Nine suspected criminals died Tuesday in clashes with police and a rival gang in the Mexican state of Tamaulipas, the local government said.

The state bordering the U.S. is among those hardest hit by drug related violence in Mexico.

A pilot who died when he crashed his small aircraft was distracted because he was taking cell phone selfies in the cockpit, likely contributing to the fatal accident, U.S. investigators said Tuesday.

The 29-year-old and a passenger were killed instantly when his Cessna 150K smashed into a field on May 31 last year.

A former top U.S. Navy officer was arrested Tuesday over a bribery scandal centered on a Singapore-based contracting firm, in which seven people have already pleaded guilty, officials said.

Paul Simpkins, 60, was arrested in Virginia and charged with conspiracy to commit bribery for his alleged role in a scheme to steer contracts to defense contracing company Glenn Defense Marine Asia (GDMA).

Four months after President Ashraf Ghani was sworn in Afghanistan is still struggling to form a government, damaging the economy and miring the country in uncertainty as the Taliban insurgency continues.

The months of bitter fighting between Ghani and his poll rival Abdullah Abdullah that plagued much of 2014 were meant to have ended with the agreement in September to create a "national unity government".

North Korea on Wednesday ruled out resuming dialogue with the "gangster-like" United States, and vowed to respond to any U.S. aggression with nuclear strikes and cyber warfare.

The bellicose statement from the country's top military body, the National Defence Commission (NDC), came after reported moves by Washington and Pyongyang to revive long-stalled six-nation talks on denuclearisation.

Boko Haram's insurgency in Nigeria poses a potential "regional crisis" but Chad and other neighboring countries are starting to put pressure on the Islamist rebels, the head of U.S. military intelligence said Tuesday.

Lieutenant General Vincent Stewart, director of the Defense Intelligence Agency, told lawmakers Nigeria's campaign against Boko Haram was falling short but welcomed the role of Chad, Niger and Cameroon in confronting the militants.

The chief of the U.S.-led war on IS, General Lloyd Austin, condemned the pilot's murder as "savage" and vowed to "fight this barbaric enemy until it is defeated".

British Prime Minister David Cameron said the "sickening murder will only strengthen our resolve to defeat ISIL", another acronym for the group.

The U.S. military has performed another U-turn and will publicly release information about its aid for Afghan forces, after coming under criticism for declaring the data top secret, officials said Monday.

The commander of U.S. and NATO troops in Afghanistan, General John Campbell, had classified details of the assistance program for Afghan security forces, saying the data could be exploited by Taliban insurgents.

Union workers at nine U.S. oil refineries were striking Monday for a second day after contract negotiations with plant owners broke down.

But only one of the nine plants had curtailed production as a result of the strike, Bloomberg News reported. 

More than 3,000 flights were canceled on Monday as a fresh winter storm dumped snow, sleet and freezing rain across the northeastern United States.

The worst affected airports are Chicago O'Hare International, Newark in New Jersey, New York's LaGuardia and Boston Logan International, according to tracking website flightaware.com.