China's Singles' Day, the world's largest online shopping festival which falls on Nov. 11 every year, is losing its shine, with less marketing hype and a crackdown on the technology industry.

Singles' Day has been viewed as the largest online marketing event of the year. It is heavily advertised for weeks ahead of time with brands and merchants offering deep discounts to attract consumers looking for bargains.

The Turkish lira slid to a record low against the U.S. dollar again Thursday after a surge in U.S. consumer prices inflamed concerns over President Recep Tayyip Erdogan's push to cut interest rates.

The lira dropped to an all-time low of 9.97 against the dollar early Thursday before settling at around 9.93 against the U.S. currency. The Turkish currency has lost some 25% of its value since the start of the year.

Senior U.S. and South Korean diplomats discussed how to restart stalled talks with North Korea on Thursday, days after the North conducted artillery firing drills in its latest weapons tests.

U.S. Assistant Secretary of State for East Asian and Pacific Affairs Daniel Kritenbrink was in Seoul for talks on security issues including North Korea, economic cooperation and other matters.

China's leaders have approved a resolution on the history of the ruling Communist Party that was expected to set the stage for President Xi Jinping to extend his rule next year.

The official Xinhua News Agency said the resolution on the major achievements and historical experience of the party was adopted during a four-day meeting of its Central Committee that ended Thursday.

Russia sent two nuclear-capable strategic bombers on a training mission over Belarus for a second straight day Thursday in a strong show of Moscow's support for its ally amid a dispute over migration at the Polish border.

The Belarusian Defense Ministry said two Russian Tu-160 strategic bombers practiced bombing runs at the Ruzany firing range, located in Belarus about 60 kilometers (just over 37 miles) east of the border with Poland. As part of the joint training, Belarusian fighter jets simulated an intercept, the ministry said.

A SpaceX rocket carried four astronauts into orbit Wednesday night, including the 600th person to reach space in 60 years.

The repeatedly delayed flight occurred just two days after SpaceX brought four other astronauts home from the International Space Station. They should have been up there to welcome the newcomers, but NASA and SpaceX decided to switch the order based on Monday's ideal recovery weather in the Gulf of Mexico and pulled it off.

Federal wildlife officials overseeing the world's only wild population of endangered red wolves have announced that they are abandoning a 2018 plan to limit the animals' territory and loosen protections for wolves that strayed from that area.

The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service made the announcement as part of an ongoing federal court battle with conservation groups that argue the federal agency violated the Endangered Species Act by abandoning strategies that supported the wild population of wolves. Conservation groups welcomed the move but said more needs to be done to bolster a wild population of as few as 10 wolves.

Chinese President Xi Jinping warned Thursday against letting tensions in the Asian-Pacific region cause a relapse into a Cold War mentality.

His remarks on the sidelines of the annual summit of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation forum came weeks after the U.S., Britain and Australia announced a new security alliance in the region which would see Australia build nuclear submarines. China has harshly criticized the deal.

The world's top carbon polluters, China and the United States, have agreed to increase their cooperation and speed up action to rein in climate-damaging emissions, signaling a mutual effort on global warming at a time of tension over their other disputes.

In back-to-back news conferences at U.N. climate talks in Glasgow, Chinese climate envoy Xie Zhenhua and U.S. counterpart John Kerry said the two countries would work together to accelerate the emissions reductions required to meet the goals of the 2015 Paris Agreement on climate change.

A Spanish woman has admitted under a plea bargain reached in an Israeli military court that she raised large sums of money that were diverted to a banned militant group, the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine.

Israel seized on the conviction as proof that it was justified in branding six Palestinian civil society organizations as terrorist groups last month. But the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine is a separate group, court documents suggest the woman knew little about the scheme and she was not implicated in any militant activities by the PFLP.