The two Russian spies reportedly arrested in Germany were probably retired veterans from the Soviet era who were only used on rare occasions, a Moscow foreign intelligence official said on Monday.

Der Spiegel first reported that the couple had begun spying in Germany for the former Soviet KGB before being arrested last week in the first incident of its kind since the Cold War.

North Korean and U.S. negotiators met on Monday for direct talks aimed at reviving long-stalled nuclear disarmament negotiations.

The U.S. team led by outgoing special representative Stephen Bosworth, as well as his replacement Glyn Davies arrived shortly before 8.30am (06:30 GMT) at the U.S. embassy where the meeting was to begin at 10.00am.

Condoleezza Rice says in a new book that she threatened to quit as president George W. Bush's national security advisor when she was cut out of a key decision on military trials for war-on-terror detainees, the New York Times wrote Sunday.

In her book "No Higher Honor: A Memoir of My Years in Washington," which arrives in bookstores next week, Rice describes a White House rife with discord, with repeated clashes between her and Vice President Dick Cheney over what to do about the detainees.

Rescuers scrambled through the rubble in a desperate search on Monday for survivors of an earthquake that killed at least 264 people in Turkey as residents fled the scenes of devastation.

People living in eastern Van province issued cries for help on Twitter, giving out the addresses of collapsed buildings and the number of people trapped under the debris, as hundreds of rescuers worked round the clock.

A grenade was thrown into a discotheque in the Kenyan capital Nairobi early Monday injuring 14 people, all Kenyans, in an attack police linked with recent threats made by Somali Shebab insurgents.

"Yes, we are linking the grenade attack to the threats that have been issued by Shebab and that is why I am appealing to city residents to be vigilant and cooperate with our officers," Antony Kibuchi, provincial police chief for Nairobi, said.

President Cristina Kirchner celebrated a landslide re-election victory in Argentine elections Sunday, giving an emotional speech a year after the death of her husband and political partner.

"I'm the first woman to be re-elected president. I don't want anything more," the center-left politician said to a rowdy crowd in a Buenos Aires hotel, after partial results gave her more than 53 percent.

Israel said Sunday it had offered its assistance to Turkey after a 7.3 magnitude earthquake struck the eastern part of the country, despite ongoing tensions between the formerly close allies.

But Turkey had said that for the time being, they would not need it.

A suicide bomber launched Sunday a failed assassination attempt on Afghan Interior Minister Bismullah Khan in Parwan, north of Kabul, a spokesman for the ministry told Agence France Presse.

"I can confirm a failed assassination attempt on the minister, a suicide bomber was involved, no casualties," Siddiq Siddiqui said, giving no further details.

An earthquake of 7.3 magnitude rocked eastern Turkey on Sunday, killing more than 70 people, with a seismological institute saying up to 1,000 people could lie dead under the rubble of dozens of collapsed buildings.

Turkey's strongest earthquake in years struck Van, a large eastern city populated mainly by Kurds.

Afghan President Hamid Karzai has said that his country would support Pakistan if it was attacked by either the United States or India.

"If America, India or anyone else attacked Pakistan, we will stand by Pakistan," Karzai said in an interview aired by Pakistan private television channel Geo late Saturday.