Australia and Pacific nation Nauru announced a landmark security treaty on Monday, advancing Canberra's aim of blunting China's growing regional influence.
Taiwan said its military was on high alert as Chinese warships sailed near the island on Monday, preparing for strong response from China to President Lai Ching-te's stopovers in the United States.
The Israeli military said Sunday it had deployed forces to a demilitarized buffer zone in southwest Syria abutting the Israeli-annexed Golan Heights after Damascus fell to rebel forces.
US president-elect Donald Trump said on Sunday that Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky is keen on a "deal" to end the war with Russia, after the pair met in Paris to discuss the future of the conflict.
The White House said that US priorities in Syria now are to ensure the country's conflict does not encourage a resurgence of the Islamic State militant group or lead to a "humanitarian catastrophe."
Prime Minister Anthony Albanese on Sunday called a deliberately lit fire in a Melbourne synagogue an act of "terrorism" and warned about the "worrying rise in anti-Semitism" in Australia.
Somalia on Friday accused Ethiopia of interfering in its southern Jubaland region, the latest upset in a nearly year-long bitter dispute between the two nations.
South Korea's interior minister resigned on Sunday following the declaration of martial law that plunged the country into turmoil, local media reported.
The United States on Saturday announced a new $988 million security assistance package for Ukraine as Washington races to provide aid to Kyiv before President-elect Donald Trump takes office.
Islamist-led rebels declared that they have taken Damascus in a lightning offensive on Sunday, sending President Bashar al-Assad fleeing and ending five decades of Baath rule in Syria.
Canada will boost its military and diplomatic presence in the Arctic to counter what it calls threats from Russia and others seeking a foothold in the far north, as part of a new doctrine unveiled Friday.
A source close to Lebanon's Hezbollah said the group sent 2,000 fighters into Syria near the border, as its ally Damascus reels from a rebel offensive that has seized major cities in recent days.