China Launches ‘Punishment’ War Games Around Taiwan

(Reuters) - A furious China launched "punishment" drills around Taiwan on Thursday in what it said was a response to "separatist acts", sending up heavily armed warplanes and staging mock attacks as state media denounced newly inaugurated President Lai Ching-te. The exercises, in the Taiwan Strait and around groups of Taiwan-controlled islands that sit next to the Chinese coast, come...

Shaken passengers arrive in Singapore after deadly turbulence-stricken flight

(Reuters) - More than 140 passengers and crew from a Singapore Airlines flight hit by heavy turbulence that left dozens injured and one dead finally reached Singapore on a relief flight Wednesday morning after an emergency landing in Bangkok. The scheduled London-Singapore flight on a Boeing 777-300ER plane diverted to Bangkok after the plane was buffeted by turbulence that flung passengers...

Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi killed in helicopter crash

(Reuters) - Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi, a hardliner long seen as a potential successor to Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, was killed in a helicopter crash in mountainous terrain near the Azerbaijan border, officials and state media said on Monday. The charred wreckage of the helicopter that crashed on Sunday carrying Raisi and Foreign Minister Hossein Amirabdollahian was found early...

Slovak PM Fico no longer in life-threatening condition after being shot, minister says

(Reuters) - Slovak Prime Minister Robert Fico is no longer in a life-threatening condition after he was shot in an assassination attempt when leaving a government meeting on Wednesday, a government minister said. The gunman shot Fico, 59, five times, initially leaving the prime minister in critical condition and undergoing surgery hours later on Wednesday evening. "I was very shocked...

Ukrainian missile kills 15 at apartment block, Russia says

(Reuters) - At least 15 people were killed and scores injured on Sunday when a section of a Russian apartment block collapsed after being struck by fragments of a Soviet-era missile, launched by Ukraine and shot down by Russia, Russian officials said. In one of the deadliest attacks to date on the region of Belgorod, Ukraine launched what Russian officials...