The Sunni extremist group Jaish-ul Adl has claimed responsibility for the assassination of a public prosecutor in Iran's restive southeast, media reports said Thursday.

The reports came a day after Mousa Nouri, prosecutor of the city of Zabol which lies near the Afghan border in Sistan-Baluchestan province, was gunned down in a "terrorist attack," according to officials.

Japan is putting missiles on islands marking the gateway to the Pacific, officials said Thursday, as part of a huge military drill that has unsettled Beijing.

The exercise, aimed at bolstering Japan's defense of remote islands, has already seen a launching system and a loader for Type-88 surface-to-ship missiles installed on Miyako island, complete with two missiles.

Thailand's embattled prime minister appealed Thursday for an end to escalating street protests against a contentious political amnesty, warning that the unrest would scare off foreign investors and tourists.

Thousands of demonstrators have turned out daily in Bangkok since the lower house of parliament last Friday passed a bill which could allow fugitive former premier Thaksin Shinawatra to return.

France said on Thursday that al-Qaida's north African branch may have killed two French journalists in Mali at the weekend, as the group had earlier claimed.

"We're in the process of verifying it, but it seems plausible," French Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius told French television, referring to the claim over the murders of Ghislaine Dupont and Claude Verlon in the flashpoint northeastern town of Kidal on Saturday.

Iran's Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif said talks which kick off in Geneva on Thursday with world powers about his country's disputed nuclear program will be "very difficult.”

The West and Israel suspect Iran's nuclear drive may be aimed at developing atomic weapons, but the Islamic republic insists the program is only for the generation of electricity and medical purposes.

Tajikistan President Emomali Rakhmon on Thursday secured a fourth term at the helm of the poorest state in the former Soviet Union after crushing his also-ran opponents in polls damned by the OSCE as lacking any real choice.

Rakhmon won 83.6 percent in Wednesday's elections against five barely oppositional candidates, full results showed, an improvement even on his performance in the 2006 polls when he won 79.3 percent.

A prison official says Pakistan has freed former President Pervez Musharraf from house arrest after he received bail earlier this week.

Wajad Ali says prison officials were withdrawn on Wednesday night from Musharraf's home on the outskirts of Islamabad.

Greek riot police launched the evacuation of the occupied headquarters of former public broadcaster ERT, in a northern Athens suburb, early Thursday, an Agence France Presse reporter at the scene said.

Representative of the ERT employees union Pospert Nikos Tsimbidas confirmed to AFP that he was arrested, while police went through every single room of the building and pushed away some 200 people protesting outside the premises.

Colombia's government and FARC guerrillas reached agreement Wednesday on the rebels' future participation in politics, a deal that brings the country closer to ending a half-century of civil war.

The accord was a much-needed boost to year-long peace talks that had appeared to be close to stalling in recent months, with President Juan Manuel Santos repeatedly warning the process was dragging on without progress.

The military judge in the September 11 trial ordered the U.S. government Wednesday to hand over correspondence on Guantanamo prison conditions and lifted restrictions on lawyers' communications with detainees.

The judge, Colonel James Pohl, will review years of reports by the International Committee of the Red Cross, the only human rights group to access the U.S. naval base in Cuba since it opened in 2002, according to one of two rulings revealed by defense lawyers.