Lai Changxing has been jailed for life for running a multi-billion dollar smuggling ring, Chinese media say.

North Korea has resumed construction work on an experimental light water reactor (ELWR) in a move that could extend its capacity to produce more material for nuclear weapons, website 38 North reported on Thursday.

Syria remains the top destination for Iranian arms shipments in violation of a U.N. Security Council ban on weapons exports by the Islamic Republic, according to a confidential report on Iran sanctions-busting seen by Reuters on Wednesday.

EU naval forces have conducted their first raid on pirate bases on the Somali mainland, saying they have destroyed several boats.

An Indonesian search team has found part of the black box of a Russian Sukhoi Superjet plane that crashed killing all 45 people on board.

The local assembly in a Japanese town that hosts a nuclear plant agreed on Monday it was necessary to restart two off-line reactors, its chairman said, the first such nod since all the country's stations were halted after the Fukushima crisis.

Greece's president will ask politicians on Tuesday to stand aside and let a government of technocrats steer the nation away from bankruptcy, but leftists have already rejected the proposal and look set to force a new election they reckon they can

China, Japan and South Korea will set in motion formal talks for a three-way free trade pact and unveil an accompanying investment treaty at a summit in Beijing on Sunday.

A leading human rights organisation has urged Nato to investigate fully the deaths of civilians in air strikes in Libya last year. Human Rights Watch believes Nato air strikes killed at least 72 civilians and says the organisation needs to bear resp

The woman who drove blind Chinese activist Chen Guangcheng to Beijing after his dramatic escape from house arrest in eastern China told how she sat down with security officers afterwards to watch the jailbreak movie, "The Shawshank Redemption&qu

Russia's lower house of parliament confirmed former president Dmitry Medvedev as prime minister on Tuesday, completing a job swap with Vladimir Putin that has sparked protests against the two leaders' grip on power.

Japan and South Korea urged North Korea on Wednesday to refrain from any new "provocations", amid concern the secretive Asian state will soon conduct a new nuclear test.

Syrian rebels killed 15 members of the security forces in an ambush on Wednesday, a monitoring group said, and a human rights organization accused Damascus of war crimes in last month's run-up to a U.N.-brokered truce.

When Nicolas Sarkozy won the French presidency in 2007, the roaring Noughties were still in full swing and his message of "work more to earn more" was in sync with the times.

The party of Myanmar opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi agreed on Monday to end a boycott of parliament and swear an oath to protect the constitution, said party officials, apparently ending a dispute with the government.

The Netherlands, a core euro zone member, was drawn into Europe's debt crisis at the weekend when the government failed to agree on budget cuts, making elections almost unavoidable and casting doubt on its support for future euro zone measures.

China's most senior diplomat has vowed to deepen ties with North Korea and praised its young leader Kim Jong-un, despite an international outcry over Pyongyang's recent rocket launch and the possibility of a third nuclear test by the isolated

Campaigners in Pakistan say cases of acid attacks are increasing in most areas, even though tougher penalties were introduced last year.

A British man jailed for plotting to blow up a plane has admitted meeting Osama Bin Laden, in a taped testimony for a US terror trial in New York.

Pakistan's army chief on Wednesday made a rare call for the demilitarization of the world's highest battlefield after touring the site of an avalanche that buried 129 Pakistani soldiers near the border with rival India.

Afghan President Hamid Karzai said on Monday that a coordinated Taliban attack on Kabul showed a "failure" by Afghan intelligence and especially by NATO, while Washington signaled the Haqqani group of militants was responsible.

China is at a promising moment for speeding up interest rate and exchange rate reforms, the central bank's statistics department said in a report published Tuesday, following the latest move to make the Chinese currency more flexible.

Japan will within weeks have no nuclear power for the first time in more than 40 years, after the trade minister said two reactors idled after the Fukushima disaster would not be back online before the last one currently operating is shut down.

An Islamist militant commander who helped plan an assault on a Pakistani jail on Sunday which freed nearly 400 prisoners said his group had inside information.

The banging of Win Maung's hammer echoes across the farming village of Kya-oh in parched central Myanmar, as twilight descends upon its thatched-roof homes.

A United Nations mission to oversee an end to violence in Syria may need to bring in its own aircraft and deploy more troops to ensure that a firm ceasefire takes hold throughout the country, U.N. Secretary General Ban Ki-moon said on Tuesday.

Nobel Peace Prize laureate and newly elected lawmaker Aung San Suu Kyi will travel outside Myanmar for the first time in 24 years after accepting invitations to visit Norway and Britain in June, her party said on Wednesday.

A bristling North Korea said on Wednesday it was ready to retaliate in the face of international condemnation over its failed rocket launch, increasing the likelihood the hermit state will push ahead with a third nuclear test.

A powerful plume of steam and ash rose from the Popocatepetl volcano in central Mexico on Tuesday, prompting local schools to cancel classes and emergency teams to prepare for evacuations.

The Norwegian anti-Islamic gunman who massacred 77 people said in court on Tuesday his shooting spree and bomb attack were "sophisticated and spectacular" and that he would do the same thing again.