At least three Islamists were killed in Timbuktu on Monday during a sweep by French and Malian soldiers after a deadly weekend battle in the fabled Saharan city, a military source said.

"During our clean-up operation, the Mali and French armies destroyed a public building in the center of town where the terrorists were hiding. We have found the bodies of three terrorists," the Malian military source told Agence France Presse.

Prosecutors will seek the death penalty against the man accused of killing 12 people in a crowded U.S. cinema last year, they said Monday, as the judge delayed the trial until next year.

The case against alleged shooter James Holmes will probably take years to reach a resolution, Judge William Sylvester said, as some in the Colorado court showed frustration at the likely length of the legal proceedings.

A new explosion in a Chinese coal mine killed six people and left 11 missing Monday, three days after a blast killed 28 workers at the same mine, state media said.

The blasts occurred at the Babao mine operated by the state group Tonghua Mining in Baishan prefecture in the northeastern province of Jilin.

Former U.S. president Jimmy Carter on Monday called on a hardline Maoist faction in Nepal to renounce violence in the run-up to general elections expected in coming months.

Nepal's political system has operated in a legislative vacuum since May last year when parliament was dissolved after squabbling lawmakers failed to agree on a new constitution.

North Korea appointed a new prime minister Monday, choosing a former premier who was sacked from the post in 2007 in a reported backlash against his pursuit of economic reforms.

Pak Pong-Ju, 74, was sworn in at the annual meeting of the Supreme People's Assembly, the North's rubber-stamp parliament, the official Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) said. He replaces Choe Yong-Rim.

Gunmen in Pakistan on Monday set ablaze five trucks carrying NATO equipment out of Afghanistan as the international military alliance winds down its combat mission there, officials said.

Four masked gunmen on two motorbikes opened fire at the vehicles, forcing them to stop and then doused them in petrol to set them on fire in the southwestern province Baluchistan.

Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir said on Monday that he will release all political detainees, a move welcomed by the opposition as tensions ease with South Sudan.

"Today, we announce a decision to free all the political prisoners and renew our commitment to all political powers about dialogue," Bashir said in a half-hour speech opening a new session of parliament.

Rescuers have pulled more bodies from the rubble of a building that collapsed in Tanzania's economic capital Dar es Salaam, bringing the toll to 34 three days after the crash, a local government official said on Monday.

"Ten bodies were found between Sunday afternoon and dawn today. This brings the total number confirmed dead to 34," Dar es Salaam Regional Commissioner Saidi Mecky Sadicky told Agence France Presse.

Human Rights Watch (HRW) on Monday urged Myanmar to investigate the failure of police to stop a recent wave of Buddhist-Muslim killing and arson attacks.

The New York-based rights watchdog released satellite images which it said showed more than 800 buildings were totally destroyed in the central town of Meiktila, leaving several charred areas where homes and properties once stood.

Three Chinese government ships entered the territorial waters of disputed Tokyo-controlled islands on Monday, Japan's coastguard said.

The three surveillance ships were navigating in the 12-nautical-mile territorial waters around the Senkakus, which Beijing claims and calls the Diaoyus, at around 1:30 pm (0430 GMT), the coastguard said.