Turkish riot police fired tear gas and water cannon Saturday to disperse some 3,000 demonstrators who tried to enter flashpoint protest spot Taksim Square in Istanbul.

The group had gathered on the Istiklal Avenue pedestrian way that leads to the square, the site of nearly three weeks of protests against Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan and his Islamic-rooted government that left four people dead and some 8,000 injured.

Bolivian President Evo Morales on Saturday said he would grant asylum, if asked, to fugitive U.S. intelligence leaker Edward Snowden, the third leftist Latin American leader in two days to make such an offer.

Declaring that Bolivia has "no fear" of the United States and its European allies, Morales said that he would be willing "to give asylum to the American, if he asks."

Nelson Mandela remained hospitalized in a critical state for a fourth week Saturday after doctors ruled out turning off his life support unless he suffered massive organ failure.

The anti-apartheid hero's health condition was unchanged over the weekend, South Africa's presidential spokesman Mac Maharaj told Agence France Presse.

U.S. intelligence leaker Edward Snowden remained stranded in a Moscow airport for the 14th day Saturday amid rising hopes he may finally be able to leave Russia after being offered asylum by Venezuela.

The saga surrounding the fugitive former U.S. National Security Agency (NSA) contractor took a new turn late Friday when Venezuela's leftist President Nicolas Maduro offered to grant the 30-year old "humanitarian asylum".

Spiritual leader Dalai Lama on Saturday said he was counting on young people to create a "happier" century as he celebrated his 78th birthday in southern India with tens of thousands of fellow Tibetan exiles.

"The present-day generation can create better conditions and build a world where everyone can live in harmony and in a spirit of coexistence," the Dalai Lama, who fled Tibet in 1959 after a failed uprising against Chinese rule, told the crowd.

The Chinese and Indian defense chiefs agreed Saturday to strengthen "peace and tranquility" along their frontier, state media reported, as the countries work to keep tensions in a disputed border area in check.

"The ministers emphasized the importance of enhancing mutual trust and understanding between the two militaries," General Chang Wanquan of China and A.K. Antony of India said in a joint statement carried by the official Xinhua news agency.

Portugal's prime minister is due Saturday to finalize a deal aimed at averting the breakup of his coalition government, after the resignations of two key ministers plunged the country into a political crisis.

The shock resignations of finance minister Vitor Gaspar and foreign minister Paulo Portas had raised the specter of a fresh wave of instability in the eurozone's debt-laden periphery, where public anger was rising against painful reforms imposed by international creditors.

Gunmen believed to be Boko Haram Islamists attacked a secondary school in Nigeria's restive northeast on Saturday, killing 42 people, many of whom were students, a medical worker and residents said Saturday.

But a military spokesman said 20 students and one teacher were killed in the dawn attack at Yobe state.

Gunmen suspected to be ethnic Fulani herdsmen invaded a farming village in restive central Nigeria's Benue State, burning several houses, police said Saturday, amid reports that at least 20 people died in the violence.

"There was an attack yesterday, around 11:00 am by suspected Fulani cattle rearers at Iyordye Akaahena village in Guma ... Many houses were burnt," state police spokesman Daniel Ezeala told Agence France Presse.

Communist insurgents Saturday promised revenge after Philippine soldiers killed their regional spokesmen along with seven other rebels in the latest operation against the militants since talks to end one of Asia's longest running insurgencies collapsed.

The Communist Party of the Philippines confirmed that one of the eight rebels killed in the clash in the eastern province of Sorsogon on Thursday was Greg Banares, guerrilla spokesman for the rebel-infested Bicol peninsula.