North Korea’s latest outburst of nuclear and military threats has given the US a rare opportunity to build bridges with China.

North Korean leader Kim Jong Un said his rocket forces were ready “to settle accounts with the US”, escalating the country’s bellicose rhetoric and responding directly to the unprecedented announcement that nuclear-capable US B-2 bombers had joined military drills with South Korea.

Syrian rebels have freed 21 UN peacekeepers and have handed them to Jordanian authorities, according to an international peace envoy.

The US has condemned the rocket and mortar attack that killed six people and wounded dozens of others at a refugee camp near Baghdad’s international airport.

North Korea will be punished if it carries out its threat to conduct a nuclear test, John Kerry has warned.

A suicide bomber and a Turkish guard have been killed in an attack in front of the US Embassy in Ankara today.

The US airlift of French forces to Mali to fight Islamic extremists is expected to go on for another two weeks, Pentagon officials said, as hundreds of African troops join the French-led intervention.

The bloody three-day hostage standoff at a natural gas plant in the Sahara took a dramatic turn yesterday as Algeria’s state news service reported that nearly 100 of the 132 foreign workers kidnapped by Islamic militants had been freed.

Americans are still being held hostage in Algeria on the third day of a stand-off with militants at a natural gas complex in the Sahara, a US official said.

Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe has decided to cut short his first foreign visit since taking office to focus on the Algerian hostage crisis.

More than 100 civilians have been killed in a new “massacre” in Syria, a watchdog said, as Russia slammed the United States for blaming deadly blasts at a university campus on the Damascus regime.

Google’s chairman wants a first-hand look at North Korea’s economy and social media during his private visit to the communist nation, his delegation said, despite misgivings in Washington over the timing of the trip.

Google’s executive chairman has started a visit to North Korea which has sparked controversy and fascination.

US secretary of state Hillary Clinton has left a New York hospital, three days after doctors discovered a blood clot in her head.

Israel and the Hamas militant group edged closer to a ceasefire to end the week-long Israeli offensive in the Gaza Strip, but a deal remained elusive after a day of furious diplomatic efforts.

Two deadly car bombs and sporadic fighting marred a shaky holiday truce today in Syria, although thousands of protesters used the brief respite in the civil war to pour into the streets and demand president Bashar Assad’s removal.

The United States has said Russia is ending the US Agency for International Development’s aid operations in the country, dealing a blow to President Barack Obama’s policy of “resetting” relations between Washington and Moscow.

The US State Department today ordered the departure of all family members and non-essential US government personnel from its embassies in Sudan and Tunisia and warned US citizens against any travel to the two countries due to security concerns over rising anti-American violence.

America, caught by surprise by the ferocious September 11 attack against the US consulate in Libya that killed the US ambassador and three other countrymen, is bracing itself for more potential violence in parts of the Muslim world today.

The White House has denied reports of a rift with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, saying that he and President Barack Obama reaffirmed the two countries' commitment to prevent Iran from obtaining a nuclear weapon.

A film attacking the prophet Mohammed sparked assaults on US diplomatic missions during which an American was shot dead as protesters burned the US consulate in Benghazi, Libya.

Egyptian protesters, largely ultraconservative Islamists, have climbed the walls of the US embassy in Cairo, made their way into the courtyard and brought down the flag, replacing it with a black flag with an Islamic inscription to protest a film attacking Islam’s prophet, Muhammad.

UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon will attend the summit of the Nonaligned Movement of mainly developing countries in Tehran next week despite strong opposition from Israel and Jewish groups outraged at Iran’s calls for the destruction of Israel, the UN announced today.

A Syrian government official warned the United States today that military intervention in Syria could lead to regional turmoil as regime forces bombed a northern village and stormed a rebel-held Damascus suburb, killing dozens of people.

The United States is accusing WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange of making "wild assertions" about an alleged vendetta against him.

Syrian opposition groups struggled to form a united leadership at a meeting which exposed vast disagreements that have prevented them from effectively leading the uprising against President Bashar Assad.

The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) has revealed three aid workers suffered minor injuries in Syria when an explosion hit their convoy.

Russia is sending attack helicopters to Syrian President Bashar Assad’s regime, the US claimed tonight.

Two suicide car bombs ripped through the Syrian capital today, killing 55 people and tearing the facade off a military intelligence building in the deadliest explosions since the country’s uprising began 14 months ago.

The US and China have forged the outlines of a deal to end a diplomatic stand-off over legal activist Chen Guangcheng, with Beijing saying he can apply to go abroad for study and Washington saying he has been offered an American fellowship.

Blind Chinese activist Chen Guangcheng now wants to leave China with his family, the US said today.

In a historic ruling, an international court today convicted former Liberian President Charles Taylor of aiding and abetting war crimes and crimes against humanity for supporting brutal rebels in neighbouring Sierra Leone in return for “blood diamonds”.

Authorities in Bahrain opened an investigation today after the body of a man was found near the scene of clashes between protesters and the security forces.

Leading Republican senator John McCain has urged the United States to launch airstrikes against Syrian president Bashar Assad's regime to force him out of power.

The US State Department said last night the best outcome for Syria would be a political solution but if Syrian President Bashar al-Assad refused this “we may have to consider additional measures”.

US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said the US will embrace Burma further if the once-estranged Asian government releases all remaining political prisoners, ends violence against minorities and cuts military ties with North Korea.

Anti-government protesters defied a ban by marching on the headquarters of Bahrain’s main opposition party, pressing ahead with their campaign for greater political and civil rights for the nation’s Shiite Muslims.

Political tensions between the US and Iran in and around the Persian Gulf gave way to photos of rescued fishermen happily wearing US Navy baseball caps after a dramatic rescue from the clutches of Somali pirates.

An election that was supposed to solidify peace in Liberia has been marred by dismal turnout after the opposition went ahead with a boycott despite last-minute appeals from the US and the UN.

Nicaraguan president and one-time Sandinista revolutionary Daniel Ortega was re-elected in a landslide, according to results released today, overcoming a constitutional limit on re-election and reports of voting problems.

Hundreds of Yemeni women set fire to traditional female veils in protest at the government’s brutal crackdown against the country’s popular uprising, as clashes in the capital and another city killed 25 people.

Hundreds of Yemeni women set fire to traditional female veils today in protest at the government’s brutal crackdown against the country’s popular uprising, as overnight clashes in the capital and another city killed 25 people, officials said.

The Obama administration says it has read the “riot act” to Syria’s ambassador to the United States over an attack on the top American envoy to Syria.

A senior member of Muammar Gaddafi’s inner circle slipped into Niger along with three carloads of collaborators, an official said, but the toppled Libyan leader was not among them nor were any members of his immediate family.