A new message purporting to come from the leader of Islamic State said air strikes by Russia and a U.S.-led coalition had failed to weaken the group.

A U.N.-brokered deal to evacuate more than 2,000 Islamic State fighters and other militants from rebel-held suburbs of Damascus on December 26 has been delayed after the killing of an insurgent leader, an organization that monitors the Syrian war said.

Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Sen has approved a decision to establish three committees on land border demarcation and landmark planting with Vietnam, Laos and Cambodia. 

Israeli border police shot dead a Palestinian woman who tried to ram them with her car in the West Bank on December 25, the police said, as a 12-week surge in street violence showed no sign of abating.

A top Syrian rebel leader and head of the most powerful insurgent group in the eastern suburbs of Damascus was killed in an aerial raid that targeted the group's headquarters, rebel sources and the Syrian army said on December 25.

Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi made a surprise stopover in Pakistan on December 25 to meet his counterpart, Nawaz Sharif, the first time an Indian premier has visited Pakistan in over a decade.

Russian President Vladimir Putin has called on major businesses in the country to give proposals to promoting economic collaboration among member countries of cooperation organisations such as EAEU, SOC and ASEAN.

The ASEAN Community is set to formally take effect on December 31. It includes the three pillars which are economics, politics and security and socio-cultural components. The establishment of the ASEAN Economic Community (AEC) will play the most important role in establishing ASEAN as a region of tremendous opportunity.

(VOV) - Europe has faced instability and challenges in 2015 – security threats, slow economic recovery, and divisions provoked by a growing migration crisis.

Coalition air forces pounded positions held by Islamic State in Ramadi on December 24, Iraqi military statements said, in support of government troops seeking to retake the western Iraqi city and push on to drive the militants from key population centers.