A Pakistani teenager who sacrificed his life to stop a suicide bomber, saving the lives of hundreds of students, has been honored with the country's highest award for bravery.

Aitzaz Hassan, 15, a student in Hangu district in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province, has become a national hero after tackling the bomber who came to attack his school on Monday while hundreds of students were inside.

Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif has invited EU foreign affairs chief Catherine Ashton to visit the Islamic republic, Mehr news agency cited his deputy as saying on Saturday.

"Ashton has received an open invitation from Zarif to travel to Iran whenever she wants," Abbas Araqchi, the deputy negotiator in talks on Iran's disputed nuclear program, said without giving any dates for the proposed trip.

The United States on Saturday called on Romania to defend the rule of law, voicing concern over recent attacks against the independence of the judiciary.

"An independent judiciary is essential to a strong, predictable democracy ... so it is concerning when there are attacks on the independence of the judiciary, it is concerning when politicians of any party decide to challenge the independent underpinnings of the judiciary," said Victoria Nuland, U.S. assistant secretary of state for European and Eurasian affairs, on a visit to Romania.

Afghan forces will provide security for the vast majority of polling stations in the upcoming presidential elections, an official said Saturday, a key test for the country as NATO troops withdraw.

"Based on our assessments, security can be provided to 6,431 polling centers out of 6,845 centers. The plan will cover 93.96 per cent of the country," interior ministry spokesman Sediq Sediqqi told reporters in Kabul.

A UK-based children's charity has asked the Philippines to investigate the suspected recruitment of child workers for sex trafficking in a region devastated by Super Typhoon Haiyan, an aid official said Saturday.

Plan International said it was concerned about five high school girls who were recruited after the November 8 typhoon in Basey and Marabut, two impoverished coastal towns on the island of Samar that sustained heavy damage and casualties.

An undersea earthquake with a magnitude of 4.7 struck close to the Greek island of Zakynthos in the Ionian Sea on Saturday morning, the Athens Observatory said.

According to local media, no casualties nor damages were reported.

India on Saturday said a bitter row over the U.S. arrest and strip-search of an Indian consulate official had triggered a "mini-crisis" in bilateral relations and much more must be done to repair ties.

Indian foreign minister Salman Khurshid's remarks came a day after New Delhi gave a U.S. diplomat 48 hours to quit the country over a dispute that has sent tensions between the two countries soaring.

Deadly violence including reports of cannibalism and widespread looting gripped the capital of the Central African Republic on Saturday after the resignation of its ex-rebel president and with stranded foreigners waiting to be airlifted out of the country.

Sporadic gunfire was heard overnight in Bangui with the shooting leaving three people dead -- a Christian vigilante, a former rebel and a civilian -- the head of the Central African Red Cross, pastor Antoine Mbaobogo, told Agence France Presse.

Ukraine's ex-interior minister turned opposition leader Yuriy Lutsenko was in intensive care in hospital Saturday after being beaten in fresh clashes between pro-EU demonstrators and club-wielding police.

A few hundred nationalist demonstrators protested late Friday outside a Kiev court that had earlier in the day sentenced three men to six years in prison for allegedly plotting to blow up a statue of Soviet founder Lenin near the city's main airport in 2011.

A Pakistani teenager who sacrificed his life to stop a suicide bomber, saving the lives of hundreds of students, has been handed the country's highest award for bravery.

Aitzaz Hassan, 15, a student in Hangu district in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province, has become a national hero after tackling the bomber who came to attack his school on Monday, with hundreds of students inside.