Somali refugees in Kenya must only return home voluntarily, the United Nations said Monday, after signing a deal easing fears of possible forced returns of over half a million refugees.

"Returns should be conducted in safety and dignity," said Raouf Mazou, Kenya representative of the U.N. refugee agency (UNHCR), adding that it would support organized repatriations only when "conditions are right".

Iran on Monday agreed with the U.N. nuclear watchdog on a "roadmap for cooperation" to inspect its disputed program, as the United States questioned Tehran's self-declared right to uranium enrichment.

Diplomats insist world powers are close to reaching a landmark interim deal to curb Iran's nuclear program in return for sanctions relief despite failing to do so in Geneva over the weekend.

A Moscow region court on Monday sentenced three men to life in prison for their roles in a 2011 suicide bombing attack on a major Russian airport that killed 37 people.

The January 2011 Domodedovo International Airport strike was claimed by the Caucasus Emirate movement of Islamist warlord Doku Umarov.

The U.N.'s top court ruled Monday that most of the area around a flashpoint ancient temple on the Thai border belongs to Cambodia and that any Thai security forces there should leave.

The International Court of Justice interpreted a 1962 ruling saying that "Cambodia had sovereignty over the whole territory of the promontory of Preah Vihear," Judge Peter Tomka said.

France said Monday world powers were close to a long-awaited agreement with Iran on its disputed nuclear program, despite failure to reach a deal at negotiations in Geneva that some blame on Paris.

"We are not far from an agreement with the Iranians but we are not there yet," Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius said on Europe 1 radio.

Bangladesh cabinet ministers submitted their resignations Monday to allow Prime Minister Sheihk Hasina to form an all-party government to prepare for polls, a plan rejected by the opposition which wants a neutral caretaker government.

The move comes as the impoverished South Asian country has been gripped by a four-day nationwide general strike to force Hasina's ruling Awami League to stage the elections under a technocrat-led government.

Police in Nepal arrested dozens of protesters Monday in a crackdown on a nationwide strike called by hardline Maoists seeking to postpone next week's parliamentary elections.

Protesters belonging to a 33-party alliance headed by the Communist Party of Nepal-Maoist (CPN-M) torched a dozen vehicles across the country while enforcing the shutdown, police spokesman Ganesh K.C. told Agence France Presse.

Russia moved the crew of a Greenpeace Arctic protest ship from the northern port of Murmansk on Monday and put them on a train to Saint Petersburg, the organisation said.

The 28 activists and two reporters, arrested in September after protesting against oil exploration in the Barents Sea, left their detention centre at 5:00 am (0100 GMT) and are now on a train, said Greenpeace spokeswoman Dannielle Taaffe.

A political crisis deepened in the Maldives Monday when parliament's speaker warned caretaker president Mohamed Waheed that his mandate had expired after the country failed to hold elections on time.

Speaker Abdulla Shahid, who is linked to the opposition Maldivian Democratic Party (MDP), told Waheed that he had no right to govern because his time in office had lapsed under the terms of the constitution.

South Korea on Monday urged North Korea to identify a South Korean citizen it said it had arrested for espionage, as a newspaper report suggested the detained man was a missionary.

Pyongyang announced last week that it had arrested a South Korean spy engaged in "plot-breeding activities."