South Korea warned today that it would retaliate against any provocation from North Korea, a day after the North threatened to tear up the armistice that ended the Korean War in 1953.

The police in the Maldives detained opposition leader Mohamed Nasheed on Tuesday, defying pressure from regional power India which had called for him to be free to campaign for elections.

A record 259 nominees are in the running for this year’s Nobel Peace Prize — 209 individuals and 50 organisations — with the laureate to be announced in October, the Nobel Institute said on Monday.
The list is known to include Malala Yousafzai, the shot Pakistani schoolgirl-turned-icon of Taliban resistance, ex-Eastern bloc activists, and former US President Bill Clinton.

John Kerry was on Monday holding talks with his counterparts from six Gulf monarchies on the war in Syria and Iran’s disputed atomic programme, on his first visit to the Gulf as US secretary of state.

A suicide bomber struck in an area between major shrines in the Iraqi Shiite holy city of Karbala today, wounding 10 people, security and medical officials said.

Bangladesh police arrested five students of an elite private university on Saturday on charges of murdering an anti-Islamist blogger whose death triggered nationwide turmoil.

President Barack Obama reluctantly ordered an $85 billion austerity drive Friday that could slow the US economy and slash jobs, after blaming Republicans for refusing to stop the “dumb” spending cuts.

Fresh clashes erupted in Bangladesh, bringing the number of people killed to 52 in violence triggered by convictions for Islamist leaders over war crimes committed during the 1971 independence war.

Pope Benedict XVI on Thursday vowed “unconditional obedience” to his successor on his historic final day as leader of the world’s 1.2 billion Cath-olics, when he will become the first pontiff to resig

President Barack Obama’s former chief of staff Jack Lew was confirmed Wednesday as the next US treasury secretary, taking over a key portfolio at a time of deadlock over the budget and debt.