A helicopter carrying an executive of the Turkish Eczabicasi group and four Russians, including the firm's Russian operations chief, crashed in Istanbul on Friday, killing all seven people on board, the city's mayor was quoted as saying.

Police are hunting two gunmen who opened fire in a cafe in the Swiss city of Basel, leaving two people dead and a third critically wounded.

Plans for a free trade agreement between Australia and the European Union have hit another big delay, which trade minister Steven Ciobo has blamed on the EU.

It sounds like something out of a torture chamber: a set of metal teeth used to tear the flesh from the breasts or fleshy upper arms of a woman.

At the same time as Spicer is learning to find alternative means of transport, he is not spending a whole lot of time in front of the camera.

Authorities have ended a 23-day siege of Thailand's largest temple, where worshippers and monks defied repeated attempts to arrest a prominent monk wanted on charges of money laundering.

The assassin's bullet aimed at changing the course of Myanmar's future came from point-blank range, in broad daylight, at the country's biggest airport.

Half a century after United States B-52 bombers dropped more than 500,000 tons of explosives on Cambodia's countryside Washington wants the country to repay a US$500 million war debt.

US President Donald Trump on Friday invited Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas to the White House, in a first phone call between the two leaders since Trump took office.

A confluence of events has stoked tensions on the Korean Peninsula, and analysts are worried about what happens next.

US Attorney General Jeff Sessions has asked the remaining 46 chief federal prosecutors left over from the Obama administration to resign.

​White House press secretary Sean Spicer showed up to his Friday press briefing wearing an upside-down American flag pin on his lapel.

The Catholic Church should consider allowing married men to become priests, Pope Francis has said.

Syrian President Bashar al-Assad says US forces in Syria are "invaders" and he has yet to see anything emerge from US President Donald Trump's vow to prioritise the fight against Islamic State.

An intruder carrying a backpack entered the White House grounds and was arrested by US Secret Service agents at an entrance near the president's residence on Saturday morning.

A double bomb attack targeting Shiite pilgrims in Damascus killed 74 Iraqis who were going to pray at a nearby shrine.

Fairfax photojournalist Kate Geraghty sat down to talk about her recent work in Iraq, covering the lives of Iraqis in the ongoing liberation of Mosul from Islamic State.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi's party won a landslide victory in India's most important battleground state, Uttar Pradesh.

Scores of movie-goers fled the premiere for the new King Kong film in Vietnam, after a giant promotional statue of the gorilla burst into flames.

The worse the news for immigrants threatened by detention or deportation, the better it has been for private prison operators.

Muhammad Ali Jr has been detained and questioned at a Washington airport before being allowed to board a flight to Fort Lauderdale after meeting members of congress to discuss a similar incident last month.

The death toll from Cyclone Enawo, which slammed into Madagascar this week, has risen to 38 people from an initial figure of five.

The rare sanction against Wirathu, who has led calls for restrictions on Myanmar's Muslims, comes amid deepening tensions in the Buddhist-majority country.

Footrot Flats creator Murray Ball has died. He was aged 78.

Turkish Family Affairs Minister Fatma Betul Sayan Kaya was prevented from entering her country's mission in Rotterdam and escorted to the border by police.