A Japanese journalist known for covering war zones sued the Foreign Ministry on Wednesday after it invalidated his passport and demanded he surrender it, saying it deprived him of his right to travel and restricted press freedom.

Russian President Vladimir Putin signed a decree Wednesday to expedite citizenship applications from Ukrainians who live in parts of Ukraine held by Russia-backed separatists, a move that could hold back a peace process to end years of bloodshed.

Saudi Arabia on Tuesday beheaded 37 Saudi citizens, most of them minority Shiites, in a mass execution across the country for alleged terrorism-related crimes. It also publicly pinned the executed body and severed head of a convicted Sunni extremist to a pole as a warning to others.

Police on Monday referred a former Liberal Democratic Party lawmaker to prosecutors on suspicion of raping a woman he was dating in December, investigative sources said.

The bodies of three world-renowned professional mountaineers -- two Austrians and an American -- were found Sunday after they went missing during an avalanche on a western Canadian summit, the national parks agency said.

The U.N. Security Council was divided Wednesday on how to address the crisis in Libya after fresh negotiations on a draft resolution demanding a ceasefire in Tripoli failed to yield agreement.

At least 146 people have been killed since a Libyan military commander launched an offensive on the capital earlier this month, the U.N. said Monday, as Italy called for an immediate cease-fire and the withdrawal of his forces.

Tokyo police have arrested a man in his 50s in connection with knives left on the school desk of Prince Hisahito, the grandson of Emperor Akihito.