Traces of a nerve agent used to murder the half-brother of North Korea's leader were found on the clothes of two women on trial for assassinating him, a chemist testified Thursday.

His testimony is the first evidence directly linking the women to the poison VX which was used to kill Kim Jong-Nam as he waited at a crowded airport in the Malaysian capital Kuala Lumpur.

The United States is to ask NATO allies to contribute around 1,000 extra troops to help in the battle against the resurgent Taliban in Afghanistan, the new U.S. ambassador to the alliance said Thursday.

Kay Bailey Hutchison said the forces would add to the roughly 3,000 U.S. troops who are already on their way to Afghanistan under President Donald Trump's new strategy against the militants.

Ukraine's security service said Thursday it had expelled a Russian state television journalist for allegedly preparing a program that hurt the "national interests" of the crisis-torn country.

Spain's Constitutional Court on Thursday ordered the suspension of a planned session in Catalonia's parliament  which separatist leaders have called for the region to declare independence.

Judges "ordered the suspension of the plenary that has been called for Monday in the (Catalan) parliament" while it hears an appeal by rival Catalan politicians, a spokeswoman said. 

Pero Brbora farms his shellfish in Croatia but has to cross the border into Bosnia, and out again, to sell them in his homeland.

For years, the 57-year-old oyster and mussels fisherman has been waiting for a planned bridge to be built to ease the complicated and time-consuming trip.

Turkey and Iran presented a united front in their opposition to Iraqi Kurdish aspirations of independence, during a visit Wednesday by Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan that signals a warming of ties.

Rohingya militants have set fire to houses in Rakhine state in recent days to intensify the exodus of the Muslim minority, the office of Myanmar's commander-in-chief said Thursday, in an apparent rebuke to fresh accusations of arson by the army.

French President Emmanuel Macron came under fire Thursday for accusing disgruntled workers of "stirring up shit" just weeks after calling critics of his labour reforms "slackers".

Medical charity Doctors Without Borders (MSF) accused the Bulgarian, Croatian and Hungarian police of resorting to violence against migrants, notably children, in their bid to stop them from slipping into Europe.

The Philippines' military chief hailed the United States as his nation's "number one ally" and announced a return of regular war games, following President Rodrigo Duterte's call for warmer ties.

Duterte last week vowed to be "friendly" with the United States, signalling an end to relentless criticism that included a vow to end all joint military exercises and branding then US president Barack Obama a "son of a whore".