World News

The US military made preparations Thursday night for limited strikes on Iran in retaliation for the downing of a US surveillance drone, but approval was abruptly withdrawn before the attacks were launched, a US official said.

In technical terms, the drone that Iran shot down was a U.S. Navy Broad Area Maritime Surveillance (BAMS-D) aircraft, which is a Navy version of the Air Force’s high-flying RQ-4A Global Hawk. In simple terms, it is an unmanned aircraft that is intended for surveillance at sea.

Mexico has become the first country to ratify the new trilateral trade deal pushed by U.S. President Donald Trump as a replacement for the North American Free Trade Agreement.

Russia and China are concocting a plan to circumvent US sanctions on Iran.

Urban wildlife such as birds and bats may be spreading superbugs around the cities of developing nations because of poor management of human and animal waste, researchers have warned.

An Ontario couple has filed a complaint in the provincial Human Rights court against the school system after their six-year-old daughter was taught gender fluidity in class and started worrying she might not be female.

Iran is seeking to build a ‘land bridge’ to extend the reach of its influence all the way to the Mediterranean Sea, and ‘disrupting’ this corridor should be a priority of the United States, a paper published on Tuesday by the Washington, DC-based Foundation for Defense of Democracies (FDD) think tank said.

Iran’s elite Revolutionary Guards have shot down a US ‘spy’ drone in the southern province of Hormozgan, which is on the Gulf, the Guards’ news website Sepah News said on Thursday.

The latest deployment of 1,000 additional troops to the Middle East, which was announced on Monday, will include a Patriot missile battalion, manned and unmanned surveillance aircraft and ‘other deterrence capabilities,’ the Pentagon said on Wednesday.

China is seeking to deter the US from its current Iran policy, Reuters reports.

A squadron of American F-15E Strike Eagles arrived in United Arab Emirates on Thursday as part of reinforcements against the Iranian threat as announced last month by the Pentagon.

China’s maritime early warning radar system is immune to ‘radar killer’ missiles and is capable of detecting stealth aircraft, according to its developer in a recent interview with media.

Iranian missiles are capable of carrying out precision strikes on aircraft carriers in the Persian Gulf, commander of the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps Maj. Gen. Hossein Salami said Tuesday in an interview with Iranian state television.

A record 71 million people have been displaced worldwide from war, persecution and other violence, the U.N. refugee agency said Wednesday, an increase of more than 2 million from last year and an overall total that would amount to the world’s 20th most populous country.

Russia and China have blocked the U.N. Security Council committee monitoring sanctions against North Korea from declaring that Pyongyang breached the annual limit for importing refined petroleum products which are key for its economy, two U.N. diplomats said Tuesday.

The Trump administration is not seeking conflict with Iran and its military buildup in the Persian Gulf is aimed entirely at deterring Iranian aggression and threats to US interests and international shipping, US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said Tuesday.

France, Germany, and Spain will cooperate to produce the next generation of European fighter jets, according to European officials who met at the Paris air show Monday.

Iran will not hesitate from stepping up its uranium enrichment to 20%, an Iranian nuclear spokesperson said Monday.

U.S. Central Command (CENTCOM) released new images Monday showing the aftermath of mine attacks against two oil tankers in the Gulf of Oman last week, including some images purporting to show Iranian forces removing an unexploded device from the hull of one of the vessels.

Germany and Britain on Monday warned Tehran not to breach uranium stockpile limits set by the 2015 nuclear deal, as the EU’s diplomatic chief dismissed Iranian threats as ‘political dialectics.’