Reporter’s Notebook: Crunch time for hostages amid ceasefire uncertainty

China is rapidly increasing its nuclear arsenal and is expected to double its number of nuclear warheads from more than 500 currently to more than 1,000 by 2030, which exceeds earlier projections, the Pentagon’s annual report on China’s military growth said this week.  The Pentagon previously estimated that Beijing had more than 400 nuclear warheads […]

French authorities grounded a flight from the United Arab Emirates to Nicaragua carrying 303 Indian passengers after receiving a tip that it could be carrying victims of human trafficking, prosecutors said Friday. Special investigators are questioning all those aboard and two people are in custody pending further examination, the Paris prosecutor’s office said in a […]

Defense chiefs from the U.S., Australia, Japan and the Philippines vowed to deepen their cooperation as they gathered Thursday in Hawaii for their second-ever joint meeting amid concerns about China’s operations in the South China Sea. The meeting came after the four countries last month held their first joint naval exercises in the South China […]