An aide to Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe returned home from a trip to North Korea on Saturday but declined to shed any light on the reason for his mysterious visit. Isao Iijima, a senior adviser to Abe, was tightlipped when confronted by reporters in Beijing on his way home. "I won't accept any interview on this issue," he told reporters, according to Japan's public broadcaster NHK. Abe said Saturday that Iijima would report back to Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshihide Suga, Japan's top government spokesman, on the visit.

Singaporean housewife Siti Khadijah Abdul Rahman accumulated a few thousand dollars' worth of gold accessories over the past two decades, but now a rising cost of living is forcing her to pawn them. With a stretched household budget that must also cater to school expenses for her two teenage children, the 49 year-old is pawning her gold to relieve pressure on her security guard husband, who earns Sg$1,500 ($1,211) a month. "Pawning is better than going to friends or family when you have budget problems," said Abdul Rahman. "When I have money, I will claim it back."

It will be impossible to reach a Middle East peace deal without a reconciliation between Fatah and Hamas militants, Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan warned Friday. "The process of unity between Fatah and Hamas, this has to be achieved. If this reconciliation is not achieved, then I don't believe that a solution or result will come out of the Israeli-Palestinian discussions," Erdogan told a Washington think-tank during a visit to the United States.

Duty editor: Dave Clark Tel: +1 202 414 0541 -- TOP STORIES -- + Bomb attacks kill 67 in Iraq + Nigeria military strikes Islamist bases + Million-dollar jewelry heist ahead of Cannes film fest   + Argentina's former Dirty War junta leader dies Iraq-politics-unrest,WRAP BAQUBA, Iraq Bombs targeting Sunnis, including two near a mosque and one at a funeral procession, kill 67 people in Iraq, officials say, after dozens died in two days of attacks on Shiites.