The leaders of Russia, Ukraine, Germany and France aim to meet in Belarus's capital Minsk on Wednesday to discuss a peace plan for eastern Ukraine.

Guatemala's Fuego volcano has erupted with thick plumes of ash that have blanketed several towns, including a popular tourist destination, while also prompting flight warnings.

UN climate negotiators gathered in Geneva were urged yesterday to show urgency and compromise in crafting a draft by next week for a global pact to be signed in December.

Turkish police yesterday launched a new wave of raids seeking to arrest suspects accused of wiretapping the communications of President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and other top officials.

Iran's supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei said yesterday that he would rather see no deal reached with major powers on his country's nuclear programme than one that undercuts national interests.

The leaders of Russia, Ukraine, Germany and France aim to meet in Belarus's capital Minsk on Wednesday to discuss a peace plan for eastern Ukraine.

The leaders of Russia, Ukraine, Germany and France aim to meet in Belarus's capital Minsk on Wednesday to discuss a peace plan for eastern Ukraine. It comes after leaders of the four countries discussed the ongoing conflict by telephone yesterday. More than 5,300 people have been killed by fighting between Ukrainian forces and pro-Russia rebels since April 2014. Western countries accuse Russia of arming the rebels and sending troops to Ukraine – claims Russia denies.

Iran's supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei said yesterday that he would rather see no deal reached with major powers on his country's nuclear programme than one that undercuts national interests. His comments came as US Secretary of State John Kerry met Iranian counterpart Mohammad Javad Zarif and held a second round of talks in Munich yesterday, meeting for about 90 minutes as they tried to hammer out a political accord to rein in Iran's atomic ambitions ahead of a March 31 deadline. "I agree with a deal that can take place but I do not agree with a bad deal," the Iranian leader said, according to the Khamenei.ir website. "It's better to have no agreement than one that goes against our national interests," he told air force commanders.

Bihar Chief Minister Jitan Ram Manjhi has recommended the dissolution of the Assembly to pre-empt his mentor-turned-rival and Janata Dal (United) leader Nitish Kumar's attempts to replace him. Kumar, who was elected leader of the JD(U) legislature party, is set to stake claim to form a new government and urged the Governor to reject Manjhi's recommendation, arguing that he had lost the majority. Twenty ministers from the Nitish camp had resigned. Manjhi is moving with the support of the Bharatiya Janata Party, say sources in both camps, in a major blow to the attempts to forge a united front against the saffron party ahead of the Assembly elections scheduled for November.

Indian President Pranab Mukherjee yesterday emphasized that the invite to leaders of SAARC countries to attend the swearing in of Prime Minister Narendra Modi – led government in May last year “must be followed through to its logical conclusion with concrete steps to consolidate our relations.” Addressing the Ambassadors and High Commissioners who head India's Missions abroad, the President said “India demonstrated dynamism and bold leadership by inviting leaders of SAARC countries to attend the swearing-in of the new government in May last year.

You cannot continue to victimize someone else just because you yourself were a victim once — there has to be a limit”

Five hours of talks between European leaders and Russian president Putin have ended without any word of an agreement to resolve the crisis in Ukraine. German Chancellor Angela Merkel and French President Francoise Holland arrived in Moscow to discuss a new Ukraine peace plan with Russia. The joint mission from the two European leaders sent out signals of concern that the conflict has reached a dangerous new phase in Ukraine, which has already had a damaging effect on Russia's ties with Europe, and which is beginning to negatively impact EU economies. Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said the leaders had agreed on “constructive talks” in order to continue working towards a possible joint document on implementing a ceasefire agreement reached in the Belarusian capital of Minsk last September.

Seven civilians and five soldiers were killed in fighting in east Ukraine, government and rebel officials said yesterday, with Kiev accusing pro-Russian separatists of massing forces for fresh offensives. Rebels are "accumulating forces for further offensive operations on Debaltseve and Mariupol," Ukrainian defence official Volodymyr Polyovyi told journalists. The separatists were sending fresh tanks, armoured personnel carriers as well as multiple launch rocket systems to the Debaltseve region and Granitne, around 35 kilometres northeast of Mariupol, Polyovyi said.

After US President Barack Obama raised the issue of religious intolerance in India, The New York Times published a very strong editorial criticising Prime Minister Narendra Modi for what it calls his “dangerous silence” on a series of communal events in the country. The editorial, by the NYT editorial board, lists recent attacks on churches and reports of Ghar Vapsi or conversion and marks out the Vishwa Hindu Parishad for its proposed conversions programme in Ayodhya in March this year, saying the group “was playing with fire.” “Mr. Modi's continued silence before such troubling intolerance increasingly gives the impression that he either cannot or does not wish to control the fringe elements of the Hindu nationalist right,” the NYT editorial surmised.

China's authorities have seized 7,600 toilet rolls and 20,000 packets of tissue printed with the image of Hong Kong chief executive CY Leung. Hong Kong's Democratic Party, which had planned to sell the novelty items at a fair next week, called the seizure a violation of freedom of expression. The tissues were confiscated from a factory in mainland China on Friday. Leung is unpopular with much of the Hong Kong public, and products mocking him have sold well in recent years. The confiscated tissues depicted the pro-Beijing leader with a variety of expressions.

The parents of a 26-year-old American who Islamic State extremists say was killed in an airstrike in Syria said in a statement addressed to group leaders that the claim of their daughter's death concerned them but they were still hopeful she was alive. The Islamic State group said on Friday that Kayla Jean Mueller of Prescott, Arizona, died in a Jordanian airstrike, but the government of Jordan dismissed the statement as "criminal propaganda," and the US said it had not seen any evidence to corroborate the report. Mueller is the only known remaining US hostage held by the Islamic State group. If the death is confirmed, she would be the fourth American to die while being held by Islamic State militants. Three others — journalists James Foley and Steven Sotloff and aid worker Peter Kassig — were beheaded by the group.

The shahi imam of Jama Masjid, Syed Ahmed Bukhari, has appealed to Muslims in Delhi to vote for the Aam Aadmi Party.

German Chancellor Angela Merkel and French President Francois Hollande met Russian leader Vladimir Putin yesterday in a frantic bid to avoid a further escalation of violence in east Ukraine.

Party critics of Australian Prime Minister Tony Abbott launched a dramatic bid yesterday to unseat the unpopular conservative leader after less than 18 months in office, but he vowed to fight on.

New President Maithripala Sirisena yesterday vowed to end Sri Lanka's pariah status by working with the UN and promised national reconciliation, six years after the island's ethnic war ended.