Three senior Taliban members traveled to Pakistan this week and held a series of meetings with Pakistani officials in Islamabad, mainly to brief them about the recent talks held in Qatar between the Taliban and Kabul, a senior Taliban official, an Afghan diplomat and a Pakistani official said Saturday.

The Afghan ambassador to Pakistan, Hazrat Omar Zakhilwal, said he was aware of the meetings but refused to offer details. According to a senior Taliban official, the Taliban who were sent to Pakistan were Mullah Salam Hanifi and Mullah Jan Mohammed, both former ministers in the Taliban government, and Maulvi Shahabuddin Dilawar, a former ambassador to Saudi Arabia and Pakistan.

Pyongyang's newly opened zoo has a new star: Azalea, the smoking chimpanzee.

According to officials at the newly renovated zoo, which has become a favorite leisure spot in the North Korean capital since it re-opened in July, the 19-year-old female chimpanzee, whose name in Korean is "Dallae," smokes about a pack a day. Dallae is short for azalea.

There'll be no early retirement for star singer Phil Collins.

The 65-year-old former Genesis frontman Monday announced plans for gigs next summer in London, Paris and Cologne. The tour will be called: "Not Dead Yet, Live."

Experts on a government-commissioned panel were set to hold their first meeting Monday to study how to accommodate Emperor Akihito's apparent abdication wish, in a country where he is not supposed to say anything political.

Unlike many European countries where abdication of kings and queens are relatively common, Japan's modern imperial law doesn't allow abdication, and Japan's postwar Constitution stipulates the emperor as mere "symbol" with no political power or a say.

Montenegro's Prime Minister Milo Djukanovic says a general election this weekend will decide whether the small Balkan state will continue on a Western course, or become "a Russian colony."

Djukanovic has told his supporters that the ballot on Sunday is the most important since the vote for independence from much bigger Serbia a decade ago.

Thailand's government said a regent will be the caretaker of the monarchy while waiting for the crown prince to take over following the death of his father, King Bhumibol Adulyadej, as tens of thousands of people thronged Saturday to the palace complex where the king's body is being kept.

Dressed in somber black and white, people from all over the country converged at the complex in Bangkok's historic center, hoping to get a glimpse of their beloved monarch, who died Thursday after prolonged illnesses that had incapacitated many of his organs. He was 88.

An Israeli human rights group urged the U.N. Security Council to take decisive action now to end the country's occupation of Palestinian territory.

Hagai El-Ad, executive director of B'Tselem, told an informal council meeting Friday on "Illegal Israeli Settlements: Obstacles to Peace and the Two-State Solution" that Israel has controlled Palestinian lives in Gaza, the West Bank and East Jerusalem for the past 49 years "and counting."

Syrian pro-government forces used intense air strikes as cover for an advance in the battleground city of Aleppo on Friday, ahead of fresh diplomatic efforts to end the country's intractable conflict.

The mother faced an anguished decision: choosing which of her children to save.

With hunger gripping this remote region of South Sudan, Elizabeth Athiel could either get urgent medical attention for her 8-month-old daughter, Anger, or make sure her other five children could eat.

Greenhouse gases that are more powerful than carbon dioxide are the focus of a global gathering this week in Africa. Experts say cutting hydrofluorocarbons, or HFCs, is the fastest way to reduce global warming. The United States is among the countries that want the world to quickly phase out the use of HFCs, and Secretary of State John Kerry is arriving Thursday to encourage a deal. Here's a look at a potential global climate agreement that has been described by the National Resources Defense Council as "the world's biggest climate protection achievement in the year after Paris."

IT'S NOT ABOUT THE OZONE LAYER