A Japanese politician who made headlines over his quest to take paternity leave has quit after admitting to having an affair with a bikini model while his wife was pregnant. Kensuke Miyazaki shook up Japan’s conservative political scene when he sought to take a month’s leave to help his then pregnant wife, a first for a male Japanese lawmaker. His ...

Pope Francis and Russian Orthodox Patriarch Kirill have held a historic first meeting, calling for restored Christian unity and urgent action to help Christians threatened by violence in the Middle East. “For nearly 1,000 years, Catholics and Orthodox have been deprived of communion in the Eucharist,” they said in a joint declaration signed after talks in Cuba. “We are pained ...

The US House of Representatives has overwhelmingly passed legislation to further punish North Korea for its nuclear program, human rights record and cyber crimes. Politicians said they wanted to make Washington’s resolve clear, but also to the United Nations and other governments, especially China, North Korea’s lone major ally and main business partner. The package includes sanctions targeting North Korea ...

The US-Russian agreement to seek a ceasefire is a welcome development, but an understanding between these major powers alone is likely to be self-defeating, writes Amin Saikal. Finally, there is a tiny slice of good news about Syria. US Secretary of State John Kerry and Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov have agreed to seek a nationwide “cessation of hostilities” within ...

A total of 132 people are still trapped beneath the rubble of a Taiwan apartment tower that collapsed in a powerful earthquake, a local government official says. The figure is much higher than authorities first estimated, as rescuers combed the wreckage of the 17-storey building in the southern city of Tainan with sniffer dogs and acoustic equipment, looking for signs ...

North Korea has launched a long-range rocket carrying what it has said is a satellite, South Korea’s defence ministry says. The launch is in defiance of United Nations sanctions barring it from using ballistic missile technology. United States Strategic Command said it had detected what it called a missile entering space, appearing to quash earlier media reports indicating it might ...

The picture of a 7-month-old baby lying dead on a sidewalk between his parents has caused fury in Mexico. The picture shows the family of three moments after they were shot to death outside a convenience store in the city of Pinotepa Nacional in Oaxaca state, according to the Oaxaca State Attorney’s Office. Several armed men shot and killed the ...

At least 14 people were killed and 484 were injured Saturday morning when a magnitude-6.4 earthquake hit Taiwan, Taiwan’s official Central News Agency reported. More than 200 people were rescued from damaged structures, many from a 16-story residential building that collapsed in Tainan, officials told CNN. At least 12 of the dead were from the Weiguan Jinlong building, CNA said. ...

WRITTEN BY EDITOR KALAHAN DENG   It is reported in Nigeria that five female suicide bombers exploded in the Chibok hometown where school girls were kidnapped  last year. The female suicide bombers killed nine people and wounded 32.It is clear that the terrorist group Boko Haram is running out of tactics and men to fight the Nigerian Army that is ...

‘Top secret’ emails found on Clinton server will not be publicly released, US State Department says Material that should have been marked “top secret” has been found in seven email chains on former secretary of state Hillary Clinton’s private server, the US State Department says. Spokesman John Kirby said the emails, which he described as “22 documents covering 37 pages”, ...