'Soon, the blood will spill like an ocean'

6:29 AM   Russia's security agencies to probe video released by Islamic State that threatens attacks in Russia, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov says.

Israeli troops raid West Bank hospital

11:31 AM   Israeli undercover forces raided a hospital in the West Bank on Thursday, shooting dead a Palestinian during an attempt to detain another man suspected of carrying out a stabbing.

Kiwis could boycott Australia: NZ minister

7:26 AM   Australia's "modern concentration camp approach" to detain New Zealanders with criminal records appalls Kiwis, party leader says.

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Islamic State's attacks on Yazidis constitute genocide: report

Adam Taylor 12:41 PM   Islamic State has been and is continuing to perpetrate a genocide against the Yazidi minority in northern Iraq, a new US Holocaust Memorial Museum report says, citing a "preponderance of the evidence" found during a recent trip to the region.

Myanmar's Aung San Suu Kyi urges comrades-in-arms to abandon suspicion

Lindsay Murdoch 12:39 PM   Pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi has urged her millions of supporters to overcome their fears of Myanmar's powerful army following her party's landslide election victory.

Metrojet crash: News scrapped story on Sharm el-Sheikh security flaws in June: report

12:38 PM   Media giant News Corp could have exposed the security gaps at Sharm el-Sheikh airport in Egypt five months before a Russian airliner crashed in the Sinai desert, according to a report in a British magazine.

Race against time to preserve EU's free travel zone

Matthew Holehouse 12:33 PM   Europe faces a "race against time" to save the Schengen free-travel area, Donald Tusk has warned, as a plan to halt the influx of migrants from Africa unravelled and Sweden became the latest EU state to implement border controls.

Greenland glacier sliding more quickly into ocean: scientists

11:46 AM   As the world prepares for the most important global climate summit yet - in Paris this month - news from Greenland could add urgency to the negotiations.

EU free travel in danger as borders tighten, fences go up

Lorne Cook and Frances D'emilio 11:05 AM   Prime Minister of Sweden, which has the most migrants per capita in Europe, calls for rule changes in passport-free area.

US bombers flew near Chinese-built islands in South China Sea: Pentagon

Yeganeh Torbati and David Alexander 10:15 AM   Two US B-52 strategic bombers flew near artificial Chinese islands in the South China Sea this week and were contacted by Chinese ground controllers but continued their mission undeterred, the Pentagon said on Thursday.

'Blue Moon' diamond sells for world record $67.8 million

Stephanie Nebehay 10:08 AM   The rare and flawless "Blue Moon" diamond" has sold for 48.6 million Swiss francs ($67.8 million) - to a Hong Kong buyer, setting a world record for a gemstone at auction, Sotheby's said

Frenetic scenes as Malcolm Turnbull and Indonesian President Joko Widodo make impromptu visit to market

Jewel Topsfield 9:16 AM   A beaming Malcolm Turnbull, his face streaming with sweat, experienced the Force Majeure of one of President Joko Widodo's famous blusukan (impromptu visits) during his one-day visit to Indonesia.

IS claims twin suicide blasts in Beirut that kill dozens

Ruth Pollard 8:01 AM   First bombing in the Lebanese capital since a series in response to Hezbollah's intervention in the Syrian war ended in early 2014.

New husband Matt Fontanesi diagnosed with cancer on honeymoon

Tommy Livingston 6:29 AM   After getting married this year, Matt Fontanesi and wife Danielle escaped Wellington's winter weather and jetted off to their home country of the United States for a short honeymoon.

Utah judge removes lesbian couple's foster child, saying she'll be better off with heterosexuals

Justin Moyer 3:14 AM   In August, Utah couple Beckie Peirce and April Hoagland welcomed a one-year-old girl into their home. But on Wednesday, a Utah judge decided to end this plan, ordering the girl removed from her foster home because the child would be better off with heterosexual parents, he said.

NZ PM John Key claims he is the victim in 'backing the rapists' parliamentary uproar

Lia Timson and Sam Sachdeva 12:24 AM   An MP ejected from the New Zealand Parliament for speaking out against sexual violence and the Australian mistreatment of detainees on Christmas Island is demanding NZ Prime Minister John Key apologise for accusing her party of defending rapists.

Former South African police jailed for 'barbaric' dragging murder

Zandi Shabalala 12:22 AM   A South African court has sentenced eight former police officers to 15 years each for killing a Mozambican taxi driver by dragging him handcuffed to a police truck and assaulting him in custody.

London mayor Boris Johnson offends Palestinians, forced to curtail visit

Raf Sanchez 12:19 AM   Boris Johnson's visit to Israel and the West Bank descended into acrimony on Wednesday night after he derided supporters of an Israeli trade boycott as "lefty academics".

Students faint, taken ill in domino effect at UK school

11:02 PM   Forty students have fallen ill at an English secondary school, with children collapsing during a Remembrance Day service.

Warming seas make sharks weaker

Georgie Moore 9:23 PM   "Sharks are hungrier but with increased CO2, they won't be able to find their food."

Kurdish forces battle to retake Sinjar

Isabel Coles 9:03 PM   Backed by US air strikes, Kurdish forces said they captured several villages in an offensive on Thursday to retake the Iraqi town of Sinjar from Islamic State militants.

Astrologers influence politics in Myanmar

Lindsay Murdoch 7:23 PM   Than Shwe, the 82-year-old former army general believed to be still enormously influential behind the scenes in Myanmar's powerful army, ordered the construction of a new capital in malarial jungle on a precise date and time in 2005.

Joko notes 'friction' but thanks Turnbull for help with fires

Jewel Topsfield 6:32 PM   Indonesian President Joko Widodo thanked Malcolm Turnbull for Australia's assistance fighting the forest fires when he arrived in Jakarta on Thursday.

Indonesian anti-drugs chief "only joking" about crocodile patrols

Jewel Topsfield 5:56 PM   But Jakarta is planning to build separate jails that remove convicted drug offenders and terrorists from the general prison population.