Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Razak called on Myanmar Thursday to stop all discrimination and attacks against Rohingya Muslims, and urged the world's Islamic countries to act to end an unfolding "humanitarian tragedy".

Eight tumultuous years at the helm of American power have come and gone, and for President Barack Obama, this is finally the end. The president is spending his last full day at the White House on Thursday before becoming an ex-president. The big decisions and grand pronouncements are all behind him, but Obama is still in charge until President-elect Donald Trump takes the oath at noon on Friday.

Twenty-four hours before he takes the oath of office as the 45th US president, Donald Trump arrived in Washington on Thursday, determined to transform American politics over the next four years.

Iran's foreign minister said on Tuesday Tehran opposed a U.S. presence at peace talks on Syria in the Kazakh capital next week, after a decision by Russia and Turkey to invite Washington.

The White House said Tuesday that the Guantanamo Bay detention center in Cuba will still be open when President Barack Obama leaves office, conceding that a core campaign promise will go unfulfilled. Administration officials had long insisted that the president was continuing to work toward closing the facility even when it became obvious that it would no longer be possible for practical reasons before President-elect Donald Trump takes office Friday.

The Russian General Staff said that Russian and Turkish military aircraft have conducted their first joint operation in Syria. The Turkish Air Force and the Russian Aerospace Forces have carried out their joint operation against the Islamic State group (Daesh) near Al-Bab in the Aleppo province.

Iranian President Hassan Rouhani said on Tuesday U.S. President-elect Trump cannot unilaterally cancel the nuclear deal Tehran signed with world powers including Washington and that talk of renegotiating it was "meaningless". Trump, who will take office on Friday, has called the July 2015 agreement "the worst deal ever negotiated". He has threatened to either scrap the agreement or seek a better deal.

Egyptian-born Dina Habib Powell is joining the Trump administration in a senior role focused on entrepreneurship, economic growth and the empowerment of women. Currently a Goldman Sachs executive, Powell was born in Cairo, emigrating with her parents to Texas at the age of four. Her father drove a bus and operated a convenience store in Dallas.

Prime Minister Theresa May on Tuesday said Britain will leave the EU's single market in order to restrict immigration in a clean break from the bloc, but lawmakers can vote on the final deal. "Brexit must mean control of the number of people coming from Europe, and that is what we will deliver. What I am proposing cannot mean membership of the single market," May said during a highly-anticipated speech at London's Lancaster House. She added that Britain would seek a trade deal giving "the greatest possible access" to the market on its departure. The prime minister also announced that any divorce deal with the remaining EU members must be approved by votes in both chambers of Britain's parliament. Britain has two years to negotiate a break-up deal once May triggers Article 50 of the Lisbon Treaty, officially declaring the country's intention to quit, or face leaving with no agreement. May has promised to trigger Article 50 by the end of March, and said that she believed a final settlement and trade deal could be simultaneously negotiated within the timeframe. Foreign partners doubt such a timetable, with Austrian Foreign Minister Hans Joerg Schelling saying Brexit would take five years. "It is not clear if it will be possible to negotiate the UK's exit from the EU and the terms of a future cooperation at the same time," he said. Seeking to calm fears of a sudden jolt to the economy on abruptly leaving the EU, May said she would seek a "phased process of implementation". Her direction will be cheered by those who want to leave the EU, but dismay those who fear the impact on Britain's economy. EU countries accounted for 44 percent of Britain's total exports in goods and services in 2015, with the country recording a £68.6 billion ($82.7 billion, 77.9 billion euros) trade deficit with the bloc. The British currency has endured a rocky ride since the vote last summer to leave the union, but sterling responded strongly to May's speech, wiping out losses earlier in the week to stand at $1.2340. Britain's finance minister Philip Hammond adopted a tough line on Sunday, warning that Britain might undercut the EU economically to remain competitive if it faces EU tariffs. Hammond said he wanted Britain to still be a "recognisably European-style economy with European-style taxation systems, European-style regulation systems." However, London would have to change course "if we are forced", to "regain competitiveness", he told Germany's Welt am Sonntag newspaper on Sunday. French Finance Minister Michel Sapin on Tuesday accused May's government of making up its negotiating policy on the hoof. "No-one was prepared," he said. "You can see very well that they are improvising, with flip-flopping between accommodating positions... and harder positions." Britain's post-EU prospects were given a verbal boost on Sunday by US President-elect Donald Trump, who said he favoured a quick trade deal with the UK. But a fast-track bilateral deal with Washington will be difficult in practical terms. Under EU rules Britain cannot sign trade deals with third party states until it is formally outside the bloc, a position that does not change despite voting to leave. A two-year negotiating period is foreseen in EU legislation for any country choosing to exit the 28-member bloc. The EU's chief Brexit negotiator Michel Barnier has said there should be an agreement in place ahead of the European Parliament elections in 2019. But even if the prime minister's plan outlined on Tuesday wins widespread support, legal challenges could still scupper her Brexit timetable. Britain's Supreme Court is due to rule later this month on whether May must seek parliamentary approval before triggering Article 50, which could delay the start of Brexit negotiations.

Outgoing CIA Director John Brennan on Sunday issued a stern parting rebuke to Republican Donald Trump days before he assumes the U.S. presidency, advising him not to absolve Russia for its recent actions and warning him to watch what he says.

Eight men own the same wealth as the poorest half of the world's population, a level of inequality which "threatens to pull our societies apart", Oxfam said on Monday ahead of the World Economic Forum opening in Davos.

China will "take off the gloves" and take strong action if the US president-elect Donald Trump continues to provoke Beijing over Taiwan once he assumes office, two leading state-run newspapers said on Monday. In an interview with the Wall Street Journal published on Friday, Trump said the "One China" policy was up for negotiation. China's foreign ministry, in response, said "One China" was the foundation of China-US ties and was non-negotiable.

Hundreds of protesters demanding jobs clashed with police in several Tunisian towns on Saturday, blocking the route of visiting President Beji Caid Essebsi in one region, on the sixth anniversary of the country's revolution.

Japan Prime Minister Shinzo Abe said during his visit to Indonesia on Sunday that it is important to solve the South China Sea conflict peacefully.

Prime Minister Theresa May will use a major speech on Brexit next week to call on Britons to reject the acrimony of last year's referendum and unite around the vision of a Britain more open to the world, her office said on Sunday.

The European Union plans new measures to deter migrants crossing the Mediterranean from Libya, officials said, as Malta urged the bloc to act on Thursday to head off a surge in arrivals from a country where Russia is taking a new interest.

US President-elect Donald Trump's nominee for secretary of state set a course for a potentially serious confrontation with Beijing on Wednesday, saying China should be denied access to islands it has built in the contested South China Sea.

Christopher Steele, who wrote reports on compromising material Russian operatives allegedly had collected on US President-elect Donald Trump, is a former officer in Britain's Secret Intelligence Service, according to people familiar with his career.

George Orwell, no doubt, would have approved of President Obama’s farewell speech. Underneath the hopeful rhetoric of “Yes We (Still) Can” and list of the accomplishments over the past eight years lay a bracing, overarching message: when lies can become truth, democracy is in peril. 'Yes we did': Barack Obama lifts America one last time in emotional farewell

Egypt's Ministry of Electricity and Renewable Energy dismissed on Tuesday media reports of conflicts between Egypt and Russia over the development of the Dabaa nuclear power plant.

A 15-member Egyptian delegation will visit the United States on 21 January – one day after Donald Trump takes office as president – to discuss issues related to political Islam, terrorism, human rights and democratisation in Egypt.