US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson has said that China has threatened to impose sanctions on North Korea if it conducts further nuclear tests.

The senior US Navy officer overseeing military operations in the Pacific has said the crisis with North Korea is at the worst point he has ever seen.

The US and Chinese militaries have finished two days of talks on maritime security, the first such discussions since China broke off military contact in protest at the US sale of arms to Taiwan.

US Navy ships laden with relief supplies steamed away from Burma’s coast today, their helicopters barred by the ruling junta even though millions of cyclone survivors need food, shelter or medical care.

The top US military commander for the Middle East resigned today amid speculation about a rift over American policy in Iran.

Two of America’s most advanced fighter jets, the F-22 Raptor, have arrived in Japan for their first overseas deployment, the US Air Force said today.

A top US naval commander said today that an incident in which a Chinese submarine came close to the USS Kitty Hawk carrier group in the Pacific Ocean could have escalated into an “unforeseen” situation.

North Korea has said it is preparing “strong measures for self-defence” after the US wrapped up a massive Pacific military exercise.

UN agencies, governments and aid organisations rushed emergency supplies to Indonesia today to lay the groundwork for a coordinated humanitarian response to this weekend’s deadly earthquake as the death toll hit 5,000.

Malaysia today became the latest country to announce a death from a mystery disease that has killed at least 86 people worldwide, while neighbouring Singapore tried to convince a wary public that its own outbreak was under control.

Pieces of the disassembled US spy plane that collided earlier this year with a Chinese fighter jet have arrived in Hawaii.

The United States has demanded the speedy return of the US spy plane being held in China.

Military officials were today being briefed by a team of American technicians who have inspected a downed US Navy spy plane in China, a spokesman for the US Pacific Command said.

As US technicians prepared to inspect a grounded Navy spy plane, an American military spokesman said today that Washington still hopes to fly home the aircraft damaged in a collision with a Chinese fighter jet.

A collision between a United States Navy surveillance plane and a Chinese fighter jet was blamed by a top US officer today on a ‘‘pattern of increasingly unsafe behaviour’’ by China’s military in the South China Sea.