North Korea has fired a possible missile over northern Japan.

Three North Korean short-range ballistic missiles have failed, the US military said, in a temporary blow to Pyongyang's rapid nuclear and missile expansion.

"The US military is locked and loaded every day," HR McMaster said.

The statement by the Joint Chiefs of Staff did not say what type of projectile was fired or if it was successful.

North Korea has fired an unidentified projectile from an area near its capital, Pyongyang, South Korea said.

North Korea has test-launched a ballistic missile that landed in the Sea of Japan.

The top US military officer has told a Senate committee he believes Russia bombed the humanitarian aid convoy in Syria on Monday, calling it an "unacceptable atrocity".

North Korea has fired three ballistic missiles off its east coast in a show of force timed to coincide with the G20 summit in China, Seoul has said.

A North Korean ballistic missile fired from a submarine flew about 310 miles in the longest flight by that type of weapon, Seoul said - a range that can place much of South Korea within its striking distance.

Turkish special forces captured a group of rebel commandos who tried to seize or kill President Tayyip Erdogan during a failed coup, and a government minister said plotters would “never see God’s sun as long as they breathe”.

The Pentagon is moving to increase the number of American troops in Iraq in the wake of new strikes that killed the Islamic State's finance minister and other top leaders of the terror group.

General Martin Dempsey, an Irish-American member of the US military bowed out in style recently.

US President Barack Obama has reaffirmed that he does not intend to send US troops into combat against the Islamic State group, despite doubts about the ability of Iraqi forces, Kurdish fighters, and Syrian rebels to carry out the ground fight on their own.

The militant Islamic State group has released a video warning the US that fighters await in Iraq if Barack Obama sends troops there.

Iraq has asked the US for air support in countering Sunni rebels, the top US general said last night, after the militants seized major cities in a lightning advance that has routed the Shi’ite-led government’s army.

North Korea has fired into disputed waters near a South Korean warship in the latest sign of tension rising between the bitter rivals.

The United States and other nations in the Group of Seven have agreed to “move swiftly” – as early as Monday – to impose additional economic sanctions on Russia for its actions in Ukraine.

South Korea has returned fire into North Korean waters after shells from a North live-fire drill fell into the rivals’ disputed western sea boundary.

A US military chief ordered his subordinates to destroy any photographs of Osama bin Laden’s body or turn them over to the CIA, 11 days after the the al Qaida founder was killed in 2011, a newly-released email shows.

The Syrian civil war now threatens to split the Middle East along a Sunni-Shi’ite chasm.

THE images emerging from Syria — from the hysterical young girl to the rows of corpses — should be a turning point in a conflict that has killed 100,000 people. The deaths, if proven, demonstrate either the depravity of Bashar al-Assad — or the rebels fighting him.

America’s security chiefs have met to review the threat of a terrorist attack that led to the weekend closure of 21 US embassies and consulates in the Muslim world and a global travel warning.

The United States issued an extraordinary global travel warning to Americans about the threat of an al-Qaida attack and closed down 21 embassies and consulates across the Muslim world for the weekend.

The Obama administration is deliberating whether to use military power in Syria, the top military officer in the US has told a Senate committee.

North Korea fired a projectile into waters off its eastern coast today, a day after launching three short-range missiles in the same area, officials said.

The Obama administration is rethinking its opposition to arming the rebels who have been locked in a civil war with the Syrian regime for more than two years, defence secretary Chuck Hagel said last night, becoming the first top US official to publicly acknowledge the reassessment.

America's secretary of state John Kerry has arrived in South Korea, as the region braces itself for a planned missile test by North Korea.

A US intelligence report says North Korea has advanced its nuclear know-how to the point that it could arm a ballistic missile with a nuclear warhead.

North Korea today barred South Korean workers from entering a jointly run factory park just over the heavily armed border in the North, officials in Seoul said.

Pentagon chief Leon Panetta is removing the US military’s ban on women serving in combat, senior defence officials have said.

Internal emails among US military officers indicate that no sailors watched Osama bin Laden’s burial at sea from the USS Carl Vinson and traditional Islamic procedures were followed during the ceremony.

The sex scandal that felled CIA Director David Petraeus widened to ensnare the top US commander in Afghanistan, an improbable drama unfolding at a critical time in the Afghan war effort and just as President Barack Obama was hoping for a smooth transition in his national security team.

The US military did not intervene quickly during the attack on America's consulate in Libya because military leaders did not have adequate intelligence information and felt they should not put their forces at risk, defence secretary Leon Panetta said.

The US government is investigating whether the attack on the US Consulate in Libya in which America’s ambassador was gunned down was a planned terrorist strike to mark the anniversary of the September 11 2001 attacks rather than a spontaneous mob enraged over an anti-Islam YouTube video.

The Pentagon’s top general has finished talks in Baghdad with senior Iraqi officials about ways the US might help plug gaps in Iraq’s security.

Iran is playing a growing role supporting the Syrian regime and is helping to build and train a militia to fight opposition forces, US defence chiefs say.

Iran has threatened to block the strategic Strait of Hormuz if its interests are seriously threatened.

Iran has threatened to block the strategic Strait of Hormuz if its interests are seriously threatened, a senior Iranian military commander has said.

An influential panel is calling for an 80% reduction of US nuclear weapons and an elimination of all nuclear armed intercontinental ballistic missiles.

South Korea says that North Korea has moved a long-range rocket to its north-western launch site in preparation for a launch.

South Korea conducted live-fire military drills today from five islands near its disputed sea boundary with North Korea, despite Pyongyang’s threat to attack.

North Korea will launch “merciless” strikes if South Korea goes through with planned live-fire drills near their disputed sea border, a North Korean officer said yesterday, amid persistent tension on the divided peninsula.

The man destined to be China’s next leader won an extraordinary welcome across Washington in a finely scripted opening to one of the world’s most important relationships.

The US military has formally shut down the war in Iraq, officially retiring the flag of US Forces-Iraq.