The Pentagon warned Pyongyang on Friday that "further provocative action would be regrettable" after reports that North Korea had deployed two mid-range missiles near its eastern coast.

"Missile tests outside their international obligations would be a provocative act. They need to follow international norms and abide by their commitments," Pentagon spokesman George Little told reporters.

Pope Francis on Friday gave his first pronouncement on the Catholic Church's pervasive pedophile priest scandal, urging Vatican disciplinarians to act "with determination" against the scourge.

Meeting with Monsignor Gerhard Ludwig Mueller, the head of the Vatican department that disciplines predator priests, the pope asked him to "act with determination in cases of sexual abuse," the Vatican said in a statement.

Washington is breaking international law by holding detainees indefinitely at Guantanamo and must honor a pledge to shut the controversial jail, the U.N.'s human rights chief said Friday.

"I am deeply disappointed that the U.S. government has not been able to close Guantanamo Bay, despite repeatedly committing itself to do so," Navi Pillay said in a statement.

The U.N. rights body on Friday criticized Kuwait and several countries in Asia for resuming executions after halting the practice for several years.

"We are deeply concerned that a number of countries in the Middle East and Asia have recently started reapplying the death penalty after several years of moratorium," OHCHR spokesman Rupert Colville told reporters in Geneva.

Pakistan's top court will on Monday hear a petition asking for Pervez Musharraf to be put on trial for treason, the latest in a barrage of challenges to his bid for election, officials said.

Taufiq Asif, president of the Rawalpindi high court bar association, told Agence France Presse that he had asked the Supreme Court to try Musharraf for treason for imposing emergency rule in 2007, a move that ultimately paved the way for his downfall.

At least four Pakistani soldiers were killed on Friday during an operation against militants in the troubled tribal belt on the Afghan border, officials said.

The fighting took place in the Tirah valley of Khyber district, where the military has been bombarding Taliban and other militants who pose a fresh threat to the nearby northwestern city of Peshawar, a key battleground in upcoming elections.

North Korea has no choice but to "confront" the United States which is to blame for tensions in the Korean peninsula, a top Iranian commander said in remarks carried on Friday by Fars news agency.

"Tensions in the region are due to excessive demands by the United States... and its tightening of the noose on North Korea," said armed forces deputy chief Brigadier General Masoud Jazayeri.

A powerful 6.2 magnitude earthquake struck early Saturday in eastern Russia near the border with China and North Korea, the U.S. Geological Survey said.

The epicenter of the quake, which struck at 1300 GMT Friday, was southwest of Vladivostok, around nine kilometers (five miles) from the Russian border town of Zarubino, at a depth of 561 kilometers (350 miles), the USGS said.

North Korea has suggested to Russia that it should consider evacuating its embassy in Pyongyang due to the upsurge of tensions on the Korean peninsula, a Russian diplomat said Friday.

"A representative of the North Korean foreign ministry suggested that the Russian side examine the question of evacuating the employees of the Russian embassy," embassy spokesman Denis Samsonov told Russian news agencies.

A Dutch court on Friday halted the extradition of a Dutch-Pakistani al-Qaida suspect to the United States, saying he would not be handed over until Washington guaranteed the same treatment for his post-traumatic stress disorder as in the Netherlands.

The Hague judge "prohibits the State to extradite Sabir Khan as long as the United States cannot guarantee," that Khan, 26, gets a very specific type of treatment for his disorder, commonly referred to as PTSD, said a court document sent to Agence France Presse.