Four elderly U.S. men sat in federal court in the southern state of Georgia Wednesday facing accusations that they were far-right militia members intent on attacking U.S. government offices and plotting targeted assassinations.

The men, ranging in age from 65 to 73, were arrested by FBI agents Tuesday on charges "relating to plans to obtain an unregistered explosive device and silencer and to manufacture the biological toxin, ricin," the Justice Department said.

Two Afghan guards were killed in an assault on an international logistics company working with NATO in Afghanistan, police said Thursday, adding that all the attackers had been killed.

"Five attackers were involved, two of them detonated at the beginning at the gates and the other three were shot dead by security forces," said Delawar Shah Delawar, deputy police chief for western province Herat.

Kenya said Wednesday that Somali Islamist rebels had received a third planeload of armaments, as its forces prepare to push forward against the Al-Qaida-linked militants in the war-torn nation.

Kenyan soldiers and tanks pushed into Shebab-controlled southern Somalia some two weeks ago to fight the insurgents and curtail their ability to launch cross-border attacks.

Fourteen countries, including neighbors China, Pakistan and India agreed Wednesday at an international conference to cooperate in building the future of war-torn Afghanistan, a Turkish diplomat said.

"An agreement was reached at a technical level," said the diplomat, naming the initiative as the Istanbul process, in order to build a secure and stable Afghanistan.

WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange on Wednesday lost a bitter legal battle to block his extradition from Britain to Sweden to face questioning over allegations of rape and sexual assault.

Two judges at the High Court in London rejected arguments by the 40-year-old Australian, whose anti-secrecy website has enraged governments around the world, that his extradition would be unlawful.

A bomb attack wounded 13 people on Wednesday, targeting an influential Pakistani tribal elder on the outskirts of the northwestern city of Peshawar, police said.

The blast badly damaged 10 other cars parked near a police checkpost and wounded tribal elder Malik Taj, police officer Rahim Shah said.

Two policemen were shot dead in a car chase in the restive Caucasus region of Dagestan, and three servicemen were injured in a separate incident, police said on Wednesday.

Police came under attack in the Dagestani village of Babayurt in the early hours of Wednesday as they tried to stop a black car with suspicious-looking occupants, regional police said in a statement.

The offices of French satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo, which published a special Arab Spring edition Wednesday with the prophet Mohammed as “guest editor", were gutted in a petrol bomb attack overnight, police said.

The fire at the magazine started around 01.00 am (02.00 GMT) and caused no injuries, a police source said.

A global conference aimed at mapping out the future of war-torn Afghanistan after Western troops depart opened in Istanbul on Wednesday.

Representatives from 20 countries joined aid agency members at the Istanbul talks almost 10 years after the Taliban were driven out of power in Kabul.

Four U.S. men were arrested on Tuesday for plotting to attack government workers and official buildings, and for trying to manufacture the deadly biological toxin ricin, authorities said.

"These defendants, who are alleged to be part of a fringe militia group, are charged with planning attacks against their own fellow citizens and government," said Sally Quillian Yates, U.S. Attorney for the Northern District of Georgia.