Ecuador has issued a "safe pass" transit permit for U.S. intelligence leaker Edward Snowden, according to the U.S.-based Spanish-language TV network Univision, which posted what it said was a copy of the document online.

Quito had denied that it had provided the fugitive with any travel documents, following comments by WikiLeaks, which is helping Snowden avoid U.S. capture, that he left Hong Kong on a refugee document supplied by Ecuador.

Three people have been killed in Indonesia's restive eastern region of Papua, police said Thursday, in an attack claimed by separatists during which a soldier was shot dead and a civilian hacked to death.

A third civilian died after jumping into a ravine while trying to escape the ambush in the Puncak Jaya district, police said.

The United States said Thursday that it expected the Taliban to continue to mount attacks in Afghanistan even as the rebels hold peace talks from their new office in Qatar.

Taliban gunmen and bombers using fake NATO identification attacked an entrance to the Afghan presidential palace and a nearby building known to house a CIA base on Tuesday, leaving three security guards dead.

America's first black president Barack Obama will acknowledge the historic stain of slavery and honor Senegal's democratic resilience in an unstable region Thursday, at the start of an African tour.

Obama stepped off Air Force One into the African night late Wednesday in Dakar to launch a three-nation trip designed to fulfill neglected expectations for his presidency on a continent where he has deep ancestral roots.

Cambodia on Thursday officially started campaigning for next month's general election, expected to be won by strongman Prime Minister Hun Sen who is seeking to extend his 28-year grip on the country.

Thousands of supporters from several political parties took to Phnom Penh's streets in colorful rival rallies, as cars and motorcycles adorned with political banners roared through the capital.

A vessel under armed guard and loaded with reprocessed nuclear fuel from France arrived at a Japanese port on Thursday, the first such shipment since the Fukushima disaster as utilities lobby to restart their atomic reactors.

The cargo of mixed oxide (MOX), a blend of plutonium and uranium, arrived at the Takahama nuclear plant on the western coast of central Japan in early morning, an Agence France Presse journalist said.

A French court has upheld a life sentence handed to Carlos the Jackal, once one of the world's most-wanted militants, who had appealed against his conviction for a series of deadly bombings in France 30 years ago.

The eccentric 63-year-old Venezuelan, whose real name is Ilich Ramirez Sanchez, addressed the court for four hours at the end of the six-week trial Wednesday, before a panel of judges went into chambers for deliberations.

Police found three Britons shot dead in a house near the resort city of Malaga in southern Spain on Wednesday, officials said.

A source in the Civil Guard told Agence France Presse that a man and two females were found in a house in the town of Mijas, southwest of Malaga, and identified them as British.

The United States is in ongoing discussions with Russian authorities over the fate of fugitive U.S. intelligence leaker Edward Snowden, White House spokesman Jay Carney said Wednesday.

Carney, briefing reporters traveling with U.S. President Barack Obama to Africa, reiterated Washington's wish to see Snowden -- currently in the transit area of a Moscow airport -- expelled to face espionage charges.

Fugitive U.S. intelligence leaker Edward Snowden is still in the transit zone at a Moscow airport but has the right to fly anywhere he desires, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said Wednesday.

"He has not violated Russian law, he has not crossed the border, he is in the transit zone of the airport and can fly anywhere that he wants," Lavrov was quoted as saying by the foreign ministry. "The sooner this happens, the better".