South Korea and the United States upgraded their coordinated military surveillance status on Wednesday, a report said, ahead of an expected mid-range missile launch by North Korea.
The United States and South Korea have drawn up plans for a measured tit-for-tat response to North Korean actions, which will be limited in order to prevent an escalation to broader war.
Foreign diplomats in Pyongyang huddled on Saturday to discuss a North Korean evacuation advisory as concerns grew that the isolated state was preparing a missile launch at a time of soaring nuclear tensions.
North Korea blocked South Korean access to a key joint industrial zone Wednesday, matching its angry rhetoric with action as Washington condemned Pyongyang's "dangerous, reckless" behaviour.
South Korea's new president on Monday promised a strong military response to any North Korean provocation after Pyongyang announced that the two countries were now in a state of war.
Pakistan's political parties organised huge rallies on Sunday but campaigning for historic general elections in May was marred by a bomb attack which killed two people in the country's northwest.
The United States warned Thursday that the danger from North Korea was rising and that Washington was ready for "any eventuality" after flying two nuclear-capable B-2 stealth bombers over ally South Korea.
North Korea's military put its "strategic" rocket units on a war footing Tuesday, with a fresh threat to strike targets on the US mainland, Hawaii and Guam, as well as South Korea.
North Korea leader Kim Jong-Un threatened to "wipe out" a South Korean island as Pyongyang came under new economic and diplomatic fire Tuesday from US sanctions and UN charges of gross rights abuses.
A commander of the rebel Free Syrian Army, issuing a 48-hour ultimatum, has warned his forces will target Lebanon's Hezbollah unless the militant group stops shelling territory held by the insurgents.
Experts differ about the scale and immediacy of the military threat posed by North Korea's latest nuclear test, but there is little disagreement about the alarming proliferation risks it presents.
With a defiant nuclear test, North Korea has shown it poses an increasingly credible threat but some doubt whether even the notoriously bellicose regime would ever use weapons of mass destruction.
Starbucks has threatened to suspend millions of pounds of investment in Britain over what it sees as unfair targeting by Prime Minister David Cameron over its tax affairs.
Hacker group Anonymous said it disabled the US Sentencing Commission's website Saturday in revenge for the death of Internet freedom advocate Aaron Swartz, and vowed to release government data.
Britain, Germany, the Netherlands and Australia have all urged their citizens to leave the Libyan city of Benghazi due to a "specific, imminent threat to Westerners", linked to French action in Mali.
An Al-Qaeda linked group which shocked the world with its audacious hostage attack in Algeria threatened on Sunday to stage strikes on nations involved in chasing out Islamists from neighbouring Mali.
Chile issued a top-level red alert Sunday for its Copahue volcano, in the south on the Andean border with Argentina, as it rumbled to register a greater potential threat.