A Russian MiG-31 fighter jet has been scrambled to escort a US B-1B strategic bomber over the Sea of Japan, TASS news agency reported on Sunday citing the Russian military, just days after an incident with a US naval destroyer in the same region.

A Russian warship caught the US Navy guided-missile destroyer USS John S. McCain operating illegally in Russia's territorial waters in the Sea of Japan, but chased it off, Russia's defence ministry said on Tuesday.

North Korea fired what appeared to be two short-range ballistic missiles off its east coast on Sunday, the fourth such launch this month as the world battles the coronavirus outbreak.

Two men claiming to be from North Korea were found aboard a wooden fishing boat drifting off northern Japan and have been detained, an official said on Monday.

Eight bodies, which had been reduced partly to skeletons, were found on Monday in a small wooden ship that washed up on a beach in the sea of Japan, the Japan Coast Guard (JCG) said.

Japan's Defense Ministry on Sunday said it was searching for three crew members of a Maritime Self-Defense Force (MSDF) helicopter in the Sea of Japan after contact was lost with the chopper. One crew member had been rescued uninjured.

Speculation intensified that North Korea is preparing another missile launch to coincide with a military anniversary, just weeks after conducting its first successful test of an ICBM.

A squad of Frenchman will attempt to rescue the Rotterdam World Tennis tournament starting today as the indoor event tries to recover from the injury absence of drawcard Roger Federer.

The GCC’s chemical industry invested an estimated QR1.33bn ($367mn) on research and development (R&D) in 2013, according to the Gulf Petrochemicals and Chemicals Association..