North Korea’s official news agency described a US aircraft carrier patrolling off the Korean Peninsula as a “primary target” and said Washington should expect an “unimaginable” attack. The latest threat on Thursday came amid massive joint US-South Korean naval exercises off the peninsula involving the American aircraft carrier USS Ronald Reagan.

U.S.-backed Syrian forces liberated the city of Raqqa from Islamic State militants on Tuesday, a senior commander said, in a major defeat for the collapsing extremist group that had proclaimed the city to be the capital of its “caliphate”. Although clashes in Raqqa have ended, the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces are in control, combing the city in northern Syria for land mines and searching for any Islamic State sleeper cells, SDF Brig. Gen. Talal Sillo told The Associated Press.

Hackers from North Korea are reported to have stolen a trove of military documents from South Korea, including the South Korea – US wartime operational plans for the conflict with North Korea, BBC reports. Rhee Cheol-hee, a South Korean lawmaker, said the information was from his country's defence ministry. He said the hackers broken into a defence data centre in September last year.

North Korea’s deputy UN ambassador, who warned that the situation on the Korean peninsula has now reached a stage where "nuclear war may break out at any moment." Kim In-ryong disclosed this while speaking to the UN General Assembly's disarmament committee, explained that no other country in the world has been subjected to such an "extreme and direct nuclear threat" from the United States since the 1970s.

The United Arab Emirates says it will stop issuing new visas to North Korean laborers, becoming the latest Gulf country to cut back on ties to Pyongyang amid tensions between North Korea and the U.S.

Thousands of Israeli and Palestinian women came together Sunday morning in what is termed the "Peace Tent," as they marched through the desert to the lowest point on earth, to demand an end to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.