France and Britain requested the urgent emergency Security Council meeting talks after reports emerged of dozens of people who have died from starvation in the town of Madaya, where aid deliveries finally arrived this week.

The United States deployed a B-52 bomber on a low-level flight over its ally South Korea on Sunday, as a show of force following North Korea's nuclear test last week. North Korean leader Kim Jong Un maintained that the test on 6th January 2016 was of a hydrogen bomb and said it was a self-defensive step against a U.S. threat of nuclear war.

Republican presidential candidate, Donald Trump issued a campaign statement following the San Bernardino shootings calling for "a total and complete shutdown of Muslims entering the United States until our country's representatives can figure out what is going on" (BBC News).

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates - Saudi Arabia's execution Saturday of 47 prisoners, including an influential Shiite cleric, has prompted a wave of condemnation from Shiite leaders around the region and threatens to further damage Sunni-Shiite relations across the Middle East. Hundreds of Sheikh Nimr al-Nimr's supporters protested his execution in his hometown in eastern Saudi Arabia, in neighboring Bahrain and as far away as northern India.