Islamist gunmen raided a village in northeastern Kenya, the interior ministry said Friday, the latest in a string of brazen attacks by the Somali-led, al-Qaida affiliated insurgents.

There were no casualties reported in the remote village, close to the porous border with Somalia, and some 80 kilometres (50 miles) northeast of regional capital Garissa.

Myanmar's navy has carried out its first rescue of a migrant boat, bringing 208 people to shore, an official told Agence France Presse Friday, as it faced mounting international pressure to tackle a regional migration crisis.

"A navy ship found two boats... on May 21 while on patrol," Tin Maung Swe, a senior official in the western state of Rakhine told AFP, adding "about 200 Bengalis were on one of the boats".

A Tibetan father-of-four set himself on fire in protest at China's rule over the Himalayan region, overseas media and rights groups said, adding it was unclear whether he survived.

Tenzin Gyatso attempted to self-immolate after being "upset" by tightened security ahead of the 80th birthday of exiled Tibetan leader the Dalai Lama, sources told Radio Free Asia, which is backed by the US government.

The Bank of Japan on Friday held fire on launching more stimulus, days after official data showed the world's number three economy grew more than expected in the first quarter.

Policymakers kept the central bank's annual 80 trillion yen ($662 billion) monetary easing programme in place after a two-day meeting and investors will now be watching a briefing by governor Haruhiko Kuroda later in the day.

Bob Belden, a global-minded saxophonist and arranger who brought a jazz lens to music ranging from chart-topping pop to classical Indian, has died. He was 58.

Blue Note Records, where he recorded his best known works, confirmed his death. He died Wednesday in New York, where he lived, after suffering a heart attack.

A funeral has finally been held for one of the Chinese Communist Party's early high-profile political targets nearly 50 years after he disappeared, but state-run media said Friday it was not a moment to reevaluate the past.

Chu Anping, a former editor of a Communist newspaper, was the first victim of Mao Zedong's Anti-Rightist Movement in 1957, and was again persecuted at the start of the Cultural Revolution in 1966, disappearing soon afterwards.

Highly successful Africa Cup of Nations coach Claude le Roy adjusts his sights Saturday toward the 2016 Rio Olympic Games football qualifiers.

His Congo Brazzaville team enter the competition against 1992 bronze medalists Ghana at Accra Sports Stadium in the first leg of a second-round eliminator.

A single pair of premium melons fetched an eye-watering 1.5 million yen ($12,400) at an auction in Japan on Friday.

The winning bid was placed by a local fruit wholesaler for the first Yubari melons to go under the hammer this year at the Sapporo Central Wholesale Market in northern Hokkaido, officials said.

Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras held "friendly and constructive" debt talks with the leaders of France and Germany Thursday, but gave no sign of a breakthrough ahead of a crucial June deadline.

German Chancellor Angela Merkel, French President Francois Hollande and the Greek premier "focused on the desire to reach an agreement on the current program" to support Greece's finances, an aide to the French leader said.

Kuwait's richest independent businessman, Jassem al-Khorafi, who served as speaker of the Gulf emirate's parliament for a decade, has died at the age of 75, his family said Friday.

Kuwaiti media said he had suffered a heart attack while flying home from a private visit to Turkey.