The hereditary spiritual leader of the world's 15 million Ismaili Muslims Thursday compared a conflict between Sunni and Shia Muslims to Ireland, urging the West to engage both branches of Islam.

Speaking to both houses of Canada's parliament, the Aga Khan said tensions between the two denominations "have increased massively in scope and intensity recently and have been further exacerbated by external interventions."

The White House on Thursday reinforced U.S. warnings to Russia that it must avoid "miscalculations" in military drills along the border of troubled Ukraine.

The comments, which built upon statements by U.S. Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel, appeared to reflect Washington's concern that Russian maneuvers near the ex-Soviet state could trigger events which may get out of control.

Almost six in 10 Americans express disappointment with Barack Obama's presidency, according to a new poll, which also shows Republicans with the edge heading into mid-term elections in November.

The survey, by CBS News and the New York Times, also found that 82 percent of Democratic voters want Hillary Clinton to make another White House run in 2016.

A Pakistan party which has been staging sit-ins to block the NATO supply to Afghanistan in protest against covert U.S. drone strikes in the country on Thursday announced an end to its campaign.

The decision of the Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaaf (PTI), led by the cricketer-turned politician Imran Khan, came after a local court ruled on Tuesday that no private individual has a right to block or check vehicles on roads.

Russia had little option other than to offer sanctuary to deposed Ukrainian president Viktor Yanukovych, even if there is little love lost between him and President Vladimir Putin, analysts said Thursday.

Yanukovych is now widely believed to be in Russia after he released a statement saying he had asked Moscow to ensure his security and sources in the country said his wish had been satisfied on "Russian territory."

The United States on Thursday denounced what it said was the growing use of security forces by repressive regimes to crackdown on a worldwide groundswell of pro-democracy protests.

"The fundamental struggle for dignity, for decency in the treatment of human beings... is a driving force in all of human history," Secretary of State John Kerry said as he released his department's 2013 human rights report.

British Prime Minister David Cameron on Thursday ordered a judge-led investigation into amnesty letters sent to IRA suspects, in an apparently successful attempt to stop Northern Ireland's top politician from quitting.

The existence of the letters became public knowledge on Tuesday after one of them caused the collapse of the trial of a man accused of a notorious 1982 bombing in London by the Irish Republican Army (IRA), an anti-British paramilitary group.

Lawmakers in Crimea's regional parliament, which is currently being controlled by pro-Russian gunmen, voted Thursday to hold a referendum on May 25 on the region's status in Ukraine, the parliament's press service said.

Legislators fixed the vote to determine whether to increase Crimea's autonomy from Kiev and they also voted to dismiss the region's current government, which has backed the new interim authorities in the capital.

Switzerland said Thursday it was prepared to freeze any funds Ukraine's ousted president Viktor Yanukovych might have in Swiss banks.

The Swiss government has decided "in principle to freeze any possible funds Mr Yanukovych may have in Switzerland", foreign ministry spokesman Pierre-Alain Eltschinger told Agence France Presse in an email.

Suspected Boko Haram gunmen killed at least 32 people in three separate attacks in northeast Nigeria, including at a theological college, a local government official and residents said on Thursday.

The coordinated attacks in Adamawa state late on Wednesday came just a day after Islamist militant fighters were blamed for killing 43 people, most of them students, as they slept at a boarding school in Yobe state.