Armenian President Serzh Sarkisian on Tuesday took oath for a second term in a grand inauguration ceremony boycotted by the opposition who defiantly held a rival event of their own.

Sarkisian won February elections in the ex-Soviet state but the second placed candidate Raffi Hovannisian alleged mass violations and still insists that he was the true victor.

U.N. leader Ban Ki-moon said Tuesday that a war crimes investigation could be launched into an attack in South Sudan in which five Indian peacekeepers and seven other people were killed.

Ban and the U.N. Security Council condemned the attack and called on South Sudan's government to "swiftly" bring the perpetrators to justice.

Britain's government has given the code-name "True Blue" to the operation for former prime minister Margaret Thatcher's funeral next week, Downing Street said on Tuesday.

Union Jacks on British government buildings and embassies around the world will fly at half mast for the rest of Tuesday and then again from sunrise to sunset on the day of the funeral on April 17, Prime Minister David Cameron's office said after a meeting of key players.

At least 18 people have been killed during a tribal dispute in Darfur, a tribal leader said on Tuesday, after donor countries pledged about $1 billion to develop Sudan's war-ravaged western region.

Trouble began last week in Umm Dukhun district, on the Chad border, when a member of the Misseriya tribe shot a Salamat tribal member, international peacekeepers said.

Security agents confiscated the entire print run of a Sudanese daily newspaper, a senior editor said on Tuesday, adding to concerns about the role of the intelligence service in press censorship.

A member of the National Intelligence and Security Service (NISS) took all the copies of Al-Ahram Al-Youm's Tuesday edition and said they were banned from distribution, the paper's managing editor, Bokhari Bashir, told Agence France Presse.

Russia on Tuesday opened a legal case against top vote monitoring group Golos (Voice) after it failed to declare foreign funding and its status as "foreign agent" under a controversial new law.

The move comes as the authorities carry out a wide-ranging crackdown on NGOs that has included raids by prosecutors that sparked international concern.

A NATO helicopter crashed in eastern Afghanistan on Tuesday killing two U.S. troops, officials said, adding there was no insurgent activity in the area at the time of the incident.

Taliban militants said they had shot down the helicopter, but the group often makes exaggerated claims of success on the battlefield against NATO forces and the U.S.-backed government.

A top U.S. military commander said Tuesday he favored shooting down a North Korean missile only if it threatened the United States or Washington's allies in the region.

When asked by lawmakers if he supported knocking out any missile fired by North Korea, Admiral Samuel Locklear, head of U.S. Pacific Command, said: "I would not recommend that."

NATO head Anders Fogh Rasmussen will visit South Korea later this week, the military alliance said Tuesday, stressing the trip was long-planned and not connected with North Korean threats of nuclear war.

Rasmussen will meet newly-elected President Park Geun-hye, Foreign Minister Yun Byung-se and Defense Minister Kim Kwan Jin on Thursday and Friday, a brief statement said.

Uhuru Kenyatta was sworn in as Kenya's fourth president on Tuesday to thunderous cheers from tens of thousands of supporters, despite facing trial on charges of crimes against humanity.

"I do swear that I will be faithful and bear true allegiance to the Republic of Kenya," said Kenyatta, the son of the country's first president, clutching a bible as he took the oath of office.