Peace talks between South Sudan's government and rebels resumed in Ethiopia on Tuesday, mediators said, urging both sides to return to a moribund ceasefire agreement.

The talks, mediated by regional bloc IGAD, are aimed at ending the three-month-old conflict and forging a lasting political solution between the government of President Salva Kiir and former Vice President and now rebel leader Riek Machar.

Thirty-five countries on Tuesday committed to bolstering nuclear security, backing a global drive spearheaded by U.S. President Barack Obama to prevent dangerous materials falling into the hands of terrorists.

In a joint statement issued on the sidelines of the third biennial Nuclear Security Summit (NSS), the countries pledged to work closer together and submit to "peer reviews periodically" of their sensitive nuclear security regimes.

Russia on Tuesday dismissed as counterproductive the decision of G8 member countries to snub a June summit in the Russian resort of Sochi following Moscow's annexation of Crimea.

A summit of the smaller Group of Seven agreed in The Hague on Monday to deepen Moscow's isolation over the crisis in Ukraine and meet without Russia in Brussels instead of gathering in Sochi.

Taliban militants staged a gun and suicide attack on an Afghan election commission office in Kabul on Tuesday, killing two police officers, with less than a fortnight to go before the presidential poll.

The insurgents have vowed a campaign of violence to disrupt the ballot on April 5, urging their fighters to attack polling staff, voters and security forces in the runup to election day.

Ethiopia is using foreign technology to spy on citizens suspected of being critical of the government, Human Rights Watch said in a report released Tuesday.

The report accused the government of using Chinese and European technology to survey phone calls and Internet activity in Ethiopia and among the diaspora living overseas, and HRW said firms colluding with the government could be guilty of abuses.

Bangladesh war crimes investigators moved Tuesday to outlaw the country's largest Islamic party, accusing it of genocide and other atrocities during the 1971 bloody struggle for independence.

Government investigators handed a report detailing war crimes allegations against Jamaat-e-Islami to prosecutors, in the latest move against the party which has banned from contesting January elections.

Even if searchers are able to miraculously pluck Malaysia Airlines flight 370's "black box" from the depths of the vast Indian Ocean, experts say it may not solve one of aviation's greatest mysteries.

Planes, ships and state-of-the-art tracking equipment are hunting for any trace of the passenger jet, which Malaysia said crashed in the forbidding waters after veering far from its intended course.

Wild weather halted the search Tuesday for wreckage from the Malaysia Airlines jet that crashed into the Indian Ocean, frustrating attempts to determine why it veered off course and bring closure to grieving relatives.

The air and sea mission for MH370 was suspended for the day due to gale force winds, driving rain and huge waves, said the Australian Maritime Safety Authority which is coordinating the multinational hunt southwest of Perth.

Christian and Muslim leaders from conflict-torn Central African Republic said Monday they have appealed to U.N. chief Ban Ki-moon to rapidly deploy peacekeepers to stop the country's "descent into hell".

A multi-faith delegation, made up of an archbishop, an imam and the head of the country's Protestant community, made the plea during a 10-day visit to Washington and New York, where they also sought help from the United States to end months of Christian-Muslim violence.

To U.S. prosecutors, Osama bin Laden's son-in-law was his trusted, right-hand man who conspired to kill Americans and inspired a new generation of al-Qaida terrorists after the 9/11 attacks.

In words of the defense, Suleiman Abu Ghaith was never a terrorist but a respected imam. His views might sicken the jury, but he never conspired to kill anyone.