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South Korea said Tuesday it has reached an agreement with the United States that will allow it to use solid rocket fuel for space vehicles, a change that will enable the country to launch its first military surveillance satellites and develop the technology to build more powerful missiles.

Russia has intercepted a US spy plane over the Black Sea, the third such incident in less than a week, the Russian Defense Ministry says.

The deployment of S-400 missile systems on Russia's Arctic islands is a logical step, needed exclusively for national defence, and it should not raise concerns, Foreign Ministry's Ambassador-at-Large Nikolai Korchunov stated in an interview.

The Russian defense ministry said in a statement that it had sent a Su-27 fighter plane on Monday to intercept a U.S. surveillance plane over the Black Sea that it said was approaching the Russian border.

Former Ukrainian President Leonid Kuchma has left the post of presidential envoy in the trilateral contact group on resolving the ongoing conflict between Russia-backed separatists and Ukrainian armed forces in the country's east.

Named for the ancient Greek god of war, Ares delivers a step-change in the British Army's battlefield capability. Last week, the first six vehicles were delivered to the Household Cavalry Regiment at Bulford, Wiltshire.

A Turkish government decision earlier this month to turn back Istanbul's historic Hagia Sophia into a mosque after more than 80 years as a museum has renewed debate over the direction of the Muslim country, with some experts saying President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, through his expansionist policies at home and abroad, is attempting to revive a new Ottoman Empire.

Turkey is poised to introduce drastic measures to control social media platforms.

The United States should reconsider its decision to suspend Turkey from the F-35 aircraft programme and stands ready to address any issues related to the S-400 air defence system's and F-35 jet's compatibility, Turkish Defence Minister Hulusi Akar said on Tuesday.

The Control Yuan on Tuesday made public its demands that the Ministry of National Defense (MND) and Civil Aeronautics Administration (CAA) under the transportation ministry take steps to correct major errors that contributed to a helicopter crash in January in which eight military officers were killed.

Taiwan is still hoping to receive an invitation to participate as an observer in the world's largest international maritime drill to be staged next month, a Ministry of National Defense (MND) spokesman said Tuesday.

Remote sensing satellite ground stations in China have received data from the newly-launched mapping satellite Ziyuan III 03, sources with the Chinese Academy of Sciences said on Monday.

All aspects of the military are engaged in great power competition, but while most analysts focus on developments in offensive missiles, Chinese and Russian defense leaders are developing even more capable missile defenses, Defense Department officials said.

When the United States sent men to the moon in the 1960s, the effort was largely driven by the government. But the future of the U.S. space effort will be agile innovators in the private sector who partner with the government, the Space Force's chief scientist said.

Several fuel tankers have caught fire at a truck park near the western Iranian city of Kermanshah, sparking panic among local residents.

The children of Azerbaijan's former security chief have acquired a number of a luxury properties in Britain, including a $21 million home in London, an investigation revealed.

The Egyptian military has eliminated 19 terrorists in northern Sinai during several raids over the week, spokesman Tamer Al-Rifai has said.

Afghan officials said Saturday a bomb exploded and killed a journalist and a driver of a private television channel in the capital, Kabul. Six other people were injured.

Cameroon's military says three of five men recently arrested by Togolese police and portrayed by Togolese media as notorious criminals who committed serious offenses against Togolese citizens are Cameroonian soldiers, while the other two are former convicts. The three military men stole weapons from the military headquarters in Yaoundé and went to Togo's capital, Lomé, where they used the weapons to harass Togolese, according

Somali officials say nine civilians were killed and 10 others were wounded in a roadside bomb explosion outside Mogadishu on Sunday.