The United States and the Philippines have vowed to maintain freedom of navigation in a Southeast Asia increasingly beset by maritime territorial rows.
Microsoft chief executive Steve Ballmer announced Friday he would retire within 12 months, opening a new chapter for a company struggling to keep pace with the fast-changing tech sector.
Britain is running a secret Internet surveillance station in the Middle East, a report said Thursday citing the latest leaked documents obtained by fugitive US security contractor Edward Snowden.
Following reports of a large-scale chemical weapons strike, pressure is mounting on the United States and its Western allies to act to halt the violence in Syria.
A mass of Pierre-Auguste Renoir's personal items will be auctioned in New York next month in what is billed as the biggest collection of the French Impressionist artist's memorabilia.
The American soldier sentenced to 35 years in jail for passing secret documents to WikiLeaks asked to be considered a woman on Thursday and requested sex change therapy.
US scientists said Thursday they have built the world's most precise clock, whose ticking rate varies less than two parts in one quintillion, or 10 times better than any other.
Asian markets firmed on Friday as a slew of upbeat manufacturing data from around the globe overshadowed concerns about the US Federal Reserve's plans for its stimulus programme.
US armed intervention in Syria would not resolve the civil war and rebel forces cannot be relied on to back American interests, the top military chief said in a letter to Congress.
The final batch of taped conversations secretly recorded by US president Richard Nixon and then used to help bring him down during the Watergate scandal were released on Wednesday.
Bed nets treated with insecticide are a simple and economical way to eradicate filariasis, a mosquito-born tropical disease that threatens 1.4 billion people worldwide.
President Barack Obama and top aides Tuesday scrutinized US strategy on Egypt, while the White House denied it had quietly frozen millions of dollars in aid after Cairo's military crackdown.
News that Samsung will unveil a "smartwatch" next month has sent rumour mills into overdrive within the tech community as it second guesses what the much-hyped gadget will offer.