Hundreds of protesters shouting "Down with ignorance!" urged the Afghan government Tuesday to bring to justice the killers of a woman lynched by a mob for allegedly burning the Koran.

Farkhunda, 27, was beaten with sticks and stones, thrown from a roof and run over by a car outside a mosque in Kabul last Thursday. The mob then set her body ablaze and dumped it in the Kabul river while several police officers looked on.

A woman who spent 23 years on death row in the United States over the killing of her young son saw her murder charge dismissed Monday and the case against her closed.

Debra Milke, 51 and of German origin, had always maintained her innocence in the fatal shooting of her son in 1990 in Arizona. The boy was aged just four and was shot in the back of the head. 

The head of the International Atomic Energy Agency voiced regret Monday that little progress had been made in recent months on Iranian cooperation over any possible military dimension of its nuclear program.

"It is true that we have had some engagement from Iran on issues with possible military dimension. But in the past several months, progress is very limited," Yukiya Amano, the head of the agency said on the sidelines of a conference on nuclear proliferation.

U.S. President Barack Obama's chief of staff rejected Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's attempts to distance himself from his comments rejecting Palestinian statehood, telling an Israel advocacy group Monday that the U.S. can't just overlook what Netanyahu said on the eve of his re-election.

"An occupation that has lasted more than 50 years must end," White House chief of staff Denis McDonough said.

U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry will return to Switzerland for talks Thursday on a deal to restrain Iran's nuclear program, five days before a deadline to reach the outlines of an agreement.

Kerry's office said Monday he would meet his Iranian counterpart Mohammad Javad Zarif in Lausanne for the next stage in talks between the so-called "P5+1" world powers and Iran.

Any nuclear accord must constrain Iran's nuclear infrastructure for "decades" before the U.S. Congress will lift sanctions, 80 percent of the House of Representatives told President Barack Obama on Monday.

The 367 representatives, Democrats and Republicans, highlighted "grave and urgent" issues in the negotiations between Iran and the P5+1 group of world powers.

Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe will embark on a week-long U.S. tour next month as the two former enemies prepare to mark the 70th anniversary of the end of World War II.

In addition to talks in Washington, Abe will tour Boston, San Francisco and Los Angeles during the April 26-May 3 trip, Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshihide Suga said Monday.

An Afghan woman who was beaten to death and set on fire by a mob for allegedly burning a copy of the Koran was "innocent", the interior minister said Monday.

The woman named Farkhunda was lynched on Thursday by an angry crowd in central Kabul for allegedly burning a copy of the Islamic holy book.

The first names for a new Libyan unity government could emerge this week after progress in U.N.-mediated talks between its warring parties, U.N. special envoy Bernardino Leon said Monday.

Leon was in Brussels for a conference of Libyan mayors after visiting Morocco, where he has been working with representatives of Libya's rival parliaments to reach a deal to end months of fighting.

Pakistan Monday held its first national day military parade for seven years, a display of pageantry aimed at showing the country has the upper hand in the fight against the Taliban.

Mobile phone networks in the capital were disabled to thwart potential bomb attacks, some roads were closed to the public and much of the city was under heavy guard for the event.