WASHINGTON: The US government shutdown had no drastic effect on the military on Tuesday but if it remains in place everything from ship repairs to combat training will be disrupted, officials say.

BEIJING: Chinese courts will now use social media to broadcast judicial proceedings. Nearly 1,000 lower courts have set up accounts in Weibo, the local version of Twitter demonstrating a trend that runs contrary to their tradition.

KARACHI: Four militants of the banned Tehreek-e-Taliban were killed during a shootout on the Hub highway here, police said.

LONDON: The assault on Kenya's Westgate shopping mall has brought into sharp relief a pattern likely to complicate efforts to counter Islamist militants — the competition among jihadis can increase the risk of a major attack.

CARACAS, Venezuela (AP): President Nicolas Maduro announced on Monday the expulsion of the top U.S. diplomat in Venezuela and two other embassy employees for allegedly conspiring with the political opposition to sabotage the economy and power grid.

ROME: About 20 Italian centre-right lawmakers may break with leader Silvio Berlusconi if he tries to bring down Prime Minister Enrico Letta's coalition in a dispute over Berlusconi's fraud conviction , a centre-right party source warned on Monday.

  ROME: Former Premier Silvio Berlusconi is pushing for elections in Italy after asking his party's five cabinet ministers to resign from the nation's fragile coalition government to protest the punishment he is about to receive for his tax-fraud conviction.

 FLORENCE, Italy: The retrial of Amanda Knox and her former lover for the murder of a British student begins in Florence on Monday, though she has decided not to attend.

 PESHAWAR: Two Pakistani intelligence officials say a suspected American drone strike has killed four alleged militants in the country's northwestern tribal areas. 

NAIROBI: "Just seeing dead bodies," Kenya prepared for the gruesome task of recovering dozens more victims than initially feared after its president declared an end on Tuesday to the four-day siege of a Nairobi mall by al-Qaida-linked terrorists. Officials said the death count could jump by another 60 or more.