NEW DELHI -- India Friday strongly reacted to reports of the Islamabad High Court ordering the release of Mumbai terror attacks alleged mastermind Zaki-ur-Rehman Lakhvi, saying that it's Pakistan's responsibility to ensure he doesn't come out of jail.

"It is the responsibility of the Pakistan government to take all legal measures to ensure that Lakhvi does not come out of jail. There are no good or bad terrorists," the Indian Ministry of Home Affairs said in a statement. (India-Mumbai Terror Attacks)

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WELLINGTON -- New Zealand's government weather bureau on Friday issued a severe weather warning for the north and east of the North Island as Tropical Cyclone Pam approached after battering Tuvalu and the Solomon Islands.

Pam, which is expected to hit Vanuatu over the weekend, was moving slowly southwards with winds of 220 km per hour near the center and gales extending out to 300 km from the center, said a statement from MetService. (NZ-Tropical Cyclone)

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SYDNEY -- Australian Treasurer Joe Hockey said on Friday that Australia will consider joining the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB), a day after Britain applied to join the China-proposed bank as a founding member.

"This is something that will obviously be taken into account by the government over the next few weeks as we continue our dialogue with those people behind the bank." (Australia-AIIB)

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SEOUL -- South Korea and Japan will hold the seventh round of director general-level talks in Seoul next week about Japan's wartime sexual slavery, Seoul's foreign ministry said Friday.

Lee Sang-deok, chief of the South Korean Foreign Ministry's Northeast Asian Affairs Bureau, will meet on Monday with Junichi Ihara, chief of the Japanese Foreign Ministry's Asian and Oceanian Affairs Bureau. (S.Korea-Japan-Sexual Slavery)