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Iran's foreign minister says the recent flurry of activity on the part of Western countries, which is apparently meant to revive the 2015 nuclear deal with Iran, actually aims to "reverse the victim and the culprits," by ignoring the fact that Iran's measures to reduce its commitments under the accord came after Western parties, topped by the US, failed to live up to their

The Cook Islands has reportedly been forced by the US to remove two tankers from its shipping registry for allegedly transporting Iranian crude oil, a report says.

Head of Defense Ministry's Marine Industries Organization Rear Admiral Amir Rastegari announced that an industrial complex has been launched for designing and manufacturing simulators for vessels being produced at national shipyard.

The Chinese Commerce Ministry says China will make efforts to safeguard the 2015 Iran nuclear deal that the US abandoned in 2018 under former president Donald Trump.

A group of six North Korean soldiers guarding the Yalu River border with China abandoned their posts and escaped across the river early this month, sources in the North Korean military told RFA.

The Academy of Defence Science of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea test-fired newly developed new-type tactical guided projectile on Thursday.

The statement from the Pentagon comes after North Korea test-fired two ballistic missiles toward the Sea of Japan in the early hours of Thursday, sparking concern in South Korea and Japan.

North Korea has reportedly fired two missiles into the Sea of Japan, in what is the first signal to the new administration in the United States which is reviewing its policy towards Pyongyang.

Earlier in the week, Japan, South Korea and the United States expressed concern over what they referred to as a test-fire of two ballistic missiles launched into the Sea of Japan by North Korea.

The Type 055 guided-missile destroyer Lhasa, hull number 102, has completed the manufacturing and sea trials and been commissioned to the PLA Navy on March 2, said Senior Colonel Ren Guoqiang, a spokesperson for China's Ministry of National Defense at a regular press conference on Thursday.

Chinese social media users are targeting global fashion retailers including H&M, Nike and Adidas for criticism and boycotts over statements they had previously made regarding cotton sourced in northwestern China's Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region (XUAR), where up to 1.8 million Uyghurs are incarcerated.

The ruling Chinese Communist Party (CCP) is stepping up policies in the northern region of Inner Mongolia, where protests erupted last year over plans to phase out Mongolian-medium teaching in schools, targeting the region's ethnic Mongolians with TV shows emphasising "ethnic unity," in a move labeled "cultural genocide" by a U.S.-based exile group.

A Hong Kong court on Thursday ruled that public order charges of the kind frequently used to target participants in the 2019 pro-democracy protest movement can be extended to people who weren't present at the scene.

"The United Kingdom (UK) imposed unilateral sanctions on relevant Chinese individuals and entity, citing the so-called human rights issues in Xinjiang. This move, based on nothing but lies and disinformation, flagrantly breaches international law and basic norms governing international relations, grossly interferes in China's internal affairs, and severely undermines China-UK relations"

Earlier, the United Kingdom imposed sanctions on Beijing based on allegations of human rights abuse in Xinjiang. The move was slammed by China as "based on nothing but lies and disinformation."

Belarusian authorities say they have detained more than 200 people as people took to the streets of Minsk and other cities, heeding a call by opposition leader Svyatlana Tsikhanouskaya to start a new wave of protests against Alyaksandr Lukashenka to coincide with the anniversary of the short-lived Belarusian People's Republic.

The United States continues to call for the release of all political prisoners in Belarus, site of nearly daily protests since a disputed presidential election last year handed Alyaksandr Lukashenka a sixth term amid claims the vote was rigged.

The International Monetary Fund (IMF) has approved a $500 million tranche to Pakistan after the lender's Executive Board completed a review of Islamabad's $6 billion loan program.

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken has warned that German companies could face sanctions in case of cooperation with the Nord Stream 2 gas pipeline project.

Lawyers for jailed opposition politician Aleksei Navalny say their client is in great pain and fears for his life, contradicting a statement from Russian prison authorities that said the Kremlin critic was in "satisfactory" condition.