The initial assessment of Western intelligence agencies is that a Ukrainian airliner which crashed in Iran on Wednesday was not brought down by a missile, said a Canadian security source. The source said the agencies believed the Boeing 737 plane had suffered a technical malfunction.
Twitter Inc has suspended more than a dozen accounts associated with Venezuela's government and military, including the OPEC nation's oil ministry and the armed forces' operational command.
More than a dozen cities and towns across Italy introduced traffic curbs on Wednesday in a bid to cut harmful emissions following a spike in pollution. A prolonged period of sunny weather with little rain or wind has pushed up air pollution across the country, triggering smog alerts in more than 60 municipalities.
A Lebanese prosecutor said on Wednesday he was summoning former auto tycoon Carlos Ghosn regarding an Interpol red notice over financial misconduct charges in Japan, state media reported.
Brazil could lose some recent gains it made in the global soy market during the US-China trade war if those two countries reach a deal to end their dispute, a Brazilian Agriculture Ministry official said on Wednesday.
Pope Francis, who last month angrily slapped the hand of a woman who yanked him towards her, gave a light-hearted reaction more typical of his papacy on Wednesday when a nun asked him for a kiss. He said yes, although only after she promised not to bite him.
A cluster of more than 50 pneumonia cases in the central Chinese city of Wuhan may be due to a newly emerging member of the family of viruses that caused the deadly SARS and MERS outbreaks, World Health Organization (WHO) said on Wednesday.
United States Defense Secretary Mark Esper said on Wednesday that the United States has reestablished some deterrence toward Iran in the wake of the Jan 3 drone strike that killed Iranian general Qasem Soleimani in Baghdad.
Iran said on Wednesday it respects Iraq's territorial integrity, after firing missiles at Iraqi bases housing US troops. The early Wednesday strike led Iraq to say it would summon the Iranian ambassador.
Russian bank VTB is suing a Mozambique state-owned company over US$ 535 million it extended as part a series of loans now at the centre of a US$ 2 billion debt scandal. An online court filing dated Dec. 23 shows VTB has lodged a lawsuit in Britain’s High court against the Mozambique state and Mozambique Asset Management, which borrowed the money from VTB as part of a costly project that U.S. authorities say was an elaborate front for a bribery and kickback scheme.