New Zealand has launched a gun buy-back scheme in the wake of the deadly Christchurch mosque shootings. More than $208m New Zealand dollars (£108m, $136m), have been set aside to compensate owners of semi-automatic weapons which were banned following the attacks. The ban was agreed

A US military surveillance drone has been shot down by Iranian forces while flying over the Strait of Hormuz. Iran's Islamic Revolution Guards Corps (IRGC) said the drone had violated Iranian airspace. But US military said it had been over international waters. IRGC

For the first time since Malaysia Airlines flight MH17 was shot down in July 2014, prosecutors have announced charges against suspects in the case. Three Russians and a Ukrainian have been charged with bringing a missile into the area in eastern Ukraine and with murdering 298

DHAKA:  Iran's Islamic Revolution Guards Corps (IRGC) claim to have shot down a US spy drone over Iranian airspace. State media reported the military hit a drone, which they named as a RQ-4 Global Hawk, near Kuhmobarak in Iran's southern Hormozgan province. The US military

China's President Xi Jinping is heading to North Korea for a meeting with Kim Jong-un, in the first Chinese state visit to the North since 2005. The two, who have met in China four times, are expected to discuss the stalled talks over the North's nuclear programme as well as

Acting Defense Secretary Patrick Shanahan stepped down Tuesday before his formal nomination ever went to the Senate, citing a "painful" family situation that would hurt his children and reopen "wounds we have worked years to heal." President Donald Trump announced Shanahan's

DHAKA: The number of people fleeing war, persecution and conflict exceeded 70 million globally last year - the highest number in the UN refugee agency's almost 70 years of operations. The almost 70.8 million people forcibly displaced is 2.3 million more than the previous year,

Public mistrust of vaccines means the world is taking a step backwards in the fight against deadly yet preventable infectious diseases, warn experts. The biggest global study into attitudes on immunisation suggests confidence is low in some regions. The Wellcome Trust analysis

US President Donald Trump has formally launched his re-election campaign, urging supporters to "keep this team in place" for four more years. The Republican president made his case before thousands of supporters at a rally in Florida, calling the state "my second home". Mr Trump

Hong Kong's leader Carrie Lam has apologised for an extradition bill that sparked mass protests, acknowledging it is now "unlikely" it will pass. Millions have taken to the streets against the proposals, which would allow extradition to mainland China. Protesters have been

At least 15 people have died after a passenger ferry sank off the Indonesian island of Java, police said on Tuesday (June 18). The boat was carrying around 50 people when it overturned on Monday in rough seas near Madura island, East Java, police spokesman Frans Barung Mangera said.

Ousted Egyptian president Mohammed Morsi has been quietly buried under heavy security in Cairo after his collapse and death in court, a lawyer said. Mr Morsi's family attended funeral prayers in the mosque of Cairo's Tora prison before the burial at a cemetery in the city's

The US military will send an additional 1,000 troops to the Middle East as tensions build with Iran. Acting Defence Secretary Patrick Shanahan said the deployment was in response to what he described as "hostile behaviour" by Iranian forces. The US Navy also shared new images it says

The toll from a strong 6.0-magnitude earthquake in southwest China rose to 11 dead and 122 injured on Tuesday (June 18), as rescuers pulled survivors from wrecked buildings. The earthquake struck outside the city of Yibin in Sichuan province late Monday at a depth of 16 kilometres (10

Egypt's former President Mohammed Morsi, ousted by the military in 2013 after one year in office, has collapsed in a courtroom and died, officials say. A top figure in the now-banned Islamist movement Muslim Brotherhood, Morsi had just spoken from a cage at a hearing on charges of

Iran has announced it will breach on 27 June the limit on its stockpile of enriched uranium that was set under a 2015 nuclear deal with world powers. Its atomic energy agency said Iran had quadrupled its production of the material, which is used to make reactor fuel and potentially

The monitoring agency said the 6.2 magnitude quake struck 83 miles northwest of the city of Kupang on Timor island. There were no immediate reports of any casualties or damage to property.A spokesman for Indonesia’s Meteorology Climatology and Geophysics Council said no Tsunami warnings

Israeli PM Benjamin Netanyahu has unveiled a new settlement in the occupied Golan Heights, named after US President Donald Trump. At a naming ceremony on Sunday, Mr Netanyahu said Trump Heights honoured Mr Trump for his decision to recognise Israeli sovereignty over the territory.

At least 18 people were killed Sunday in a bus accident in a rural area of western Venezuela, police said.  "Fourteen deaths were reported at the scene of the accident, 33 injured were transferred to the hospital in Villa del Rosario, where four of them died," police said in a report

Relatives discovered the bodies of four family members, including two children, with gunshot wounds at their home in central Iowa of USA, police said. The bodies were discovered Saturday morning at the home in West Des Moines, The Des Moines Register reported. Authorities identified