Protocol-conscious Japanese were on faux pas alert Thursday with Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte due to meet Emperor Akihito, the nation's most revered figure.

South Korean prosecutors on Thursday set up a high-powered "task-force" to probe a widening scandal involving alleged influence-peddling by a close confidante of President Park Geun-Hye.

Twin earthquakes rocked central Italy on Wednesday -- the second registering at a magnitude of 6.1 -- in the same region struck in August by a devastating tremor that killed nearly 300 people.

Turkish police clashed with protesters in Diyarbakir on Wednesday, using tear gas and water cannon to prevent them demonstrating against the detention of the Kurdish-majority city's co-mayors.

Russia has criticized plans to deploy more than 300 American troops in Norway, saying it would do nothing to make northern Europe safer.

Menus have large type, boutiques sell loose-fitting clothing and slippers, and residents roam around on golf carts.

This is the central Florida community of The Villages, developed especially for retirees, which has become an important Republican stronghold in White House hopeful Donald Trump's play for this key southeastern US state.

A Southeast Asian terror mastermind who has been accused over a series of high-profile attacks will stay in detention at Guantanamo Bay after U.S. officials rejected his bid for release.

A U.S. government body tasked with reducing the number of inmates at Guantanamo said that Indonesian militant Riduan Isamuddin, better known by his nom de guerre Hambali, still represented a "significant threat to the security of the United States."

Vatican finance chief George Pell has been interviewed by Australian police in Rome over sexual assault claims, authorities said Wednesday, but no charges have yet been laid.

Gambia has announced its withdrawal from the International Criminal Court, accusing the Hague-based tribunal of the "persecution and humiliation of people of color, especially Africans".

It's a hard scene to imagine, a Saudi Arabian king answering before a New York court for the 9/11 attacks, but a new U.S. law threatens to become a Pandora's Box of diplomatic crises.

Congress passed the Justice Against Sponsors of Terrorism Act, overcoming President Barack Obama's veto, to help the relatives of victims of the September 2001 outrage seek compensation.