An earthquake with a preliminary magnitude of 5.6 shook Tokyo and surrounding areas on May 25, but no tsunami warning was issued, the Japan Meteorological Agency said.

Mass graves and suspected human-trafficking detention camps have been discovered by Malaysian police in towns and villages bordering Thailand, the country's home minister said on May 24.

Iraqi forces recaptured territory from advancing Islamic State militants near the recently-fallen city of Ramadi on May 24, while in Syria the government said the Islamists had killed hundreds of people since capturing the town of Palmyra.

Saudi forces and Yemen's Houthi militia traded heavy artillery fire which blew up part of the main border crossing between the two countries overnight, residents said on May 24, an escalation of the two-month war.

Shi'ite Muslim militiamen and Iraqi army forces launched a counter-offensive against Islamic State insurgents near Ramadi on May 23, a militia spokesman said.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu thanked the United States for blocking an Egyptian-led drive on a possible Middle East nuclear weapons ban at a major United Nations conference, an Israeli official said on May 23.

Cuba and the United States reported making progress toward restoring diplomatic relations following two days of talks and pledged on May 22 to continue informal negotiations in the coming weeks.

A suicide bomber killed 21 worshippers on May 22 in a packed Shi'ite mosque in eastern Saudi Arabia, residents and the health minister said, the first attack in the kingdom to be claimed by Islamic State militants.

At least 44 people were killed on May 22 in a gunfight in western Mexico between government forces and suspected drug gang henchmen, officials said, one of the bloodiest days of violence to shake the country under President Enrique Pena Nieto.

President Barack Obama scored a major victory on May 22 when the US Senate voted to give him "fast-track" powers that would help wrap up negotiations on a 12-nation Pacific Rim trade deal central to projecting American influence in Asia.