Security minister says Panama plans to hand over ship and its content to United Nations representatives for inspection.

Russian protest leader Alexei Navalny has been sentenced to five years in jail for theft and embezzlement.

Nelson Mandela is spending his 95th birthday in hospital in Pretoria, as events take place around the world and in South Africa in his honour.

At least 21 children died and more than two dozen others were sick after eating a free school lunch that was tainted with insecticide. It was not immediately clear how chemicals ended up in the food in a school in the eastern state of Bihar. One official said the food may not have been properly washed before it was cooked.

Cuba has confirmed a North Korean cargo ship seized in Panama was carrying missiles, fighter jets and other armaments that were loaded in Cuban ports but claimed it was "obsolete defensive weaponry" being sent away for repair.

The US whistleblower Edward Snowden has applied for temporary asylum in Russia, telling immigration officials he fears for his life, three weeks after landing at Moscow's Sheremetyevo airport.