British Prime Minister David Cameron on Monday urged Myanmar President Thein Sein to defend human rights as the former junta general made his first official visit to London.

Cameron said he was particularly concerned by violence targeting members of Myanmar's Rohingya Muslim minority in which hundreds of people have been killed.

French President Francois Hollande on Monday "formally confirmed" the death of French hostage Philippe Verdon at the hands of his al-Qaida captors in Mali.

"The death of our compatriot Mr Philippe Verdon is formally confirmed," Hollande said in a statement. "The remains will be transferred to our country as soon as possible and the autopsy will reveal the causes of his death."

Nigeria's presidency on Monday defended welcoming Sudan President Omar al-Bashir to the country for an African Union health summit despite war crimes charges against him, saying it cannot interfere in AU affairs.

Bashir arrived in the Nigerian capital Abuja on Sunday for the summit on HIV/AIDS, turberculosis and malaria despite being wanted by the International Criminal Court on charges of war crimes, crimes against humanity and genocide.

Nearly 6,000 pilgrims, tourists and others are believed to have died when flash floods and landslides struck northern India last month, officials said Monday.

The victims were swept away when floods caused by torrential monsoon rains hit the Himalayan state of Uttarakhand in June, destroying entire villages and towns.

U.N. Secretary General Ban Ki-moon on Monday called for the results of Mali's upcoming election to be respected even if the vote is "imperfect", amid skepticism about the country's ability to stage the poll.

"The results, even if the election is imperfect, must be respected by all parties," Ban told reporters in Paris, a day after attending France's national day celebrations.

At least 295 people have been confirmed dead or missing after rainstorms and Typhoon Soulik hit China, causing floods, landslides and buildings to collapse, the government said Monday.

Torrential rains have battered the southwestern province of Sichuan since July 7 and have led to 68 deaths, with another 179 people missing, the ministry of civil affairs said in a statement.

Edward Snowden, the fugitive intelligence leaker wanted by the United States, has still not applied for temporary asylum in Russia despite vowing to do so last week, officials said Monday.

Snowden made his first public statement in nearly three weeks last Friday as he met with a group of Russian rights activists and pro-Kremlin figures in the Moscow airport where he had been marooned since June 23 after flying in from Hong Kong.

An Afghan soldier detained for killing a NATO soldier escaped from his cell and walked off a military base with the help of a guard who also absconded, officials said Monday.

The pair even hitched a lift to the main gate of the base aboard a military truck, one local official told Agence France Presse.

Moscow wants to exchange a married couple of Russian spies jailed this month in Germany for at least one convict jailed in Russia on charges of spying for the West, a report said Monday.

Russia's Kommersant newspaper said that the Russian secret services wanted to bring the pair -- known only by their code names Andreas and Heidrun Anschlag -- back home to Russia after decades as "sleepers" in Germany.

A special Bangladeshi court on Monday sentenced an elderly top Islamist to 90 years in prison for masterminding atrocities during the 1971 war of independence against Pakistan.

Ghulam Azam, compared by prosecutors to Nazi leader Adolf Hitler, was found guilty of all five charges of planning, conspiracy, incitement, complicity, and murder and torture during the war, which the government says killed three million people.