Reuters

Tensions between the United States and China are expected to loom over Asia's top security meeting this week, as China has declined a bilateral meeting between the superpowers' defence chiefs.

North Korea's Kim Yo Jong, leader Kim Jong Un's sister, has said her country's military spy satellite will soon enter into orbit and promised Pyongyang will increase military surveillance, state media KCNA reported on Thursday.

A former JPMorgan Chase & Co executive wrote in a 2011 email that the late financier and sex offender Jeffrey Epstein should not be a client of the bank, according to a transcript of a deposition of Chief Executive Jamie Dimon seen by Reuters.

A former New York City police sergeant charged with acting as an illegal Chinese agent for allegedly intimidating a U.S.-based fugitive from China went on trial on Wednesday and argued he did not know that country's government was behind a private surveillance job he took.

Applied maths graduate Liang Huaxiao tried to land a job with one of China's tech giants for two years.

Former Republican Vice President Mike Pence, who incurred Donald Trump's wrath by refusing to support his effort to overturn the results of the 2020 election, is set to enter the 2024 presidential race against his former boss on June 7, two sources familiar with the situation told Reuters.

South Africa is mulling its options over an International Criminal Court (ICC) arrest warrant for Russian President Vladimir Putin should he accept an invitation to a BRICS summit in August, a government official said on Wednesday.

President Emmanuel Macron acknowledged on Wednesday that France should have paid more attention to Eastern European nations, which warned about a belligerent Russia before Moscow's forces invaded Ukraine.

The United States and the European Union pledged on Wednesday to join forces to counter China's non-market economic practices and disinformation, particularly over Russia's invasion of Ukraine.

The U.N. nuclear watchdog has re-installed only some monitoring equipment originally put in place under the 2015 nuclear deal with major powers that Iran then ordered removed last year, the watchdog said in two reports on Wednesday seen by Reuters.

The U.N. has proposed that Kyiv, Moscow and Ankara start preparatory work for the transit of Russian ammonia through Ukraine as it tries to salvage a deal allowing safe Black Sea grain exports, a source close to the talks said on Wednesday.

Canadian fire officials warned on Wednesday gusty winds and low humidity could fuel a raging wildfire in Halifax that has forced thousands to evacuate while causing poor air quality hundreds of miles away in the U.S.

Russia said Ukrainian artillery hit a Russian town for a third time this week and drones struck two oil refineries in an uptick in attacks on Russian territory as Ukraine prepares a Western-backed push to end Russia's invasion.

U.N. judges on Wednesday sentenced two former Serbian spymasters who worked for Yugoslav ex-President Slobodan Milosevic to 15 years in jail as it beefed up their initial convictions in the last case before The Hague tribunal dating from the Balkan wars.

President Tayyip Erdogan played up his plans to repatriate a million Syrian refugees as he rode a wave of nationalism to his third decade in power, but he could struggle to make good on the promise as conflict lingers on in neighbouring Syria.

From the purchase of surveillance drones and armoured vehicles to providing access to a satellite, fundraiser Serhiy Prytula has helped power Ukraine's army during Russia's invasion.

A NASA panel formed last year to study what the government calls "unidentified aerial phenomena," commonly termed UFOs, was due to hold its first public meeting on Wednesday, ahead of a report expected in coming weeks.

Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan is viewed as almost certain to include former economy chief Mehmet Simsek in his new cabinet either as finance minister or as a vice president responsible for the economy, four senior officials said.

U.S. peacekeepers stood behind barbed wire as protestors held a Serbian flag outside a municipal hall in a northern Kosovo town, in an ethnically divided area where days of unrest have prompted NATO to send additional troops to stave off potential violence.

Russian designers and brands are helping the retail sector gradually recover from a turbulent 15 months of store closures and slumping demand, with new labels plugging the gap left by foreign rivals and shoppers tentatively returning.

Sudan's army suspended talks with a rival paramilitary force on Wednesday over a ceasefire and about enabling humanitarian access, a Sudanese diplomatic source said, raising fears of fresh bloodshed in the more than six-week-old conflict.

The Qatari prime minister held secret talks with the supreme leader of the Taliban this month on resolving tension with the international community, a source briefed on the meeting said, signaling a new willingness by Afghanistan's rulers to discuss ways to end their isolation.

The European Union on Tuesday imposed sanctions on seven people from Moldova for actions it said destabilised and undermined the territorial integrity of the small impoverished country and neighbouring Ukraine.

Wailing air raid sirens and cell phone alerts calling for rare evacuations rattled residents of the South Korean capital, Seoul, early on Wednesday after North Korea launched what it said was a satellite.

A senior U.S. senator who has long opposed the potential sale of F-16 fighter jets to Turkey said on Tuesday he wants Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan to take a "less belligerent" stance toward NATO allies and Turkey's neighbors before lifting his opposition to the deal.

North Korea attempted to launch what it called a space satellite over the sea to the south on Wednesday, South Korea's military said, as the nuclear-armed North seeks to gain ground in a regional space race.

An all-private astronaut team of two Americans and two Saudis, including the first Arab woman ever sent into orbit, headed for splashdown off Florida's coast on Tuesday, capping an eight-day research mission aboard the International Space Station (ISS).

U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken on Tuesday urged Turkey to immediately finalize Sweden's accession to NATO, saying the Nordic country had already taken significant steps to address Ankara's objections to its membership.

International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) chief Rafael Grossi on Tuesday asked Ukraine and Russia to respect five principles to safeguard Ukraine's Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant, suggesting he had not secured their agreement to protect the facility.