An arsonist severely damaged the front door of China's consulate in San Francisco in a "despicable" attack, Chinese officials said Thursday, urging U.S. authorities to protect diplomatic personnel.

The State Department responded by saying it was "deeply concerned" by the reports, and pledged to find who carried out the New Year's Day attack and bring them to justice.

Italy's Silvio Berlusconi on Thursday lodged an appeal against a conviction for paying for sex with a then-underage prostitute nicknamed "Ruby the Heart Stealer", his lawyers said.

The media magnate's defense team had previously announced their intention to appeal the July verdict, which saw the former premier sentenced to seven years in jail and banned from holding public office.

The New York Times and Guardian newspapers called Thursday for U.S. leaker Edward Snowden to be granted clemency for his revelations on U.S. government spying.

The two dailies in separate editorials hailed the fugitive computer specialist, who has sought refuge in Russia after leaking reams of information about the secretive US National Security Agency and its data gathering techniques.

Turkey's military has demanded a retrial for army officers convicted of plotting to topple the government in two separate cases, claiming the evidence was fabricated, media reports said Thursday.

The armed forces lodged a complaint about the evidence with the Ankara chief prosecutor's office on December 27, the private NTV television reported.

Bangladesh's Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina ruled out Thursday any last-minute cancellation of weekend elections that have been boycotted by the opposition, accusing her rivals of holding the country hostage.

In a final address to the nation ahead of Sunday's violence-plagued polls, Hasina accused opposition leader Khaleda Zia of shunning dialogue and rejecting an offer to share power in an interim administration.

A decision to release jailed Taliban militants further aggravated U.S.-Afghan relations on Thursday as pressure mounts for the two countries to sign a deal allowing some American soldiers to stay after 2014.

The plan to free 88 insurgent suspects from Bagram jail has outraged U.S. military officials and senators as final negotiations are underway on the long-delayed Bilateral Security Agreement (BSA).

France's military mission in the Central African Republic will not suck in its troops in an expanding role, Defense Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian vowed Thursday during a visit to the restive country's capital.

Le Drian predicted last month's deployment of 1,600 French soldiers to the former French colony to help an African force there would prove as successful as France's mission launched nearly a year ago in Mali, where an Islamist guerrilla advance was halted.

Iran's foreign minister is set to visit Turkey on Saturday in the midst of a high-level corruption probe looking into illicit money transfers to Tehran.

Mohammad Javad Zarif's trip comes as Turkey seeks to improve economic and political ties with its neighbor but with the government in Ankara embroiled in a deep political crisis over the corruption scandal.

Beijing's first aircraft carrier has returned from a training mission in the South China Sea, state media said, completing a 37-day deployment carried out amid mounting regional tensions.

The newly-commissioned Liaoning returned to its home port of Qingdao after carrying out a series of trials with "aircraft, naval vessels and submarines", China's official news agency Xinhua reported on Wednesday.

A Canadian lawmaker said Thursday she was intimidated and warned she could be deported during an ongoing visit to her birthplace of Jaffna, the war-battered Tamil heartland of Sri Lanka.

Rathika Sitsabaiesan, an ethnic Tamil, was subjected to "political intimidation" and warned of possible arrest and deportation, according to a statement on her New Democratic Party's (NDP) website.