REUTERS - The remaining fighters started to withdraw from the last rebel-held enclave in central Syria on Wednesday, state television reported, sealing the government’s control over the area and opening a major stretch of the country’s most important highway.

GUARDIAN - As Neymar, the world’s most expensive player, battles to be fit for Brazil’s World Cup campaign, he is aware of the pressure.

“Nobody is as scared as me,” he said on Tuesday.

REUTERS - U.S. President Donald Trump accused Russia and China on Monday of devaluing their currencies while the United States raises interest rates, prompting China to accuse the United States of sending confusing messages.

“Russia and China are playing the Currency Devaluation game as the U.S. keeps raising interest rates. Not acceptable!” Trump said in a Twitter post.

REUTERS - The Russian Foreign Ministry on Thursday said it wanted the United States to immediately halt all military activity on the Korean Peninsula, the RIA news agency reported.

The United States and South Korea this month resume joint military drills.

REUTERS - Russia expelled 59 diplomats from 23 countries on Friday and said it reserved the right to take action against four other nations in a worsening standoff with the West over the poisoning of a former Russian spy and his daughter in Britain.

REUTERS - The Russian Foreign Ministry summoned a slew of senior Western diplomats on Friday to set out the retaliatory measures it was taking in a standoff with the West over the poisoning of a former Russian spy and his daughter in Britain.

REUTERS - The Syrian rebel group Jaish al-Islam denied reports on Friday it would leave Douma near Damascus, after Russia said it had reached an agreement by which insurgents would leave the town.

REUTERS - Russia expelled 60 U.S. diplomats on Thursday and announced it would eject scores from other countries that have joined London and Washington in censuring Moscow over the poisoning of a spy.

The U.S. ambassador was also ordered to shut the consulate in St Petersburg, in Russia’s retaliation for the biggest expulsion of diplomats since the Cold War.

REUTERS - Russian former double agent Sergei Skripal and his daughter were poisoned with a military-grade nerve toxin that had been left on the front door of their home in England, British counter-terrorism police said.

REUTERS - Australia’s Foreign Minister Julie Bishop clarified some earlier comments on Wednesday by saying the country had no plans to boycott the soccer World Cup in response to a nerve agent attack on a former Russian spy in Britain.