A suicide bomber killed a senior provincial minister and seven other people at a political meeting in northwest Pakistan on Saturday, officials said, in an attack claimed by the Taliban.

The bomber struck when the top provincial leadership of the Awami National Party (ANP) had gathered at a meeting in the city of Peshawar, the capital of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province.

Russia on Saturday urged South Sudan to punish those responsible for shooting down a U.N. helicopter, killing all four Russian crew members on board.

"We call on the government of South Sudan to carry out the necessary investigation, punish the guilty and take every measure to guarantee that this never happens again," the foreign ministry said in a statement on its website after Friday's incident.

Pope Benedict XVI on Saturday pardoned his former butler Paolo Gabriele who was sentenced to 18 months in prison for stealing secret papal memos, but banished the once loyal servant from the Vatican forever.

"This morning the Holy Father Benedict XVI visited Paolo Gabriele in prison in order to confirm his forgiveness and to inform him personally of his acceptance of Mr Gabriele's request for pardon," the Vatican said in a statement.

Two suspected suicide car bombers attacked the offices of two major telecoms companies in the volatile northern Nigerian city of Kano on Saturday, police and the army said.

One of the attackers blew himself up when he rammed his car into the office gate of the Airtel mobile phone company, setting the building ablaze, police said.

President Hamid Karzai on Saturday blamed foreigners for most of the corruption in Afghanistan and said the withdrawal of NATO troops in 2014 would help rid the country of graft.

More than 11 years after a U.S.-led invasion led to billions of dollars in aid flowing into one of the world's poorest countries, Afghanistan ranks among the most corrupt nations in the world.

Italy's election campaign kicked off on Saturday amid uncertainty over whether Prime Minister Mario Monti will launch himself into the political fray and fight flamboyant billionaire Silvio Berlusconi for the top job.

Monti's resignation on Friday brought to a head weeks of speculation over whether the former eurocrat will play a major role in the February election, either as a candidate or a figurehead for parties that pledge to continue his reforms.

Unknown gunmen killed 11 people as they prepared to illegally leave Pakistan in the southwestern province of Baluchistan, officials said on Saturday.

The gunmen, riding motorcycles, attacked a convoy on Friday night in Pakistan's Gwadar district near the border with Iran, some 1,600 kilometers (1,000 miles) southwest of Quetta.

Indian police on Saturday baton-charged, tear-gassed and fired water cannon at demonstrators who were demanding better safety for women following the brutal gang-rape of a student last weekend.

Thousands of protesters, who rallied at the India Gate monument in the heart of the Indian capital and surged toward the president's palace, were calling for stepped-up security for women across the country.

Four South Korean workers who were kidnapped earlier this week in southern Nigeria have been released unharmed, a foreign ministry spokesman said Saturday.

The four workers from South Korea's Hyundai Heavy Industries, were abducted by armed men Monday while working at a construction site in the state of Bayelsa.

North Korean leader Kim Jong-Un has ordered the development of bigger rockets, state media said Saturday, after Pyongyang sparked international condemnation with a long-range rocket launch.

He gave the order to scientists, technicians and others involved in this month's launch at a banquet on Friday, the official Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) reported.