The United States has temporarily shut down its embassy in the Central African Republic and evacuated the staff, because of a rebel threat to topple the government.

A State Department spokesman Thursday said Washington is urging all parties to begin peace talks to offer a new vision of security for the country. He said U.S. diplomatic relations with the C.A.R. are not affected.

The United Nations already has evacuated non-essential staff from the country because of the threat of violence.

Pakistani government officials say militants have killed two paramilitary troops and kidnapped at least 22 others in an attack on posts in the country's northwest.

Rebels in northern Central African Republic (C.A.R.) have seized another key regional capital, their fourth in the past two and a half weeks, as negotiations with the government struggle to get off the ground.

A new rebel coalition in C.A.R. launched its offensive in the north on December 10.

The rebel group, known as Seleka, seized the town of Kaga-Bandoro on Tuesday. The rebels are now within 300 kilometers of the capital, Bangui, located near the country's southern border with the Democratic Republic of Congo.

UAE authorities said Wednesday that several arrests have been made in connection with a terrorist cell that was planning attacks in the Gulf kingdom, Saudi Arabia and nearby states.

The official WAM news agency said a "deviant group was planning to carry out actions against the national security of both countries and some sisterly states." The phrase "the deviant group" is used by Saudi authorities to describe al-Qaida members.

The WAM report said the group had acquired materials and equipment for a terror attack. It did not provide details of the suspects or when arrests were made.

Authorities in Afghanistan say that a female policewoman who killed an American contractor in Kabul this week is an Iranian national. However, they have not presented any evidence that the woman has links to militant groups, or that Iran may have orchestrated the “insider attack.”

The female police officer is being interrogated for killing Joseph Griffin, a 49-year-old American adviser to Afghan police. The shooting took place at Kabul’s police headquarters and is being described as the first known “insider” attack by a woman.

Gunmen in northeastern Nigeria killed at least six people early Tuesday when they opened fire at a church during a Christmas Eve service.

Officials and residents say the attack happened shortly after midnight in a village outside the city of Potiskum in Yobe state. There was no immediate claim of responsibility.

Yobe is next to Borno state, the home of Islamic radical sect Boko Haram. Rights groups say the militants have killed well over 1,000 people in the past four years.

Humanitarian agencies are warning of the many risks to civilians presented by a likely military offensive against al-Qaida-linked extremists in control of northern Mali since April. Their call came as the United Nations Security Council unanimously voted in favor of a phased, African-led military deployment to Mali next year.

Four hundred twelve thousand people have fled their homes in northern Mali since the start of the year as fighting morphed from a Tuareg separatist rebellion in January to an occupation by al-Qaida-linked Islamist militants beginning in April.

Authorities in Kenya say at least 39 people - 30 villagers and nine attackers - have been killed in fresh clashes between two rival ethnic groups in the southeastern Tana River region.

The violence started in the early morning hours Friday when members of the Pokomo community, armed with guns and spears, attacked Orma residents in the village of Kipao.

Kenya Red Cross spokesperson Nelly Muluka says disaster response teams have been deployed to the area.

NATO chief Anders Fogh Rasmussen says Syrian President Bashar al-Assad's forces have fired more missiles inside Syria, a move Rasmussen calls an act of a "desperate regime approaching collapse."

Earlier this month, the U.S. and NATO said Assad's forces had fired Scud missiles at rebels near the northern city of Aleppo in what was believed to be the first use of the weapons against insurgents. Syrian officials denied the charge.

​​Military analysts say Scuds are short-range missiles with a range of 500 to 800 kilometers.