BEIJING — Japan’s deputy foreign minister is in Beijing for consultations with China about a group of hotly contested islands in the East China Sea known as Diaoyu in China and Senkaku by the Japanese.
Protests are being held in cities across Pakistan against an Internet video that demonstrators say insults the Prophet Muhammad.
Syrian state television says a military helicopter has crashed near the capital, Damascus.
France plans to close its embassies, consulates, cultural centers and schools in 20 countries Friday as a precautionary measure after a French satirical magazine published cartoons featuring the Prophet Muhammad.