asia & pacific
North Korea will probably keep testing nukes no matter what the US does
Kim Jong-un’s regime has repeatedly made a mockery of international sanctions designed to stop the country’s development of nuclear weapons.
Philippine president regrets calling Obama a 'son of a bitch'
The spat began on Monday when a reporter asked how he planned to explain to Obama his support for more than 2,000 extrajudicial killings of drug suspects.
Uzbekistan’s president is probably dead — but the government won't confirm it
Islam Karimov's death was revealed by the Turkish prime minister on Friday, hours after the Uzbek government acknowledged Karimov was seriously ill.
Bangladesh police say they killed the masterminds of the Dhaka cafe attack
The three suspects – believed to be behind the attack in an embassy area which left 22 dead – were holed up in a residence on the capital's outskirts.
Americans are fighting and dying again in southern Afghanistan
American troops just returned to southern Helmand province to help defeat a Taliban offensive that threatens the provincial capital, and one US service member has already been killed.
Philippines president threatens to quit the UN over criticism about killings of drug suspects
President Rodrigo Duterte went on a tirade after UN officials expressed concern about hundreds of extrajudicial killings that have occurred since he took office.
North Korea claims diplomat who defected from London was wanted for sex crimes
North Korea's state news agency accused high-level defector Thae Yong-ho of "embezzling a lot of state funds, selling state secrets and committing child rape."
One of North Korea's highest-ranking diplomats ever to defect is now in South Korea
Thae Yong-ho, formerly Pyongyang's deputy ambassador in Britain, reportedly vanished from his residence in west London several weeks ago.
Australia says it will close one of its most notorious refugee detention centers
But it's unclear when that will take place and where the more than 850 asylum seekers currently held there will go
Vietnam is moving its new Israeli-made rockets to the South China Sea
Thee rocket launchers are now close enough to hit targets on Chinese-controlled islands in the disputed area, according to the military officers and diplomats who spoke to Reuters.
Hundreds of secret Russian mercenaries are dying in Syria's civil war, report alleges
On Wednesday, Sky News reported that a private military company called 'Wagner' — illegal under the Russian constitution — has been recruiting hundreds of men and flying them down to Syria on Russian military transport planes.
Putin and Erdogan seem like buddies again after a tense year
"This visit seems to me a new milestone in bilateral relations," Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said before touching down in St. Petersburg.