The Philippines has asked the United States to hold joint naval patrols, a defense ministry spokesman said on Thursday, amid a territorial dispute with China in the South China Sea.

• January 14, 2016

Diplomats from Pakistan, Afghanistan, the United States, and China held talks in Islamabad to try to draw up a plan for peace talks between in Afghanistan's government and the Taliban.

• January 11, 2016

The United States called on China on Thursday to end "business as usual" with its ally North Korea after Pyongyang defied world powers by announcing it had tested a hydrogen bomb.

• January 7, 2016

The U.S.-led coalition fighting Islamic State (IS) militants says its air strikes have cut oil production by the group in Syria and Iraq by around 30 percent.

• January 6, 2016

Iran has revealed a previously undisclosed underground bunker housing its latest ballistic missile.

• January 5, 2016

Islamic State (IS) fighters have launched several offensives near the city of Haditha in northwest Iraq in the last 48 hours.

• January 5, 2016

Vietnam formally accused China of violating its sovereignty and a recent confidence-building pact on Saturday by landing a plane on an airstrip Beijing has built in a contested part of the South China Sea.

• January 2, 2016

The Pentagon says air strikes by a U.S.-led coalition have killed 10 Islamic State (IS) leaders over the past month, including several linked to the Paris attacks or other plots against the West.

• December 29, 2015