U.S. Vice President Joe Biden touted his intimacy with the Oval Office and rival world leaders Tuesday, as he stepped up his flirtation with a 2016 White House bid.

For the second consecutive day, Biden intimated he may challenge Clinton, a former secretary of state and strong frontrunner, for the Democratic presidential nomination.

Russian police said Tuesday they had detained 20 members of banned Islamist group Hizb ut-Tahrir in Moscow, the latest arrests of alleged Islamists after the start of the Kremlin's bombing campaign in Syria. 

"Around one hundred people suspected of illegal activities were checked over the past 24 hours and 20 of them were detained as members of Hizb ut-Tahrir," the interior ministry said. 

The search for the next secretary-general of the United Nations should give special attention to women vying for the top job, the president of the U.N. General Assembly said Tuesday.

Danish diplomat Mogens Lykketoft told the Security Council he was confident that there were a number of female candidates "who come with all the credentials and more" to be the world's top diplomat.

Women worldwide live longer lives and are more educated than at any time in the past 20 years, but more than a third have been victims of violence, a U.N. report said Tuesday.

The findings are contained in "The World's Women," a five-year study providing an up-to-date, global picture of the progress of women and girls on critical issues in their lives.

Police gunned down an Indian army soldier Tuesday after he opened fire indiscriminately, killing four people and injuring four others following a suspected family feud, an official said. 

The soldier, identified as Jagdip Singh, climbed onto the roof of his home in Sangrur district in northern India where he was on vacation and started shooting at a house below, the official said.

Media watchdog Reporters without Borders on Tuesday condemned the "unacceptable pattern" of police mistreating journalists who are covering the ongoing refugee crisis at European border crossings.

The criticism came a day after Croatian police at the Serbian border pushed AFP photographer Andrej Isakovic to the ground without explanation, and threw his two cameras into a field where he could not retrieve them for several hours.

Cyprus peace talks are nearing a critical juncture where rival leaders will have to make tough calls if the island is to be reunited, U.N. envoy Espen Barth Eide said Tuesday.

"As you know the leaders are now going into maybe the most intense phase of the negotiations," Eide told reporters after meeting Greek Cypriot leader Nicos Anastasiades.

Finland has tightened its criteria for granting asylum to Iraqi migrants, the country's immigration authority said Tuesday, after deeming Iraq safer than before.

"The security situation in many areas in Iraq has eased, which influences the decision-making in asylum matters at the Finnish Immigration Service," the agency wrote in a statement.

Russian President Vladimir Putin said Tuesday that Moscow's intervention in Syria demonstrates it can counter any threats, as the Kremlin flexes its muscles on the world stage.  

"The operation has confirmed that Russia is ready to adequately and effectively respond to terrorist and any other threats to our country," Putin said in a speech to military and intelligence commanders at the Kremlin. 

Marine Le Pen, the leader of France's far-right National Front, went on trial Tuesday on charges of inciting hatred after comparing Muslim street prayers to the Nazi occupation.

The 47-year-old, who has won a string of election successes after working to soften the party's image, appeared in court over the comments she made while campaigning to take over the FN leadership from her father five years ago.