A year after losing Sri Lanka's presidency in a stunning electoral upset, strongman Mahinda Rajapaksa is making unusual political moves to regain power in the South Asian island nation — through a newly launched political party in which he has no actual stake.
The heir to the Samsung empire and other tycoons took a public drubbing by lawmakers Tuesday over deep-rooted ties between politics and business that helped drive South Korea's economic ascent but are central to its political crisis.
French Prime Minister Manuel Valls has stepped down to focus on running for president in next year's election and has been replaced by Interior Minister Bernard Cazeneuve.
Some rain fell in southern Madagascar last week, a rare piece of good news for a drought-hit region where nearly a million people face hunger because of failed harvests.
South Korean lawmakers say President Park Geun-hye is willing to "calmly" accept impeachment if the opposition-controlled parliament votes for her removal this week, but prefers to resign on her own terms.
U.S. Defense Secretary Ash Carter says the U.S. will give back to the Japanese government nearly 10,000 acres of land on Okinawa that U.S. Marines use for jungle warfare training.
A new report from a human rights group says torture, solitary confinement and coerced confessions are rife in investigations of Chinese Communist Party officials detained on suspicion of corruption.
Angela Merkel is seeking a new two-year term as leader of her conservative party, following her announcement last month that she will run for a fourth term as German chancellor.
A United Nations agency that promotes children's rights says its survey shows a high prevalence of violence against Filipino children, with eight out of 10 suffering some form of physical or psychological abuse, with the highest number of incidents found among lesbians, gays, bisexuals and transgender youth.
An official statement says Thailand's new King Maha Vajiralongkorn Bodindradebayavarangkun has named an 11-member council of advisers, bringing in three new officials, including a former army chief and two representatives of the ruling junta.
Indonesia has strengthened its moratorium on converting peat swamps to plantations in a move a conservation research group says would prevent annual fires and substantially cut the country's carbon emissions if properly implemented.
Over the course of a year, Assyrian Christians raised millions of dollars in ransom money to free more than 200 members of the ancient community who had been taken hostage in Syria by the Islamic State group, those involved in the campaign say.
It's a rare moment of public reckoning for South Korea's most powerful business leaders and possibly the worst day for Samsung's billionaire heir, courtesy of the country's biggest political scandal in years.
