The rebel strongman who seized power in the Central African Republic last month, Michel Djotodia, on Saturday ordered the creation of a transitional body to designate an interim president for the country.

The decree complies with demands from the six-nation Economic Community of Central African States, which rejected Djotodia's initial bid to declare himself president after his Seleka rebel coalition grabbed the capital Bangui on March 24, ousting President Francois Bozize.

"The security of the German embassy and its exposure to danger are continually being evaluated," the German foreign ministry said in a statement. "For now, the embassy can continue working."

"Regarding the embassy's security, there are ongoing consultations, particularly with the other foreign partners who also have embassies" in the country, the statement said.

Demonstrations have taken place across Sudan's troubled Darfur region against an international donors' conference which begins on Sunday in the Gulf state of Qatar, a civil society activist said on Saturday.

Some of the 1.4 million people displaced by Darfur's decade-long conflict protested on Friday at their camps near North Darfur's state capital El Fasher, and in Kalma camp, South Darfur, said the activist, who asked not to be identified.

Top U.S. military officer General Martin Dempsey arrived in Afghanistan on an unannounced visit Saturday to assess the level of training the U.S. will need to provide Afghan forces after NATO withdraws in 2014, an official said.

An estimated 100,000 foreign troops have been fighting the Taliban for the past 11 years and are due to leave Afghanistan by December 31, 2014 to be replaced by a smaller contingent to train and advise their local counterparts.

A major 7.1-magnitude earthquake struck Indonesia's easternmost province of Papua on Saturday, the U.S. Geological Survey said, sending panicked crowds running into the streets.

There were no reports of damage and no tsunami warning was issued after the quake struck on land at 1:42 pm (0442 GMT) at a depth of 75 kilometers (46 miles), 272 kilometers west-southwest of provincial capital Jayapura, the USGS said.

Authorities on Saturday called off a search for more survivors from the collapse of a multi-storey building on Mumbai's outskirts that killed 72 people, saying there was no hope of finding anybody else alive.

The death toll from the cave-in of the unauthorized seven-storey building was one of the worst in recent years in India. The collapse highlighted widespread shoddy building standards in the country where there is huge demand for housing.

Pope Francis has donated $50,000 to help victims of the deadly floods that struck his native Argentina this week, the Vatican's diplomatic mission said Friday.

At least 59 people died in the record rains and flooding that deluged Buenos Aires and the nearby city of La Plata. Of those killed, 51 died in La Plata, a bustling university town of about one million inhabitants.

The United States is pressuring China's new President Xi Jinping to crack down on the regime in North Korea or face an increased U.S. military presence in the region, The New York Times reported late Friday.

Citing unnamed administration officials, the newspaper said the recent U.S. exchanges with China included a phone call from President Barack Obama to Xi.

Foreign diplomats in Pyongyang huddled on Saturday to discuss a North Korean evacuation advisory as concerns grew that the isolated state was preparing a missile launch at a time of soaring nuclear tensions.

The heads of all EU missions had agreed to meet to hammer out a common position after Pyongyang warned embassies it would be unable to guarantee their safety if a conflict broke out and that they should consider leaving.

The U.S. military is set to deploy an unmanned spy plane in Japan to boost surveillance capabilities as North Korea apparently readied for missile launches, a newspaper report said on Saturday.

The Global Hawk will be stationed at the U.S. airbase in Misawa, northern Japan, in the first ever deployment of the aircraft in the country, the Sankei Shimbun reported, quoting government sources.