World News

China on Wednesday conducted a flight test of an anti-ship ballistic missile into the South China Sea, just as the Trump administration was unveiling new sanctions on Chinese officials over militarization in the disputed waterway.

Hundreds of flights were canceled in South Korea while North Korea’s leader expressed concern about a possible loss of lives and crops as the countries braced for a fast-approaching typhoon forecast as one of the strongest to hit their peninsula this year.

It was a highly touted summit, with Iraqi Prime Minister Mustapha Kadhimi reaching out to potential allies Egypt and Jordan in what appeared to be a bid to loosen Iran’s grip on Iraqi politics. Pro-Iranian militias have been accused of interfering in Iraqi government decisions and attacking protesters who oppose them.

U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said he spoke Wednesday with officials in Bahrain about “the importance of Gulf unity and countering Iran’s malign influence in the region.”

Authorities in Belarus have detained two leading opposition activists following the most massive rally so far against President Alexander Lukashenko.

The president of the U.N. Security Council on Tuesday rejected the Trump administration’s demand to restore all U.N. sanctions on Iran, a move that drew an angry rebuke from the U.S. ambassador who accused opponents of supporting “terrorists.”

A prominent German hospital treating Russian dissident and fierce Kremlin critic Alexei Navalny says tests indicate that he was poisoned.

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan reconverted another historic Byzantine church into a mosque on Friday just weeks after opening the iconic Hagia Sophia to Muslim worship.

A fire at Iran’s Natanz nuclear facility last month was the result of sabotage, the spokesman for Iran’s Atomic Energy Organisation told state TV channel al-Alam on Sunday.

Iran announced Thursday that is has unveiled two new missiles, each of which has been named after a senior military official killed in US drone strikes this year, Fox News reports. The announcement follows a United Nations Security Council vote in which only the Dominican Republican backed a US request to extend an arms embargo on Iran which expires in October; the embargo will therefore not be extended.

Member states of the NATO military alliance are denying allegations by Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko that their troops are preparing to invade Belarus. The wrangling came ahead of Sunday’s expected massive protests against the authoritarian head-of-state.

Authorities in Belarus have detained the leader of striking factory workers and several opposition figures for rallying against the country’s autocratic President Alexander Lukashenko.

Russian opposition politician Alexei Navalny has been airlifted from Russia to a hospital in Berlin for suspected poisoning.

Russian opposition politician Alexei Navalny has been rushed to the intensive care unit of a hospital in Russia’s Siberia region after falling ill from suspected poisoning, his spokeswoman says.

The coronavirus pandemic may have driven as many as 100 million people back into extreme poverty, World Bank President David Malpass warned Thursday.

Iran has displayed what it described as two new ballistic and cruise missiles, in defiance to U.S. calls that Tehran halt its missile program.

Catholic and Orthodox Church leaders call for prayers for the people of Belarus, and urge the government to end a crackdown on opposition supporters.

President Trump said his administration will call for all United Nations sanctions against Iran to be reimposed after the United States failed to extend a U.N. arms embargo.

In a move that is expected to further heighten tensions between Washington and Beijing, the Trump administration on Wednesday suspended or terminated three bilateral agreements with Hong Kong.

Israel‘s Foreign Ministry reacted to the verdict in the case of former Lebanese Prime Minister Rafik al-Hariri’s assassination by saying Hezbollah had “taken hostage” the future of the Lebanese people.