They came for a night fleeing fighting, hammering on the gates of the United Nations base as gunmen rampaged through South Sudan's capital killing and looting.

Two years later, over 185,000 people are sheltering inside U.N. camps across the country, still too frightened to leave.

Spanish Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy was accused of being unfit to govern by his socialist challenger Pedro Sanchez Monday in an unusually ferocious election debate held before this week's general election.

Sunday's election is expected to be one of most closely fought contests in years as anger over corruption scandals and a long economic crisis has fueled the rise of newcomers that are threatening the traditional dominance of Rajoy's Popular Party (PP) and Sanchez's PSOE party.

America is coming up far short in its efforts to counter Islamic State propaganda, and the jihadists' messages often resonate with younger people, the U.S. military's top general warned Monday.

"I think we probably do get a C-minus or D in terms of doing it right now," General Joe Dunford told a national security forum in Washington.

Republican presidential hopefuls square off Tuesday in their latest debate, with maverick Senator Ted Cruz -- on the rise in key early primary state Iowa -- looking to rattle frontrunner Donald Trump.

With 50 days to go before the heartland US state casts the first votes in the nominations process, Trump, Cruz and seven other candidates will go toe to toe in Las Vegas in the final Republican presidential debate of the year.

Fewer journalists were imprisoned this year but the number held hostage jumped, media rights group Reporters Without Borders (RSF) said Tuesday in an annual report, with China and Egypt named the worst nations for jailing media workers.

The number of journalists put in prison fell 14 percent in 2015 from last year, to 153, RSF said, describing China as "the world's biggest prison for journalists", followed by Egypt. 

Half of British voters favor leaving the European Union, a new poll showed Monday, days before Prime Minister David Cameron travels to Brussels for talks aimed at keeping Britain within the bloc.

The ICM poll for the Vote Leave campaign found that 50 percent of voters would choose so-called "Brexit" if undecided voters were excluded from the tally, Britain's Daily Telegraph newspaper reported.

Diplomats from the 28-member European Union on Monday warned they could respond in kind if the United States makes good on plans to end visa-free entry for some EU nationals.

After the November 13 terror strikes in Paris and as part of wider anti-terror efforts, the U.S. House of Representatives voted last Tuesday in support of the Visa Waiver Program Improvement Act of 2015, a measure the White House supports. 

Tattered lanterns, festive lights and tin roofs littered towns in the central Philippines on Tuesday after Typhoon Melor swept through, killing at least four people and leaving millions without power ahead of Christmas.

Distraught survivors surveyed their damaged homes on the eve of the traditional nine-day Christmas vigil that Filipinos observe with dawn masses and rice cakes.

A symbol of Spain's rampant urbanisation and corruption, the region of Murcia is the ideal ground for the new centrist party Ciudadanos, which could hold the balance of power after Sunday's general elections.

"Here we are the champions of corruption," said Miguel Garaulet, the chief candidate of Ciudadanos ("Citizens") for this Mediterranean region of 1.4 million people in southeastern Spain, as he headed for a campaign meeting in the capital, also called Murcia.

A flag with a silver fern on a black-and-blue background was confirmed Tuesday as New Zealand's preferred option if the country decides to replace its current standard that features Britain's Union Jack.

The counting of late and overseas votes from a recent referendum on the New Zealand flag confirmed the preliminary results released last week, electoral commission officials said.