The Syrian army and its allies are in the "last moments before declaring victory" in Aleppo, a Syrian military source said, after rebel defences collapsed on December 12, leaving insurgents in a tiny, heavily bombarded pocket of ground.

VOV.VN -  The 11th Global Summit of Women Speakers of Parliament has opened in Abu Dhabi in the United Arab Emirates (UAE), drawing the participation 50 female parliamentarians. 

A leader of the Philippine Islamic militant group Abu Sayyaf - Abraham Hamid - was killed by Malaysian security forces during a gun fight offshore Sabah state, Borneo island of Malaysia, on December 10.

An offshoot of the militant Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) claimed responsibility on December 11 for twin bombings that killed 38 people and wounded 155 outside an Istanbul soccer stadium, an attack for which the Turkish government vowed vengeance.

A suicide truck bomb hit the entrance of Somalia's biggest port on December 11, killing at least 29 people, police said, an attack claimed by Islamist al Shabaab militants.

A bombing at Cairo's largest Coptic cathedral killed at least 25 people and wounded 49, many of them women and children attending December 11 mass, in the deadliest attack on Egypt's Christian minority in years.

New Zealand Finance Minister Bill English was confirmed as the country's new prime minister on December 12, as expected, a week after John Key announced his surprise resignation after eight years in the role.

At least 100 people were killed by the collapse of a church in southeastern Nigeria, a resident and photojournalist who visited a morgue said on December 11, but officials put the death toll at just 27.

The police of Indonesia evacuated people living in the outskirts of Jakarta on December 10 after discovering a bomb in a raid on suspected Islamic militants who were planning to attack the presidential palace.

French judicial authorities have arrested and charged a sixth suspect in a foiled militant plot to attack sites in the Paris region, a judicial source said on December 11.

Italian President Sergio Mattarella pledged on December 11 to act quickly to solve a government crisis prompted by Matteo Renzi's resignation as prime minister, with all major parties calling for elections as soon as possible.

Opponents to Britain leaving the European Union will launch a fresh legal action this week, which could further hamper Prime Minister Theresa May's Brexit plans, The Sunday Times reported.

A car bomb followed by a suicide bombing less than a minute later killed 29 people and wounded 166 outside a soccer stadium in Istanbul on December 11 night, Turkish Interior Minister Suleyman Soylu said.

Iraqi forces captured a neighborhood in east Mosul on December 9 pushing deeper to the heart of Islamic State's Iraq stronghold and destroying three sites where it produced car bombs used in waves of suicide attacks, the campaign's commander said.

The Republic of Korean lawmakers voted overwhelmingly on December 9 to impeach President Park Geun-hye over an influence-peddling scandal, setting the stage for her to become the country's first elected leader to be expelled from office in disgrace.

The Syrian army pressed an offensive in Aleppo on December 9 with ground fighting and air strikes in an operation to retake all of the city's rebel-held east that would bring victory in the civil war closer for President Bashar al-Assad.

The General Operations Force of Malaysia (GOF) has shot dead three out of seven Filipino gunmen who involved in kidnappings in the waters off Lahad Datu in the state of Sabah.

VOV.VN - Russian President Vladimir Putin will visit Japan on December 15-16. The visit will create a new momentum in the bilateral relationship.

US President-elect Donald Trump will nominate Oklahoma Attorney General Scott Pruitt, a critic of federal environmental regulation, to lead the Environmental Protection Agency, his transition team said on December 8.

Iraqi troops who briefly seized a Mosul hospital believed to be used as an Islamic State base were forced to withdraw from the site on December 8, but managed to establish a base for army tanks nearby after days of fierce back-and-forth fighting, residents said.

The Syrian army's advance in Aleppo slowed on December 8 but a victory was still firmly in sight after President Bashar al-Assad vowed that retaking the city would change the course of the six-year-old war.

A Vietnamese delegation led by Lieut. Gen. Pham Hong Huong, Deputy Chief of the General Staff of the Vietnam People’s Army, has taken part in the 17th ASEAN Chiefs of Army Multilateral Meeting (ACAMM 17) in Manila, the Philippines, from December 4 to 8.

The Indian cabinet has approved a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) on cooperation in information and technology between the country and Vietnam at a recent meeting chaired by Prime Minister Narendra Modi. 

President-elect Donald Trump on December 7 picked a fossil fuel industry defender as his top environmental official, another retired general as homeland security chief and Iowa's governor as US ambassador to China in choices at odds with some of his recent pronouncements.

Syrian rebels in besieged eastern Aleppo called on December 7 for an immediate five-day ceasefire and the evacuation of civilians and wounded, but gave no indication they were ready to withdraw as demanded by Damascus and Moscow.

Italian Prime Minister Matteo Renzi resigned on December 7 after a bruising referendum loss at the weekend, with most parliamentary factions pushing for an early election in a few months' time.

A workshop on the East Sea issue held in Geneva, Switzerland on December 6 issued a statement welcoming the ruling of the Permanent Court of Arbitration (PCA) in the Hague on the Philippines’s lawsuit against China’s claims in the waters.

Thailand’s new King Maha Vajiralongkorn on December 6 cut down the number of members of the Privy Council, an appointed advisory body to the Monarch of Thailand, to 11 instead of 16 previously, with three new members, according to the Royal Gazette.

There were no survivors after a plane carrying 47 people crashed into a mountain in northern Pakistan on December 7, the airline's chairman said, as recovery operations continued late into the night at the remote crash site.

British lawmakers backed Prime Minister Theresa May's Brexit timetable on December 7 after she headed off a rebellion in her Conservative Party over a lack of insight into the government's strategy to leave the European Union.