Australia announced a multimillion-dollar agreement with Nauru on Monday that gives Canberra a veto right over a range of pacts the tiny Pacific atoll might want to enter with third countries, including China. Australia offered 140 million Australian dollars ($89 million) over five years to the remote nation’s population of…

Animal rights activists have urged the Nepali government to stop what they’ve called “an appalling bloodbath” after they claimed thousands of animals were killed as part of a festival held every five years that traditionally ends with a mass sacrifice. At least 4,200 buffaloes and thousands of goats and pigeons…

As Syrians rejoiced across the country this week, many began the frantic search for missing loved ones who had been forcibly disappeared under Bashar al-Assad’s brutal dictatorship. Crowds have descended on the notorious Saydnaya prison, which had become synonymous with arbitrary detention, torture and murder. Under the glaring sun, people…

One of the most powerful ethnic minority armed groups battling Myanmar’s army has claimed the capture of the last army outpost in the strategic western town of Maungdaw, gaining full control of the 271-kilometer (168-mile) -long border with Bangladesh. The capture by the Arakan Army makes the group’s control of…

Haiti’s government says the country’s gangs have crossed a “red line” after allegedly killing over 180 people over the weekend, after a gang leader reportedly blamed Voodoo adherents for his child’s grave illness. A statement by the Haiti Prime Minister’s office accused gang leader Micanor “Mikanò” Altès and associates of…

At the historic Umayyad Mosque in the heart of Damascus, a red, white, black and green flag flies. On the other side of the Syrian capital, former Syrian President Bashar al-Assad’s palace burns. An anchor reads the Sunday news: “We announce to you from the Syrian news channel the victory…

China has fielded its largest regional maritime deployment in decades, Taiwan’s Defense Ministry said Tuesday, as it monitors what it says is a surge of Chinese military activities in the Taiwan Strait and Western Pacific. Taiwan has been on high alert since Monday as it braced for expected military drills…

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu took the witness for the first time on Tuesday in his long-running corruption trial to give testimony that will likely force him to juggle between the courtroom and war room for weeks. Netanyahu, 75, is Israel’s first sitting prime minister to be charged with a…

Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva underwent surgery in Sao Paulo to drain a bleed on his brain linked to a fall at home in October, a medical note published by the government said on Tuesday. The surgery was successful and the 79-year-old Lula is “well” and being monitored…