Azerbaijan held a day of mourning on Thursday for the dozens of victims of an airliner crash in Kazakhstan, as questions were being asked over the cause of the disaster.

Taiwan's Presidential Office conducted its first ever tabletop exercise simulating a military escalation with China, several officials briefed on the matter said, at a time when the island is facing renewed Chinese military threats.

An Azerbaijan Airlines plane crash on Christmas Day has prompted speculation the plane was shot down by Russia after it took a detour of hundreds of miles in the wrong direction and crash-landed with holes in the fuselage.