Chadian soldiers sent to repatriate their compatriots from the Central African Republic opened fire on residents in Bangui, killing at least eight people, the African peacekeeping force MISCA said Sunday.

The incident happened on Saturday when some Chadian soldiers "opened fire on residents of the northern neighborhoods (in Bangui), leaving at least eight people dead and several wounded," an officer with the MISCA force who requested anonymity told Agence France Presse.

Chinese leader Xi Jinping began a three-day visit to Belgium Sunday on the last leg of his European tour that will include meeting the Belgian royals and seeing giant pandas ahead of an historic EU visit, the first ever by a Chinese president.

Xi was welcomed at the airport by Belgian Prime Minister Elio Di Rupo and he is set to go to the royal palace in central Brussels to meet Belgium's King Philippe and Queen Mathilde.

North Korea vowed not to rule out a "new form" of nuclear test Sunday after the U.N. Security Council condemned its latest ballistic missile launch amid simmering tensions over Seoul's joint military drills with Washington.

Pyongyang has carried out a series of rocket and short-range missile launches in recent weeks which have prompted stern reactions from South Korea and the United States.

Sri Lanka's ruling party was headed for victory in local elections but with smaller than expected margins in a crucial mid-term test for President Mahinda Rajapakse, early results showed Sunday.

The president campaigned for polls held Saturday for southern and western provincial councils, both in the ethnic majority Sinhalese heartland, which account for more than a third of the total electorate.

The Philippines was set to push forward Sunday its case in the United Nations challenging Beijing's claim to most of the South China Sea, a day after a dramatic stand-off with the Asian giant's coastguard.

Philippine Foreign Secretary Albert del Rosario is expected to announce at 2:30 pm (0630 GMT) that Manila has filed a formal plea before the U.N. arbitration tribunal, officials said, despite Chinese warnings of a fallout in bilateral relations.

Colombian President Juan Manuel Santos on Saturday said government troops killed a finance officer with the FARC and vowed to press ahead with offensives against the guerrilla group despite peace talks.

John Hernandez, alias "Fabian," who was head of finance for Front 17 of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC), was killed by government soldiers in a hamlet in the south of the country, Santos said.

A new search area failed to yield an immediate breakthrough in the hunt for ill-fated Flight MH370 on Sunday, as Australia appointed its former military chief to help coordinate the operation in the Indian Ocean.

Debris spotted by aircraft and then picked up by ships combing the new search zone proved not to be from the Malaysian Airlines' Boeing 777, the Australian Maritime Safety Authority (AMSA) said.

Polls opened in Thailand Sunday to elect the upper house of parliament in a vote that could hold the key to the fate of the prime minister, who faces possible impeachment for negligence after months of street protests.

While the Senate is officially non-partisan, in reality the two main political camps are vying for control of the chamber in the absence of a functioning lower house following incomplete February polls.

The death toll from several weeks of protests that have paralyzed Venezuela rose to 39 on Saturday after two more people died in separate incidents, Interior Minister Miguel Rodriguez said.

Rodriguez said on VTV public television that in San Cristobal, hotbed of the movement that has seen some of the worst violence, a 44-year-old man died after being struck by a high tension cable as demonstrators carried a billboard to form a barricade.

The European Union on Saturday signaled that it is ready to deploy its delayed peacekeeping force to help put down the escalating crisis in Central African Republic, after obtaining additional backing for the mission.

The troops were due to deploy last week, but there were insufficient soldiers for the mission and not enough aircraft at hand to transport them.