The death toll in an attack on a popular upmarket shopping mall in the Kenyan capital Nairobi has risen to 39.

The Somali militant group al-Shabab, which has links to al-Qaeda, has claimed responsibility, saying the attack was in response to Kenya's presence in Somalia. 

Addressing to the nation late Saturday, Kenyan President Uhuru Kenyatta said at least 39 people were killed and more than 150 were wounded in the attack.

Officials fear that there would be more casualties since some of the shoppers are still holed up in the mall.

The standoff continues into the evening, hours after the shootout between police officers and the armed men in the Westgate mall began in the morning. 

The Chinese Embassy in Nairobi says there are no Chinese casualties so far in the attack.

 

64 killed, 143 wounded in car bomb attacks in Iraq's capital

At least 64 people have been killed at a funeral in the Iraqi capital of Baghdad.

A tent where mourners were gathered was hit by two explosions, one of them a suicide car bomb.

More than 140 others have been injured.

No group has so far claimed responsibility, but the al-Qaida front in Iraq, in most cases, were responsible for such suicide bombings in the country. 

Iraq is witnessing its worst eruption of violence in recent years, which raises fears that the country is sliding back to the full-blown civil conflict that peaked in 2006 and 2007, when monthly death toll sometimes exceeded 3,000.

 

China braces for super typhoon Usagi

Southern Chinese coastal provinces have evacuated residents and canceled air and shipping services as super typhoon Usagi strengthens over the Pacific and moves towards China.

Usagi is expected to hammer south China's Pearl River Delta some time between Sunday afternoon and Monday morning. 

The National Meteorological Center has issued the highest level of alert for Usagi, warning that it will bring gales and downpours to southern and southeastern coastal areas.

Authorities in Guangdong have returned more than 44,000 fishing boats and 19,000 fishermen to harbors and land. 

In neighboring Fujian, more than 80,000 people have been evacuated.

Shipping between the Chinese mainland and Taiwan has been partially suspended.

 

Pakistan releases top Afghan Taliban leader

Pakistan has released top Afghan Taliban leader Mullah Abdul Ghani Baradar. 

Baradar, number two in the Taliban hierarchy, was arrested in the Pakistani port city of Karachi in February 2010. 

Afghan President Hamid Karzai had demanded Baradar's release during his visit to Pakistan late last month. 

Kabul considers Baradar as key to the peace process. However, Taliban leaders are hopeful that he will remain loyal to the Taliban movement. 

Pakistan has so far freed 33 Afghan Taliban in ten months on the request by the Afghan side.

 

OPCW receives Syrian chemical arms data

The international chemical weapons watchdog says it has received "the expected" disclosure by Syria of its chemical arms program.

The Organisation for the Prevention of Chemical Weapons says its Technical Secretariat is currently reviewing the information.

Syria's move comes before a deadline set for it as part of a Russia-US deal, under which Syria's entire chemical weapons arsenal is meant to be dismantled by the middle of next year.

The core members of the OPCW are expected to vote on the timetable of the process next week.

Once the OPCW agrees to the plan, the United Nations Security Council will seek to endorse it.

The five permanent members are still discussing the wording of a resolution.

 

Israel soldier abducted and killed in West Bank

An Israeli soldier has been abducted and killed by a Palestinian man in the northern West Bank.

Israel's intelligence agency says the soldier was seized on Friday and his body found near the town of Qalqiliya on Saturday.

A suspect, a Palestinian man, has been arrested. 

He had confessed to killing the soldier in the hope that he could trade the body in exchange for the release of his imprisoned brother.

 

Three dead in NW China truck-train collision

Three people have been killed in a truck-train collison in northwest China's Qinghai Province.

Local railway authorities say a pickup truck in Wulan County lost control, broke through guardrails in an overpass and crashed with a train passing under it.

Three people on the truck were dead when rescuers reached the site.

The train, bound for Beijing from Lhasa, Tibet, stopped there for an hour.

 

ISO elects first Chinese president

The International Organization for Standardization has elected Zhang Xiaogang as president, making him the first Chinese to assume the post.

Zhang is a vice chairman of the World Steel Association and a member of the China Standardization Expert Committee.

Founded in 1947, the ISO is the largest and most authoritative international standard-setting body.