Indonesian authorities have raised the state of alertness to the highest level based on fear of an imminent major eruption of Bali's Mount Agung.

The National Board for Disaster Management raised the alert to level four from 06:00 local time (22:00 GMT Sunday), based on the possibility and imminent risk of disaster.

The volcano was seen emitting "continuous ash puffs" occasionally accompanied by "explosive eruptions" and "weak booms" that could be heard 12km (7 miles) from the summit.

A suicide bomber riding on a motorcycle on Friday morning struck in the Northwestern Pakistani city of Peshawar killing a senior police officer and a guard detailed to him. The Senior Police officer, identified as Ashraf Noor was the acting Inspector general of Police in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Province. He was reportedly on his way to work when the incident occurred.

France and Russia may be on war path after French authorities arrested a billionaire Russian lawmaker, Suleiman Kerimov in Nice over alleged tax evasion. Kerimov was reportedly arrested on Monday night in circumstances that Russian authorities claim violated his diplomatic immunity.

The 80-year old pontiff, Pope Francis arrived in the mainly Buddhist Myanmar on Monday on a quite sensitive visit to a country facing enormous universal criticism for alleged ethnic cleansing of its Rohingya Muslim minority.

The pope was massively welcomed on his first papal visit by Catholics in their numbers at Yangon's airport who were full of joy and waved flags.

The visit became imperative as Myanmar's military stand accused of perpetrating what is being described as ethnic cleansing against the Rohingya Muslims in the past three months. The campaign has resulted in more than 620,000 fleeing to neighbouring Bangladesh.

Bangladesh and Myanmar has consented to begin the return of over half a million Rohingya refugees in two months who fled following escalation of crisis as global pressure mounts.

After months of strife, Myanmar's civilian leader Aung San Suu Kyi and Dhaka's Foreign Minister A.H. Mahmood Ali inked a deal in Myanmar's capital Naypyidaw on Thursday.

The United Nations says 620,000 Rohingya have arrived in Bangladesh from August and now reside in the world's largest refugee camp after a military crackdown in Myanmar that Washington said clearly constitutes "ethnic cleansing".

Russian President, Vladimir Putin says his Turkish and Iranian counterparts have all agreed to support the proposal by the Syrian Government to organize 'Syrian People Congress' to bring together the government and the opposition to discuss the future of the country. Putin stated this on Wednesday after playing host to Recep Tayyip Erdogan and Hassan Rouhani.