Fighting between rebels and government soldiers in the east of the Democratic Republic of Congo entered a third day Sunday, sources said, in a fresh flare-up that has prompted international calls for restraint.

"Some fighting is still going on in Kibumba," some 25 kilometers (12 miles) north of the regional mining hub of Goma, a U.N. official told AFP.

At least five people were killed in nationwide clashes as Bangladesh's opposition Sunday began a three-day strike to demand the prime minister quit and make way for polls under a caretaker government.

Police said officers opened fire at protesters in the western town of Nagarkanda after some 3,000 supporters of the main opposition Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) ransacked a rural market and attacked police with bricks.

Seoul returned four North Korean fishermen and their boat Sunday after it drifted into southern waters, military authorities said, two days after Pyongyang handed back six detained South Koreans.

The vessel was picked up by a South Korean navy ship on Saturday after being spotted stranded off the country's east coast following engine failure, officials said.

An ally of billionaire Georgian Prime Minister Bidzina Ivanishvili claimed a crushing first-round victory in a presidential vote Sunday after his main opponent conceded defeat and exit polls pointed to an overwhelming win.

Giorgi Margvelashvili, a little-known academic from the premier's Georgian Dream coalition, had at least 66 percent of the vote in two television exit polls, well ahead of former parliament speaker David Bakradze of outgoing President Mikheil Saakashvili's United National Movement party, in second place with around 20 percent in the ex-Soviet state.

Japan has scrambled fighter jets for two days running in response to four Chinese military aircraft flying over international waters near the Okinawa island chain, according to reports Sunday.

The jets were deployed on Friday and Saturday as four Chinese planes -- two Y8 early-warning aircraft and two H6 bombers -- flew between Okinawa's main island and Miyako island, Jiji Press and Kyodo News agency said.

Panama granted asylum Saturday to an Ecuadoran opposition politician sentenced to prison last month for his role in a multiple homicide case, finding that he was subjected to political persecution.

Tito Galo Lara Yepez fled to Panama and requested asylum on grounds that his opposition to Ecuador's leftist government had placed his life in danger.

Japan is ready to counter China if it resorts to force in the pursuit of its geopolitical interests, Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe said in an interview published Saturday.

"I've realized that Japan is expected to exert leadership not just on the economic front, but also in the field of security in the Asia-Pacific," Abe told the Wall Street Journal, speaking after a series of summits this month with regional leaders.

EU foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton urged rebels in the Democratic Republic of Congo and regional players to commit to peace Saturday as fighting flared again, days after peace talks failed.

A statement from Ashton's office expressing strong concern over a second day of clashes in the northeast urged "the M23 to commit urgently to a peaceful solution based on the provisions" laid out in peace talks in Kampala that broke down on Monday.

The Bulgarian Roma family of Maria, wrongly thought to be an abducted western European child when she was found in Greece last week, wants her back but fears social services will keep her.

"Give us Maria! We will take her home and share our bread with her," her eldest sister Katia Ruseva said Saturday in the central Bulgarian town of Gurkovo, where she lives with her husband and two children.

A small group of Bulgarian students occupied the largest university in Sofia Saturday, demanding the resignation of the Socialist-backed government and an end to corruption in politics.

Around 70 students hunkered down inside the university's main building in downtown Sofia, blocking entrances and hanging banners inscribed with the word "Occupation" from windows.