U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry on Wednesday condemned a deadly car attack in Jerusalem saying it was a "terrorist act" that "only raises tensions" in the tinderbox region.

Speaking ahead of a meeting with Jordan's foreign minister in Paris, Kerry told reporters: "That is not just a terrorist act and an ... atrocity, but it only makes matters worse. It only raises tensions."

Nuclear-armed North Korea has started operating a new plant inside its uranium enrichment complex, boosting its capacity to generate fuel that could be used to make atomic weapons, a report said Wednesday.

"Infrared cameras used by South Korean and U.S. intelligence authorities have detected heat that was emitted when gas centrifuges in the new plant began operating," the Joongang Ilbo daily quoted an unnamed official in charge of handling North Korean intelligence. 

Republicans stormed to victory Tuesday in U.S. midterm elections, thumping rival Democrats to clinch control of both houses of Congress and assuring a fractious final two years of Barack Obama's presidency.

Riding a wave of voter frustration with Washington incumbents and the unpopular policies of the Obama administration, Republicans seized at least seven seats from Senate Democrats to claim total congressional control for the first time since 2006.

Yemeni ex-president Ali Abdullah Saleh, who has been threatened by U.N. sanctions for obstructing peace, is under pressure from the United States to leave the country, his party said Wednesday.

Saleh, who was forced to step down in early 2012 after a year of Arab Spring-inspired protests, received an ultimatum from the U.S. embassy in Sanaa to leave by Friday or face sanctions, the General People's Congress said.

Top American diplomat John Kerry said Tuesday the relationship between the United States and China was the "most consequential" in the world today, warning it needed to be "carefully managed."

Ties between the two powerful economies will "do much to determine the shape of the 21st century," Kerry said, before leaving on what will be his fourth trip to China since becoming secretary of state 21 months ago.

Several thousand Iranians gathered outside the former U.S. embassy in Tehran on Tuesday to mark its storming by students 35 years ago, burning the American flag.

In what has become an annual spectacle, demonstrators chanted "Death to America" and "Death to Israel, Death to Britain."

Americans voted Tuesday in key midterm elections expected to hand control of the Senate to Republicans, an outcome that would dash Barack Obama's hopes for a productive final two years at the White House.

Many key races could go down to the wire, but polls suggest Republicans are on course to win the six Senate seats they would need to gain control of both chambers of Congress for the first time since 2006.

Israeli plans for roughly 500 new settler homes in occupied east Jerusalem are a "slap in the face" of the United States and the international community, a top Palestinian official said.

Israel approved construction of the homes on Monday as chief Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erakat met U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry in the United States, according to settlements watchdog Peace Now.

Overnight drone strikes killed at least 20 suspected al-Qaida militants in Yemen, where Washington has conducted a sustained drone war against jihadist leaders, tribal sources and witnesses said on Tuesday.

The twin raids targeted al-Qaida positions near Rada, a central town which has been the focus of deadly fighting between the jihadists and advancing Shiite rebels, the sources said. 

North Korea on Tuesday ruled out any dialogue with the United States about its nuclear program and human rights record, saying the U.S. was trying to destroy its system.

The North "will never allow any human rights dialogue or nuclear one with the enemy keen to overthrow it", a foreign ministry spokesman said through the official Korean Central News Agency.