U.N. Under-Secretary-General for Political Affairs Jeffrey Feltman has warned that Syria's war would pull Lebanon into its “vortex” and encouraged Lebanese officials to ensure that the parliamentary elections take place on a consensual basis.

"Even tentative steps to dialogue are struggling to take root. The destructive military spiral churns more forcefully each day and threatens to pull its neighbors, most notably and worrisomely Lebanon, into its vortex," Feltman told the U.N. Security Council about the fighting between the troops of Syrian President Bashar Assad and rebels seeking to topple him.

World powers on the U.N. Security Council united to condemn North Korea's latest nuclear test Tuesday, and the United States led calls for tougher sanctions against the pariah state.

Pyongyang said its provocative detonation of a nuclear device at an underground site was a response to U.S. "hostility" and threatened still stronger action, defying warnings of United Nations measures.

North Korea said its nuclear test Tuesday was only a "first" step and warned of stronger action if it was faced with tougher sanctions as a result.

"The latest nuclear test was only the first action, with which we exercised as much self-restraint as possible," the foreign ministry said in a statement carried by the country's official news agency.

A U.N. Security Council delegation on Sunday began a brief visit to Yemen in a clear boost to President Abdrabuh Mansur Hadi aimed at helping to iron out problems hampering national reconciliation talks.

The delegation, which includes the head and members of the top body as well as United Nations special envoy Jamal Benomar, went straight into a meeting with Hadi, state television said.

The U.N. Security Council called for foreign troops to be quickly sent to Mali on Friday to contain a new offensive by radical Islamists who control the north of the country and are vowing to capture more terrain.

The fresh fighting in Mali has re-ignited Western fears that the al-Qaida-linked militants who currently control an area the size of France could capture even more territory and turn it into the same type of sanctuary that Afghanistan was under the Taliban.

Rebels in the Central African Republic captured two more towns overnight, Territorial Administration Minister Josue Binoua told Agence France Presse on Saturday.

"The rebels took two towns near Bambari," a town already under the control of the Seleka rebel coalition, Binoua said. "This shows their intent to wage war even during negotiations."

U.N. leader Ban Ki-moon is alarmed by the "dramatic escalation" of the Syrian war, highlighted by a deadly air attack by government forces on a Palestinian refugee camp, his spokesman said Sunday.

Ban warned both sides in the 21-month-old conflict that attacks on civilians could amount to "war crimes," as battles intensify, with rebels making increasing gains against President Bashar Assad. The Security Council is set to be briefed Monday morning on the situation.

North Korea successfully launched on Wednesday a long-range rocket, which U.N. chief Ban Ki-moon and the U.S. said was a "provocative act" in clear breach of U.N. Resolutions.

The launch triggered plans for an emergency session of the Security Council, which has imposed round after round of sanctions against North Korea over its ballistic missile and nuclear programs, so far to little avail.

Japan on Friday issued the order to shoot down a North Korean rocket if it threatens the nation's territory, the top government official said.

Tokyo has readied surface-to-air missiles in and around Tokyo, as well as in Okinawa, and is putting its armed forces on standby ahead of Pyongyang's planned missile launch.

Arab nations demanded the U.N. Security Council condemn Israel's deadly attacks on Gaza at an emergency meeting late Wednesday, but the United States strongly defended Israel's military strikes.

Egypt and other Arab states called for the emergency meeting after Israel staged scores of air strikes on the besieged Palestinian territory, killing Hamas military commander Ahmed Jaabari.