Israel could respond to any Iranian attack on it from Syria by toppling president Bashar al-Assad's government, an Israeli security cabinet minister says, hinting that Mr Assad himself may be targeted for assassination.

Vladimir Putin has been sworn in for another six years as Russian President, buoyed by popular support but weighed down too by a costly confrontation with the West, a fragile economy and uncertainty about what happens when his term ends.

Two days after Indian police arrested 14 people over the alleged gang-rape and murder of a teenager in the state of Jharkhand, a 17-year-old is reportedly battling for her life after being raped and set ablaze in the same state.

While international eyes focus on what the UN has called the ethnic cleansing of Rohingya Muslims in Myanmar, another deadly conflict is heating up in the mountains of the country's north.

Dubai is under pressure to reveal what happened to one of its princesses, who was allegedly kidnapped by armed men after trying to flee to India on a luxury yacht.