India's lower house on Tuesday approved a bill toughening punishments for rapists and other sexual offenders that was introduced following the fatal gang-rape of a student that sparked national outrage.

Members of the decision-making lower house of parliament gave their assent, following a seven-hour debate, to the Criminal Laws (Amendment) Bill which also contains new penalties for stalking, groping, voyeurism and acid attacks.

U.S. President Barack Obama marked the tenth anniversary of the Iraq invasion on Tuesday by paying tribute to the "sacrifice" of U.S. troops, but had few words for the Iraqi people.

In a muted statement, issued on the eve of a visit to a Middle East much changed since his predecessor George W. Bush unleashed the 2003 war, Obama promised to support wounded American veterans of the conflict.

A French Muslim woman who was sacked for wearing the Islamic headscarf at work was unfairly dismissed on the basis of her religion, France's top court ruled on Tuesday.

In a landmark decision, the Court of Cassation overturned an earlier ruling by an appeal court in Versailles which had upheld the right of her employer, a private creche in the Paris suburbs, to dismiss the woman after she refused to remove her headscarf.

Fifteen Islamist fighters have been killed in recent days in the northern Mali region of Gao, the French army said Tuesday, announcing the seizure of a large cache of arms and ammunition.

The claim came two weeks after France said more than 150 Islamist rebels had been killed since the middle of February in Mali. French losses in the intervention have been limited to five casualties.

European Union foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton on Tuesday defended Italy's envoy to India, prevented from leaving the country due to a row over two Italian marines who skipped bail while on trial for murder in New Delhi.

A statement from Ashton's office said she "notes with concern" an Indian Supreme Court decision the previous day requiring ambassador Daniele Mancini to seek permission of the court to leave the country.

Afghanistan's presidential spokesman on Tuesday described the NATO-led military operation in the country as "aimless and unwise", in the latest government broadside against the coalition.

Aimal Faizi, spokesman for President Hamid Karzai, hit out after NATO chief Anders Fogh Rasmussen rejected Karzai's recent allegations that it was working in collusion with Taliban militants.

Seven U.S. military personnel were killed and several more wounded in an accident during a Marine Corps training exercise in Nevada, the military said Tuesday.

"A fatal incident occurred during a training exercise shortly before 10 pm Monday at Hawthorne Army Depot, Nevada, killing seven service members and injuring several others with 2nd Marine Division," the Marine Corps said.

Four aides to Zimbabwe's Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai were on Tuesday charged with breaching the official secrets code, impersonating the police and illegal possession of documents for criminal use.

Thabani Mpofu, director for research in Tsvangirai's office, two subordinates and a senior party official were arrested on Sunday, in the wake of a key constitutional referendum.

World powers gave Iran fresh details on a proposed deal aimed at ending international concern over Tehran's nuclear program during talks in Istanbul, the European Union said Tuesday.

At the talks on Monday, experts from the five permanent U.N. Security Council members -- Britain, China, France, Russia and the U.S. -- plus Germany "had technical discussions with Iran," said a brief statement from a spokesman for EU foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton.

Police in Indian-administered Kashmir Tuesday said they had arrested four people including a Pakistani national from the Lashkar-e-Toiba militant group over an attack that left five policemen dead.

Abdul Gani Mir, Kashmir's top law enforcement officer, said investigators had concluded that the attack was planned by Lashkar-e-Toiba (LeT), a Pakistan-based group blamed for mass killings in Mumbai in 2008.