The Taliban Monday denied agreeing to any ceasefire in Afghanistan after rumours swirled of a potential deal that would see a reduction in fighting after more than 18 years of war. The statement from the insurgents comes as local and international forces brace for another bloody winter amid...

A key commander of Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP), the mother organization of the Pakistani Taliban, was killed in Afghanistan, the group confirmed on Sunday. Qari Saifullah Mehsud, spokesman for the Hakimullah Mehsud group, was shot dead by gunmen outside the Guloon camp in Khost...

Death toll from a powerful typhoon that struck parts of the Philippines last week on Christmas has risen to 47, according to official media on Monday. The number of injured has also climbed to 143 while nine others are reportedly missing in the wake of the storm's landfall, the state-run...

North Korean leader Kim Jong Un will give his set-piece New Year speech on Wednesday, an opportunity to flesh out the nuclear-armed nation’s threat to seek a "new way" forward after the expiration of its year-end deadline for US sanctions relief. Ahead of the address, Kim told a meeting of...

Tourists and firefighters were forced to flee vast fires burning in southeastern Australia on Monday, as a heatwave rekindled devastating bush blazes across the country. Authorities said "quite a number" of the 30,000 tourists visiting the usually picturesque southeast tip of the continent...

Russian President Vladimir Putin, in a phone call on Sunday, thanked his U.S. counterpart Donald Trump for passing on an information which helped prevent “acts of terrorism” in Russia, the Kremlin said. It said the information was passed on via special services. No other details were...

The Taliban said Sunday they have agreed to a temporary cease-fire nationwide. It provides a window during which a peace agreement with the United States could be signed. A peace deal would allow Washington to bring home its troops from Afghanistan and end its 18-year military engagement...

More than 1,000 people rallied in the rain in a park in Hong Kong’s financial district on Sunday, chanting slogans for democracy as they huddled under a sea of umbrellas. The crowd, a mix of young and elderly people, wore black and turquoise surgical masks to hide their identities as they...

Ukrainian government forces and pro-Russian separatists in eastern Ukraine have started an all-for-all prisoner swap, after which all remaining prisoners of the five-year conflict should return home, the office of Ukraine's president said on Sunday. The agreement was concluded by Russian...

North Korean leader Kim Jong Un has convened a key meeting of top ruling party officials, state media said Sunday, ahead of a year-end deadline for Washington to shift its stance on stalled nuclear talks. The plenary session, which opened on Saturday, follows widespread speculation that...

A petition to cancel Sydney's famous New Year's Eve fireworks and use the money to fight bushfires ringing the city has topped 260,000 signatures, but officials say the show will go on. Sydney is spending Aus$6.5 million ($4.5 million) on this year's fireworks display -- funds that the...

An attacker stabbed five people late on Saturday at a Hasidic rabbi's home in New York state before fleeing, a Jewish organization said, a rampage that came after days of increased tensions over anti-Semitic assaults. The Orthodox Jewish Public Affairs Council (OJPAC) said on Twitter an...

 The chief minister of India’s Uttar Pradesh state has rebuffed accusations from rights groups of police abuses during protests against a new citizenship law, crediting his tough stand with restoring calm to the streets. The northern state has seen the most violent turmoil over Prime...

A tense diplomatic feud between Bolivia’s conservative interim government and Mexico expanded to include Spain on Friday when a confrontation broke out as Spanish diplomats visited the Mexican ambassador’s residence in La Paz, where members of the ousted leftist government have taken refuge....

Kazakhstan observed a national day of mourning on Saturday after 12 people died when an airliner crashed shortly after takeoff and slammed into a house. Witnesses spoke of the terrified screams of passengers as the plane came down on the edge of the country's biggest city Almaty on Friday,...

Police fought with protesters who marched through a Hong Kong shopping mall Saturday demanding mainland Chinese traders leave the territory in a fresh weekend of anti-government tension. The protest in Sheung Shui, near Hong Kong's boundary with the mainland, was part of efforts to pressure...

Thousands of koalas are feared to have died in a wildfire-ravaged area north of Sydney, further diminishing Australia's iconic marsupial, while the fire danger accelerated Saturday in the country’s east as temperatures soared. The mid-north coast of New South Wales was home to up to 28,000...

The UN General Assembly has passed a resolution that strongly condemns Myanmar for violating the human rights of Muslim Rohingya.   The resolution, passed 134-9 on Friday, calls on Myanmar’s government to take urgent measures to prevent human rights violations including torture,...

A car bomb exploded at a busy security checkpoint in Somalia's capital Saturday morning, killing at least 30 people, police said. Police said the blast targeted a tax collection center during the morning rush hour in Mogadishu as Somalia returned to work after its weekend. "The blast...

Ten Afghan soldiers were killed in a Taliban attack on a military base in the southern province of Helmand on Saturday, officials said. The Taliban dug a tunnel into the base in volatile Sangin district and then blew it up before their fighters could attack the compound, Nawab Zadran a...