Five African aid workers who were abducted in Niger in mid-October have been freed alive, while a sixth has died after being shot by the al-Qaida-linked kidnappers, the workers and their employers said Saturday.

Five Niger nationals "were freed today and are currently in Niger," while their colleague Aime Soulembaye from Chad has "died from his wounds," Niger's Befen and Chad's Alerte-Sante aid agencies said in a statement.

Italian coastguards recovered the bodies of seven would-be immigrants from the Mediterranean on Sunday after their boat sank between the Libyan coast and the Italian island of Lampedusa, bringing the death toll to 10, the Ansa news agency said.

The bodies of three women had been found by coastguards overnight but another 62 men and eight women, including one pregnant woman, were rescued, it said, without disclosing their nationalities.

Four Chinese government ships cruised into the territorial waters of disputed Tokyo-controlled islands in the East China Sea on Sunday, Japan's coastguard said.

The maritime surveillance vessels entered the 12-nautical-mile zone around Uotsurijima, the main islet in the disputed chain called the Senkaku Islands in Japan and the Diaoyu Islands in China at about noon (0300 GMT).

Japan is planning to develop an unmanned drone that could help detect a North Korean nuclear missile attack and to counter China's military buildup, a report said Sunday.

The defence ministry has demanded 3 billion yen ($372 million) over the next four years to develop the aircraft, which would come into operation in 2020, the Yomiuri Shimbun reported without citing sources.

The Red Cross relief agency said Saturday it was stepping up efforts to help those struck by Hurricane Sandy, amid fears a new storm could hit the U.S. East Coast next week.

As millions in New York, New Jersey and the region picked up the pieces in Sandy's devastating wake, forecasters are warning another bout of bad weather could bring biting wind, rain and possibly even snow to the region.

Republican nominee Mitt Romney chided President Barack Obama Saturday for calling on Americans to vote for "revenge" as the battle for the White House raced to an ill-tempered climax.

Three days before voters choose between giving Obama a second term or sending him packing back to Chicago, the rivals chased one another through a handful of states that will decide Tuesday's too-close-to-call election.

U.S. President Barack Obama is keeping in constant touch with the huge emergency effort launched after superstorm Sandy, despite his intense final weekend on the campaign trail, aides said Saturday.

Obama started his day at the headquarters of the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) in Washington before heading to his first event in the swing state of Ohio.

Gunmen have killed three people including a fire service chief in Nigeria's restive northeastern state of Borno in the latest such attack blamed on the Boko Haram Islamists, police and residents said Saturday.

The attack on the Damboa local government office, around 90 kilometers south of the volatile city of Maiduguri, happened late Friday, they said.

Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan lauded on Saturday his AKP government's 10 years in power as a revolution in Turkey's understanding of politics, ending a military legacy and exalting the will of the people.

"Not only a new party came to power... but a mentality revolution took place," Erdogan told his party's rank and file at an annual camp in Kizilcahamam near Ankara.

Two suicide bombers attacked a restaurant in Somalia's capital Mogadishu on Saturday, wounding several people, police said, and killing one victim, according to a witness.

"There were two suicide bombers who attacked the Village restaurant. The two of them have died and other people who stayed in the place were injured. We are still investigating the casualties," said Abdi Adan, a Somali police officer.