants opposed to peace.

"The arrest and charging of these individuals with what are very serious terrorist offences clearly demonstrates our commitment to investigate all those involved in terrorism," said Kevin Geddes, a senior officer from Northern Ireland's Serious Crime Branch.

Hours after pulling off Romania's biggest political earthquake since the revolution which overthrew Nicolae Ceausescu, the country's soft-spoken new president followed through Monday on his vow to tackle corruption.

Klaus Iohannis, the ethnic German mayor of the medieval Transylvanian city of Sibiu won a shock second-round election victory on Sunday, defeating the heavily-tipped Prime Minister Victor Ponta, with whom he must now work in what could be a fraught cohabitation.

Colombian President Juan Manuel Santos on Sunday suspended peace talks with the country's largest rebel group, the FARC, as the military investigates the suspected abduction of a general.

"Negotiations with #FARC are suspended until the facts of the kidnapping of general (Ruben) Alzate are clarified," the Ministry of Defense said in a tweet citing Santos.