Russia launched air strikes in Syria on Wednesday in its biggest Middle East intervention in decades, plunging the four-year-old civil war into a volatile new phase as President Vladimir Putin moved forcefully to stake out influence in the unstable region.
China has arrested two Japanese for spying, the Foreign Ministry said on Wednesday, and Japan said the two had been held since May and diplomats were doing all they could to help.
Greenpeace called on Brazilian authorities on Tuesday to reject an environmental assessment for a hydroelectric dam on the Tapajos River in the Amazon because it was a "marketing tool" that disregarded the indigenous people living along its banks.
Afghan lawmakers called on President Ashraf Ghani to resign on Wednesday over his government's "shameful" handling of the battle for Kunduz, the northern city which has fallen to Taliban insurgents in their biggest victory so far in 14 years of war.
