Saudi Arabia cut ties with Iran on January 3, responding to the storming of its embassy in Tehran in an escalating row between the rival Middle East powers over Riyadh's execution of a Shi'ite Muslim cleric.

Attacks by five suicide bombers on an Iraqi military base north of Baghdad on January 3 killed at least 15 members of the security forces and wounded 22 others, security sources said.

Gunfire and blasts were heard on January 3 at an Indian Air Force base attacked by militants a day earlier, as security forces hunted two gunmen still at large in the sprawling facility near the border with Pakistan.

Cambodia dispatched its sixth batch of 184 peacekeepers to Lebanon on January 2 to replace the fifth group, who completed their one-year United Nations peacekeeping mission.

President Barack Obama, frustrated by Congress' inaction on gun control, will meet with U.S. Attorney General Loretta Lynch on January 4 to discuss ways of reducing gun violence unilaterally through measures that do not require congressional approval.

A new appraisal names the United States as one of the threats to Russia's national security for the first time, a sign of how relations with the west have deteriorated in recent years.

A series of Iranian officials vowed on January 1, 2016 to expand Tehran's missile capabilities, a challenge to the United States which has threatened to impose new sanctions even as the vast bulk of its measures against Iran are due to be lifted under a nuclear deal.

A suicide attack on a French restaurant in the Afghan capital Kabul on January 1, 2016 killed a 12-year-old boy and wounded more than a dozen other people, officials said.

ASEAN has launched its Community but has already put in place the path to ensure that the momentum of the integration process continues over the next 10 years.

(VOV) - The ASEAN Community was officially established on December 31, an important milestone in the Association’s 50-year history. The formation of the ASEAN Community will greatly benefit the region and each member. Vietnam has prepared for the new period which will surely present many opportunities and challenges.