U.S. President Barack Obama sent 40 additional soldiers to Niger to help with intelligence efforts as French and African troops battle an Islamist insurgency in neighboring Mali, the White House said in a letter to Congress Friday.

The U.S. troops join another 60 or so already in the West African country, and are tasked with providing "support for intelligence collection and will also facilitate intelligence sharing with French forces conducting operations in Mali, and with other partners in the region," the president said.

Germany is not seeking to impose its will on the rest of Europe, the country's president said Friday, also urging Britain to stay inside the Europe it helped "save" after World War II.

President Joachim Gauck delivered an impassioned speech on Europe, his first since taking over the largely ceremonial office 11 months ago, lamenting that its economic crisis had also hit confidence in its "political project".

Turkey voiced hope that a presidential runoff in Cyprus Sunday would yield a "serious counterpart" for Ankara and pave the way for a peace deal between the island's Greek government in the south and its northern occupiers.

"I believe Christofias was a big joke," European Union Affairs Minister Egemen Bagis said in an interview to Agence France Presse this week, referring to President Demetris Christofias whose term runs out at the end of this month.

A NATO soldier was killed by an improvised bomb blast on Friday, the military said, the first coalition death in a month as international forces wind-down their operations.

NATO's International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) said in a statement that the soldier died in an improvised explosive device attack in southern Afghanistan.

Turkey's new constitution will reduce the political influence of the once-powerful military in order to steer the EU-hopeful country more on the path of democracy, a parliamentary source said Friday.

The army, considered the self-appointed guardian of Turkish secularism, has intervened in politics since 1960 and has staged four coups. Since coming to power in 2002, Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan's government has taken steps to curb the power of the military.

Five people, including two suicide bombers, died Friday in car bombings in northern Mali, a day after fierce urban battles between French-led forces and Islamists left up to 20 extremists dead, officials said.

Two kamikaze vehicles targeting civilians and members of the ethnic Tuareg rebel group the MNLA exploded near the town of Tessalit, killing three and wounding several others, a security source said.

Bangladesh police fired live rounds on Friday in fierce clashes with Islamists demanding the execution of bloggers they accuse of blasphemy, killing at least four people and injuring about 200.

Two people were shot dead by police in the northwestern town of Palashbari, and two others died elsewhere, police told Agence France Presse.

Maoist rebels killed six policemen Friday in a landmine attack in the eastern Indian state of Bihar, the second deadly ambush by the insurgents against security forces in recent weeks, police said.

"The Maoists targeted a convoy heading out on patrol duty killing six policemen in Gaya district," district police chief N. H. Khan told AFP by telephone.

Pope Benedict XVI's final Sunday prayers in St Peter's Square will signal the start of a week in the Vatican that will make history with the first voluntary papal resignation in more than 700 years.

Tens of thousands of pilgrims have gathered in Rome from around the world following the aging pope's shock announcement that he would step down because he no longer had the strength of body and mind to govern the Catholic Church in modern times.

Parliamentary polls in the tiny Horn of Africa nation of Djibouti opened peacefully Friday, residents said, with opposition groups joining forces to challenge the ruling party.

This is the first poll since 2003 in which opposition groups have decided to forge a coalition together, taking part as the Union for National Safety (USN).