Iranian negotiators hold this week a series of meetings in Vienna meant to lay the groundwork for substantial progress in talks with world powers in Geneva on November 7-8.

On Monday U.N. atomic watchdog head Yukiya Amano will meet Abbass Araqchi, deputy foreign minister and Tehran's chief nuclear negotiator in Iran's fresh diplomatic push under new President Hassan Rouhani.

Security forces were on high alert across the Philippines on Monday as millions of voters went to the polls to choose village leaders, with 22 people killed in pre-election violence.

Poll officials said about 336,000 village chief and councilor posts were up for grabs in the country's dynamic but corrupt brand of democracy, where politicians are infamous for employing private armies to kill or intimidate rivals.

The National Security Agency stopped spying on German Chancellor Angela Merkel and other world leaders after the White House learned of the snooping, the Wall Street Journal reported Monday.

President Barack Obama learned of the electronic surveillance in an internal review he ordered at mid-year, the Journal reported, citing unnamed U.S. officials.

China on Monday kept up the pressure on Japan over disputed islands, sending its coastguard to the area following Beijing's weekend mention of "war" after Tokyo reportedly readied to down its drones.

In one of its strongest statements so far in an increasingly acrimonious spat over the islands, Beijing said if Japan fired on its unmanned aircraft it "would constitute a serious provocation, an act of war of sorts".

The U.N. Security Council will hold emergency talks Monday on a new surge in fighting in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo in which a U.N. peacekeeper was killed, diplomats said.

France called for the meeting as U.N. leader Ban Ki-moon strongly condemned the killing of a Tanzanian peacekeeper in an offensive by DR Congo troops against M23 rebels north of the key city of Goma.

A 5.5-magnitude earthquake struck off the east coast of Japan on Monday, the U.S. Geological Survey reported, but no tsunami warning was issued.

The quake hit at a depth of 26 kilometers (16 miles) at 3:13 am (1813 GMT Sunday), about 324 kilometers east of the town of Namie, the USGS said.

Twelve people were killed in fierce clashes over the weekend between vigilante groups and former rebels in the western Central African town of Bouar, according to a military source Sunday.

The updated death toll came after militias armed with machetes encircled Bouar, a town some 400 kilometers (250 miles) northwest of the capital Bangui on Saturday morning, the same source said on condition of anonymity.

The National Security Agency denied German press reports Sunday that President Barack Obama was personally informed of U.S. spies tapping German Chancellor Angela Merkel's phones.

NSA chief General Keith Alexander "did not discuss with President Obama in 2010 an alleged foreign intelligence operation involving German Chancellor Merkel, nor has he ever discussed alleged operations involving Chancellor Merkel," spokeswoman Vanee' Vines said.

Thousands of ethnic Hungarians staged rallies in Romania on Sunday to call for autonomy for the Szeklers' Land, home to most of their minority.

Romanian police said some 15,000 people had taken part in peaceful demonstrations across the country's central Transylvania region, while organizers put the turnout at around 100,000.

The Tehran municipality has removed anti-American posters from the streets of the capital which questioned U.S. honesty in nuclear talks with Iran, media reported on Sunday.

The move comes as President Hassan Rouhani, a reputed moderate, has made fresh overtures to the West, including direct talks between U.S. and Iranian officials, and ahead of the 34th anniversary of the U.S. embassy seizure in Tehran.