Japan said a Chinese government ship briefly entered its territorial waters off disputed islands on Saturday, as the Japanese premier vowed he would not tolerate Beijing's incursions into the area.

The fisheries patrol boat entered the waters in the East China Sea at 4:48 pm (07:48 GMT) and was sailing some 19 kilometers northwest of Uotsuri, one of the Senkaku islands, Japan's coastguard said in a statement.

At least six tanks containing radioactive waste in the U.S. state of Washington are leaking, the state said Friday, urging more federal help to clean up a site used to make Cold War-era bombs.

Washington governor Jay Inslee said that the extent of the leaks at the Hanford site -- which first produced fuel for nuclear bombs in World War II and closed down 25 years ago -- was "disturbing."

The U.S. ambassador to Moscow called on Russia to stop "sensational exploitation" of the tragic death in Texas of an adopted Russian boy as parliament Friday issued a special appeal to the U.S. Congress on the escalating scandal.

The January death of three-year-old Maxim Kuzmin was this week alleged by some Russian officials to be murder by his mother Laura Shatto, whipping up a storm of controversy less than two months after Russia banned U.S. adoptions.

Japanese Premier Shinzo Abe headed to the White House Friday on a mission to send a strong signal to China, which has stepped up pressure on the conservative leader over a tense territorial row.

Two months after his right-leaning Liberal Democratic Party swept back into power, Abe opened his first meeting with President Barack Obama in hopes of showing the region that there is no daylight between the two allies.

Pope Benedict XVI's final Sunday prayers in St Peter's Square will signal the start of a week in the Vatican that will make history with the first voluntary papal resignation in more than 700 years.

Tens of thousands of pilgrims have gathered in Rome from around the world following the aging pope's shock announcement that he would step down because he no longer had the strength of body and mind to govern the Catholic Church in modern times.

Three people were killed and at least four others injured in a shooting and multiple car crash on the renowned Las Vegas Strip early Thursday, police said.

The incident started when a gunman in a Range Rover shot at a Maserati in the neon-lit casino and hotel zone in the early hours, Metro Las Vegas Police Sergeant John Sheahan said.

Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov will hold his first meeting with new U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry in Berlin next week, the Russian foreign ministry said Thursday.

Lavrov and Kerry will meet on February 26 to "discuss a wide range of questions on the agenda in bilateral relations and international problems," it said in a statement, without giving further details.

Secretary of State John Kerry warned Wednesday against "senseless" spending cuts to diplomacy, saying the United States needed robust engagement to remain an "exceptional" nation.

In his first speech since taking over as the top U.S. diplomat, the former longtime senator focused on the latest fiscal showdown between the White House and Congress and the threat of massive automatic spending cuts on March 1.

The U.S. Supreme Court agreed on Tuesday to again take up campaign finance by reconsidering caps on individual donations, three years after controversially removing limits for unions and corporations.

The 2010 Citizens United ruling -- which allowed unlimited donations by such entities based on the constitutional right to free speech, could inform the upcoming ruling on aggregate individual contributions.

A gunman killed three people in California on Tuesday, including at least one execution-style, in a series of shootings and carjackings before taking his own life, police said.

At least two other people were injured as the gunman fired randomly on other vehicles on a freeway, before he shot and killed himself near the city of Orange, south of Los Angeles.