Geography of Asia

ISIS militants took a sledgehammer and Kalashnikovs to destroy artifacts in Iraq's UNESCO World Heritage city of Hatra. The video shows Islamic militants destroying artifacts. The last in a series published by the group is aimed at showcasing its fight against shrines, statues and artifacts of antiquity that it calls "false idols".

Hwang In-sook's two-storey Trevia restaurant in central Seoul is always busy, usually occupied by locals taking a few moments from their hectic schedules.

A historic nuclear framework deal, agreed upon after 1.5 years of negotiations between Iran and six world powers, could indicate radical changes both in Iran?s political and economic future and in regional shifts and balances in the Middle East.

Baghdad cut the budget payments in January 2014 over the semi-autonomous region's plans to export its oil through Turkey but reinstated them in December after the Kurds agreed to export an average of 550,000 barrels per day (bpd) from Ceyhan via Iraq's State Oil Marketing Organization (SOMO) in 2015.

The President of the Republic of Cyprus, Nicos Anastasiades, said on Monday the his country has been preparing for a Grexit scenario and stressed that the Cypriot banking system is immune to the crisis in neighboring Greece.

Cyprus President Nikos Anastasiades told a media conference in Nicosia on Friday that Nicosia has a backup plan to deal with the fallout of a possible Greek exit from the eurozone.

By Paul Tugwell and Georgios Georgiou

Cyprus will lift next week the last of the capital controls that were imposed two years ago as part of a 10-billion euro ($10.9 billion) European bailout.

Iran's defence minister has lambasted his US counterpart's comments about military options against Tehran still being on the table despite ongoing nuclear talks, saying they showed America cannot be trusted.
 

BELGRADE - Serbian Interior Minister Nebojsa Stefanovic and the newly appointed Ambassador of Qatar to Serbia Sheikh Mubarak bin Fahad Jassim Mohammed Al-Thani held a meeting on Thursday, and stressed the need for an agreement on police cooperation in the fight against terrorism, people smuggling, hi-tech and other forms of organized crime.

At least 54 dead as trawler sinks in Russian Far East

At least 54 crew members of the Russian trawler Dalny Vostok ("Far East") died when the vessel sank early on Thursday in the Sea of Okhotsk.

The accident happened off the coast of the Kamchatka Peninsula, in the Russian Far Eastern Federal District.