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Japan’s broadcaster NHK reported a missile launch from North Korea, stating the projectile was estimated to have fallen some 2,000 km off Hokkaido’s coast. The news, however, was retracted shortly afterward. The erroneous report of the missile launch was issued by Japan’s national broadcaster late on Thursday. A few minutes …

A typhoon that lashed the central Philippines on Christmas Day has killed at least 16 people and caused damage to homes and tourist areas. Typhoon Phanfone, known locally as Typhoon Ursula, first made landfall on Eastern Samar province on Tuesday, bringing heavy rain and storm surges. It hit as the …

Mexico’s government said on Thursday it was appealing to the International Court of Justice to ensure its diplomatic facilities were respected in Bolivia following its decision to grant asylum to nine people there. Foreign Minister Marcelo Ebrard told a regular news conference that Mexico wanted the court, based in The …

Hundreds of backers of Montenegro’s pro-Serb opposition took to the streets of the capital Podgorica on Thursday, rallying against a law they say would strip the Serbian Orthodox Church there of its property. Ahead of a vote on the draft Law on Religious Freedoms, expected later on Thursday or on …

China says it is to dispatch a guided-missile destroyer to the joint naval drills with Iran and Russia — which are to be held to hone the trio’s maritime security and anti-piracy prowess but are also interpreted as a show of their close alliance. Defense Ministry spokesman Wu Qian announced …

Troops from India and Pakistan have exchanged heavy fire and mortar shelling along the restive Line of Control (LoC) that divides Kashmir between the two countries, with a total of six soldiers reportedly killed from both sides. The Pakistani armed forces said two of their soldiers were killed and one …

A carbon monoxide leak at a church in Carlepont, in the northern French department of Oise, hospitalized at least 21 people who attended a Christmas Mass service, the French newspaper Le Parisien reported. According to the French newspaper Le Parisien, emergency services received a call to the Saint-Eloi church at …

House Judiciary Committee lawyers on Monday told a federal appeals court that the panel might consider recommending “new articles of impeachment” against President Trump if former White House counsel Don McGahn testifies and provides fresh evidence, The Washington Post reports. Democrats who lead the committee have been fighting in court …

Helicopters on Wednesday dropped water on the outskirts of the Chilean port city of Valparaiso to extinguish a fire that destroyed about 150 homes. Dozens of people living in the city’s Rocuant and San Roque hills sifted through the ruins of their homes after the fire, fanned by strong winds, …

President Vladimir Putin said Tuesday that Russia has got a strong edge in designing new weapons and that it has become the only country in the world to deploy hypersonic weapons. Speaking at a meeting with top military brass, Putin said that for the first time in history Russia is …

An attack in Burkina Faso has killed 35 civilians, almost all of them women, in one of the deadliest assaults to hit the West African country in nearly five years of violence. Seven soldiers and 80 armed fighters were also killed in Tuesday’s double attack on a military base and …

Boko Haram terrorists have killed seven people on Christmas Eve in a raid on a Christian village near the town of Chibok in northeast Nigeria’s Borno state, local militia and residents say. Dozens of militants driving trucks and motorcycles stormed into Kwarangulum late Tuesday, shooting fleeing residents and burning homes …

A lawmaker from Japan’s governing party has been arrested on suspicion of receiving 3.7m yen ($34,000) in bribes from a gambling operator. As a member of Prime Minister Shinzo Abe’s cabinet until October, Tsukasa Akimoto oversaw the government’s plan to introduce casinos. The 48-year-old denies wrongdoing and says he never …

Turkish leader Recep Tayyip Erdogan said that Ankara will consider deploying soldiers to help the United Nations-backed government in Libya fight off rival factions in the civil war-torn country. Erdogan made the comment in a meeting with Tunisian President Kais Saied during a surprise visit to Tunisia on Wednesday. We …

A military jet has crashed in the vicinity of Sabalan Mountain in Iran’s northwestern Ardabil Province, with no information still available on the fate of the crew. The CEO of the Iranian Red Crescent Society (IRCS) in Ardabil Province said the plane had crashed at Baba Maqsood peak somewhere between …

At least 27 people have died and more than a dozen were injured after a bus plunged into a ravine in Indonesia, officials said Tuesday. The bus careered into a 150-meter (500-foot) ravine in South Sumatra province just before midnight (1600 GMT) on Monday and ended up in a river, …

US Senator and Democratic presidential candidate Bernie Sanders have overtaken former Vice President Joe Biden in head to head matchup with President Donald Trump, a new poll shows. The survey, conducted between December 18 and 19 by Ipsos/Reuters, found that 39 percent of US voters favored Sanders over Trump, compared …

China, Japan, and South Korea have agreed to work together to promote dialogue between the United States and North Korea, South Korean President Moon Jae-in said on Tuesday following a summit between the three countries in China. North Korea has set a year-end deadline for the United States to change …

The number of babies born in Japan fell an estimated 5.9% this year to fewer than 900,000 for the first time since the government started compiling data in 1899, the welfare ministry said on Tuesday. The dwindling number of births will put more strain welfare finances to support snowballing costs …

Somalis battling the worst invasion of locusts in 25 years have resorted to eating the insects to stop them from destroying crops. Local media reports have shown residents in central Somalia frying locusts and serving them with rice, with one man saying the desert insects are tastier than fish. Another …