Japan's Emperor Akihito will step down on March 31, 2019, a report said Friday, the first imperial retirement in more than two centuries.

South Korea on Friday decided to push ahead with the construction of two new nuclear reactors after months of heated debate over whether the country should start weaning itself off atomic energy.

G7 interior ministers brainstormed Friday on how to tackle one of the biggest security threats facing the West, as the EU promised to help close a migration route labelled a potential back door for terrorists.

At least five people were killed and 20 injured after Myanmar police opened fire on an armed mob of jade seekers that tried to enter a mine in the far north, state media reported Friday, the latest deadly incident in a murky multi-billion-dollar industry.

A Russian socialite-turned-liberal journalist stunned many six years ago when she joined mass protests against Vladimir Putin.

The EU is to consider stepping up measures aimed at punishing North Korea for its nuclear and ballistic weapons programs, according to a summit agreement seen by AFP on Thursday.

As Catalonia's independence crisis deepens, here are the key events that have rocked the region since this month's referendum on splitting from Spain.

Spain's vow Thursday to take over at least part of Catalonia's regional powers due to its drive for independence would involve triggering the never before used Article 155 of Spain's constitution.

Here are five points about this so-called "nuclear option", which opens the way for Madrid to suspend some or all of the region's autonomy in Spain's worst political crisis in decades.

A Pakistani court indicted ousted prime minister Nawaz Sharif on corruption charges spiraling from the Panama Papers leak, a senior government official said Thursday, in a case that could ultimately see the former leader jailed.

The United States vowed Wednesday to work with India in preference to China over the next century to promote a "free and open" Asia-Pacific region led by prosperous democracies.

Secretary of State Rex Tillerson delivered his unexpectedly sharp message to Beijing on the same day President Xi Jinping opened the Communist Party congress.