Around 30 youths on Saturday threw stones at the home of Greek President Carolos Papoulias in central Athens, causing minor damage to the building and cars parked nearby, a police source said.

Papoulias, 82, is one of Greece's most respected politicians after years of service as foreign minister under successive socialist administrations.

The Brazilian government has sent troops to the state of Bahia to restore order after a strike by militarized police set off a crime wave, authorities said Saturday.

The homicide rate in the state capital of Salvador was up 117% to 50 in the four days since the strike started Wednesday, according to figures from the government news service Agencia Brasil. A jump in looting and assaults also was reported.

Ivory Coast opposition leaders loyal to former president Laurent Gbagbo should reconcile with the country's rulers, an opposition leader said Saturday.

"The opposition must accept the outstretched hand of power," said Laurent Dona Fologo, vice-president of the National Congress for the Resistance of Democracy, a coalition loyal to former president Laurent Gbagbo.

A 6.0-magnitude quake struck off the eastern coast of the Philippines on Saturday, the U.S. Geological Survey said, but no tsunami warning was immediately issued.

The quake hit at 9:09 pm local time (13:09 GMT) off the island of Samar, at a depth of 60 kilometers around 100 kilometers north of the city of Guiuan, USGS said.

Tens of thousands took to the streets of Moscow Saturday for rival rallies opposing and supporting Russian strongman Vladimir Putin's political domination one month ahead of presidential polls.

Police said between 87,000 and 90,000 turned up for the pro-Putin rally in the west of the capital and put the number of protesters at the anti-Putin march to a square overlooking the Kremlin at around 23,000.

Last year was the deadliest on record for Afghan civilians with 3,021 killed, a rise of 8 percent from the year before as insurgents ratcheted up violence with roadside bombs and suicide attacks, the United Nations said Saturday.

Taliban-affiliated militants were responsible for more than three-quarters of the civilian deaths in 2011, the fifth year in a row in which the death toll went up, the U.N. said.

The Afghan Taliban on Saturday denied that their leader Mullah Omar had written to President Barack Obama last July.

Taliban spokesman Zabiullah Mujahid said reports that Omar had sent a letter indicating an interest in talks key to ending the war in Afghanistan were "baseless allegations."

More than 260 people were rescued early Saturday from a ferry which ran aground off Italy in a snow storm, while emergency services freed people trapped in cars and trains in freezing temperatures.

The Shardon ferry ran aground shortly after setting off from Civitavecchia port near Rome, causing panic among the 262 passengers who feared a repeat of a cruise ship tragedy in the area last month which killed 32 people.

Sudan is closer to war than peace with the breakaway state of South Sudan, President Omar al-Bashir said on national television Friday, with a dispute over oil and other issues stoking tensions.

"The climate now is closer to a climate of war than one of peace," he said.

Dozens of people were killed in South Sudan during a shootout at a peace meeting to resolve disputes about stolen cattle, with some reports claiming as many as 37 people died, officials said Friday.

"These guys just started shooting everywhere," said Gideon Gatpan Thoar, Unity state information minister, reporting 37 people killed in Wednesday's attack.