TAIPEI, Taiwan - Taiwan slammed Manila's response to the shooting death of a Taiwanese fisherman as informal and insincere, and said Wednesday it is recalling its representative and will discourage travel to the Philippines. Premier Jiang Yi-huah said the government was displeased with the apology delivered by the Philippine representative office in Taipei. Taiwan will not accept anything short of a Philippine government apology, he said.

The International Criminal Court has opened a preliminary probe into Israel's deadly raid on a Gaza-bound flotilla in 2010, the prosecutor's office said Tuesday. "My office will be conducting a preliminary examination in order to establish whether the criteria for opening an investigation are met," Fatou Bensouda said in a statement issued from the court based in The Hague. Nine Turkish nationals died when Israeli commandos staged a botched pre-dawn raid on a six-ship flotilla seeking to bust Israel's naval blockade of the Gaza Strip on May 31, 2010.

Brazil's Roberto Azevedo vowed to revive the deadlocked World Trade Organization, as he was confirmed Tuesday as the incoming leader of the body which sets the rules for global commerce. "I have been working in and with this organisation continuously for the last 15 years," Azevedo, still officially Brazil's WTO ambassador, told the 159-country organisation's assembly which approved him by consensus as its next leader.

Iran is hoping for advancement in talks with the UN atomic agency over Tehran's past activities as well as in negotiations with world powers on current sensitive nuclear work, the foreign ministry spokesman said Tuesday. "We hope to see good progress" in the talks scheduled for Wednesday in Vienna between the Iranian mission and the International Atomic Energy Agency, spokesman Abbas Araqchi told reporters.