A NATO helicopter crashed in the restive east of Afghanistan on Monday, and foreign troops battled an insurgent attack during the rescue operation, the coalition force said.

NATO's International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) said the crew and passengers received only minor injuries in the incident. A police official said the helicopter appeared to have been downed by a rocket-propelled grenade.

The Vatican said Monday it was recalling its representative in Ireland following a damning report on the Catholic Church's handling of cases of child abuse by priests that has sparked widespread anger.

"Apostolic Nuncio Giuseppe Leanza has been recalled for consultations" after the publication of the judicial report into the abuses in the diocese of Cloyne "and in particular due to the reactions to it," the Vatican said in a statement.

China must tell North Korea that Washington wants to see "real progress" from Pyongyang on resuming long-halted six-party denuclearization talks, a senior U.S. official said Monday.

An aide to U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton made the comments during a quick stop in the southern Chinese city of Shenzhen, where America's top diplomat was meeting local officials.

United States ambassador to Afghanistan Ryan Crocker took office on Monday, joining a new general at the helm as the U.S.-led mission looks to transfer responsibility to Afghans and exit the country.

Veteran diplomat Crocker took over from outgoing Ambassador Karl Eikenberry, whose fraught relations with Afghan President Hamid Karzai were documented extensively in leaked cables revealed in December.

Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez, who has returned home after receiving cancer treatment in Cuba, said in an interview published Monday that he will seek "with more strength than before" his re-election to the presidency in 2012.

"I have medical, scientific, human, romantic and political reasons to continue to lead the government and pursue the candidacy with more strength than before," Chavez told Correo del Orinoco newspaper.

South Korea's foreign minister Monday ruled out any quick and rapid progress in relations with North Korea despite unexpected talks last week between their nuclear envoys.

Kim Sung-Hwan said the talks between South Korean envoy Wi Sung-Lac and his counterpart Ri Yong-Ho in Indonesia on the sidelines of an Asian security forum "opened the gate" for ties.

A helicopter crashed on landing in Russia's remote Far East on Monday, killing three people and injuring two, the local branch of the emergencies ministry said.

The Mi-8 helicopter, which belonged to a local air firm and was inspecting lighthouses in the Chukotka region, was carrying three crew and two passengers when it crashed in the village of Billings.

U.S. government funds earmarked ostensibly to promote business in Afghanistan have landed in Taliban hands under a $2.16 billion transportation contract, The Washington Post reported late Sunday.

Citing the results of a year-long military-led investigation, the newspaper said U.S. and Afghan efforts to address the problem have been slow, and all eight of the trucking firms involved remain on U.S. payroll.

The suspect in the Norway attacks, Anders Behring Breivik, will appear before a judge for the first time on Monday, but could still be weeks away from facing formal charges.

The author of twin attacks in and around Oslo that killed at least 93 people and wounded nearly 100 more will be brought to a central Oslo court-house for the first time since his arrest on Friday early evening.

NATO troops on Sunday handed control of the Panjshir valley, a fiercely anti-Taliban province, to Afghan forces in the last of a series of security transitions.

Panjshir, around 130 kilometers northeast of the capital Kabul, is one of Afghanistan's most peaceful regions and the seventh area to be put under local forces' control over the past week.