North Korea test fired an intercontinental ballistic missile on Wednesday, in a major challenge to US President Donald Trump after he slapped fresh sanctions on Pyongyang and declared it a state sponsor of terrorism.

President Donald Trump returned to work at a festively decorated White House this week, facing a formidable to-do list that will decide whether his Christmas is filled with political misery or cheer.

The United Nations reopens its Syria peace talks on Tuesday but the Damascus government's last minute announcement that it may not come to Geneva delivered a blow to the already faltering negotiations.

 An Islamic State sympathiser planned to buy a gun and kill as many revellers as possible on New Year's Eve in Melbourne's popular Federation Square, police alleged on Tuesday after foiling the plot.

 Mexican finance minister Jose Antonio Meade resigned on Monday to run for president, with what many pundits see as the best chance to beat the current front-runner, the leftist firebrand Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador.

Plumes of ash from a rumbling volcano forced Indonesian authorities to close Bali's airport for a second day Tuesday, as a threatened eruption stranded tourists and forced mass evacuations.

Iran and Turkey signed a deal on Sunday with Qatar aimed at boosting commercial ties with the Gulf state which is under blockade by its Arab neighbours, Iranian state television said.

 Hondurans went to the polls Sunday with President Juan Orlando Hernandez seeking a new mandate despite a constitutional one-term limit, sparking fears of a crisis in the crime-wracked country.

Venezuela’s President Nicolas Maduro on Sunday named a general to head debt-ridden PDVSA and ordered a "total restructuring" at the state oil giant, in a move that emphasized military support for his regime.