A Pakistani citizen on Friday plead guilty to illegally attempting to export nuclear material to organizations in his homeland that are classed "of concern" to U.S. national security, justice officials said.

Nadeem Akhtar, 46, faces up to five years in jail and a $250,000 fine, for conducting a scheme to provide restricted items to clients in Pakistan, including agencies of the government in Islamabad.

At least 163 people died when a ferry capsized off the popular tourist archipelago of Zanzibar, but over 100 people are still missing, a minister said Saturday.

"We have recovered 163 people who have died and we have rescued 325 survivors," said Mohammed Aboud, Zanzibar's state minister for emergencies, dramatically updating an earlier death toll of 53.

Thirteen Sudanese police officers were killed and 30 wounded in clashes with an armed gang as they tried to rescue three hostages in the war-torn Darfur region, a police spokesman said Friday.

"What happened yesterday involved an armed gang, not a rebel group. The police tried to release three hostages in eastern Jebel Marra. Clashes broke out with the gang and we lost 13 men and 30 others were wounded," Ahmed al-Tughani told Agence France Presse.

The United States should view China's growing role in the Pacific as grounds for cooperation rather than concern, a top Chinese official said Friday, amid anxiety over Beijing's new assertiveness.

Washington and China's neighbors have expressed increasing fears about Beijing's claims in the South China Sea, military spending and new high-tech equipment, including an aircraft carrier that trialed last month.

Heavily armed police were on alert in and around New York City Friday after U.S. officials warned of a "credible" but unconfirmed bomb threat on the 10th anniversary of the 9/11 attacks.

"There is specific, credible but unconfirmed threat information," the Department of Homeland Security said Thursday, as the White House confirmed President Barack Obama had ordered boosted counterterrorism efforts.

North Korean leader Kim Jong-Il and his son and heir apparent appeared Friday at a military parade staged to mark the 63rd anniversary of the country's founding, official media reported.

Kim and his youngest son Jong-Un clapped from the reviewing stand as motorized units including howitzers, anti-aircraft guns and multiple launch rocket systems rumbled past, according to North Korean TV footage.

Iran Thursday warned it would "not hesitate" to hit back following a foreign strike on its soil in a formal complaint to the United Nations over a warning from French President Nicolas Sarkozy.

Sarkozy said last week that Iran's "military, nuclear and ballistic ambitions constitute a growing threat that may lead to a preventive attack against Iranian sites that would provoke a major crisis that France wants to avoid at all costs."

Heavy rain on Thursday swamped areas of the U.S. northeast already sodden from Hurricane Irene, with up to five people killed as flash floods forced over 100,000 to leave their homes.

The National Weather Service (NWS) issued a flash flood warning for counties in New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Connecticut, Maryland and Virginia, as towns became inundated, busy highways closed down and commuter lines backed up.

German police on Thursday detained a Lebanese-German and a Gazan suspected of obtaining potential ingredients for a bomb and searched an Islamic center where the pair had spent time.

The arrests came three days before the 10th anniversary of the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks, and followed a weekend statement by the interior minister that threats to Germany remained "real and intensive."

Pakistan International Airlines said Thursday that it was investigating emailed threats that said two of its planes had bombs on board, forcing one of them to divert abruptly to Istanbul.

PIA said it received two emails late Wednesday claiming there were bombs on the two flights and directed the pilots to land immediately at the nearest airports. No bombs were found on either plane.