Ballots have gone out in Hawai'i to elect delegates to a convention which could create a government independent of the United States.

Polls to the convention, or 'aha, opened on Monday. Only Native Hawai'ians will be able to take part in the election, which will last till the end of the month.

Two Indian soldiers were killed in clashes with Pakistani forces in the disputed Kashmir territory.

An Indian army officer said Pakistani troops fired machine guns and grenades in the Gurez area of Bandipora district on Monday evening.

The violence occurred days before Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi's scheduled visit to Indian-administered Kashmir.

A trilateral meeting between the leaders of China, Japan and South Kora has ended with the complete restoration of trade and security ties, at the first meeting of this nature since 2012.

Turkey's Justice and Development Party (AKP), led by President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, has regained its majority in parliament, which it lost during elections in June.

State-run Anadolu Agency said AKP had won 49.4% of the vote, with the main opposition CHP on 25.4%.

An opposition MP was attacked in Myanmar, just a week ahead of historic elections in the country.

Naing Ngan Lin, an MP with Aung San Suu Kyi's National League for Democracy, was attacked by men wielding knives and swords at a campaign rally.

A court in the US has dismissed a case over a cargo of Iraqi Kurdish oil, which faced controversy after Iraq attempted to block the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) from directly exporting oil, Reuters reported on Thursday.

China will allow families to have two children, in an end to its long-running limitations on each household to have only one child, a policy imposed in the late seventies, due to its enormous population growth.

The policy, reviled by many over the brutal intrusions involved, including forced abortions and crippling fines, will be ended to ease pressures on the economy due to its ageing population.

The chair of the US Senate Foreign Relations Committee has urged the US to exercise leadership at the UN citing the international body’s failure to properly enforce a “zero-tolerance” policy on sexual abuse.

In response to ongoing revelations about the extent of sexual exploitation and abuse at the hands of United Nations (UN) peacekeepers, Senator Bob Corker (R-Tenn.) offered a series of recommendations for his government to pursue at the UN, in a letter addressed to Secretary of State John Kerry.

“As the largest contributor to the United Nations and as a permanent member on the UN Security Council, the United States has a responsibility to ensure that the United Nations upholds the highest standards of professionalism in peacekeeping operations,” wrote Senator Corker in his letter to Secretary Kerry.

The European Union and Kosovo have signed a deal which will strengthen ties and is seen as moving closer to the country's membership of the body.

The Stabilisation and Association Agreement is the first key step for countries that want to join the bloc.

Kosovo's Prime Minister Isa Mustafa said the agreement "sealed Kosovo's path" towards joining the EU.

"It is the road of strengthening democracy and building the rule of law, the road of political stability and economic prosperity," he said.