Passengers and crew foiled a hijacking attempt by six people on a plane in China's restive far-western Xinjiang region Friday, a regional airline and state media said.

Security officials in Kenya say attackers ambushed a convoy of aid workers at a refugee camp near the Somali border and kidnapped international and Kenyan workers.

Israel's plan to overhaul its military draft has veered into turbulent new territory with the government's abrupt proposal to mobilize the country's Arab minority for civilian national service.

Japan and South Korea put on hold an intelligence sharing pact less than an hour before it was to be formally signed Friday, in a major embarrassment for both countries forced by a political outcry in Seoul.

A tanker truck filled with gasoline collided with a truck in southern China on Friday, setting off an explosion and a massive fire that left 20 people dead and 14 others hurt, including at least two with severe burns.

Russia takes center stage Saturday when the U.S. and other major powers gather in Geneva to try to map out a strategy to end the bloodshed in Syria, where activists say 14,000 people have died since the uprising against President Bashar Assad began in March last year.

Myanmar has undergone dramatic change over the last year, but one thing won't be changing anytime soon - the country's name.

Tens of thousands of high school and college students took to the streets of the Chilean capital on Thursday to call for the end of public financing of private universities and other reforms to the country's troubled educational system.

Venezuela's national oil company will join in exploratory drilling for crude in deep waters off Cuba, the company's president said Thursday.