A black box recording from crashed EgyptAir flight MS804 confirms smoke on board, Egyptian investigators have said.

The United Nations will hear its experts’ verdict on the alleged poison gas attack in Syria after the chief chemical weapons inspector turned over his report to the world body.

The Pentagon is moving naval forces closer to Syria in case President Barack Obama decides to order military strikes, US Defence Secretary Chuck Hagel has suggested.

Turkey’s foreign minister said a Turkish jet was downed in international airspace after it mistakenly entered Syria, but the plane was not on a spying mission.

Liberia is “basically destroyed” and the country’s only hope is for the international community to quickly send more aid to the war-ravaged West African country, the UN’s special representative to Liberia has said.