US President Donald Trump has warned that the US is targeting 52 sites in Iran and will hit them "very fast and very hard" if the Islamic republic attacks American personnel or assets.

A Katyusha rocket fell near the United States embassy in Baghdad's heavily fortified Green Zone which houses government buildings and foreign missions but caused no casualties, two police sources tell Reuters.

China has replaced its top envoy to Hong Kong, state media reported yesterday, the most significant personnel change by Beijing since pro-democracy protests erupted in the city nearly seven months ago.

The bushfires ravaging Australia are generating so much heat that they are creating their own weather systems including dry lighting storms and fire tornadoes.

Spain’s electoral board ordered Friday that Catalan separatist president Quim Torra be disqualified from being a member of Catalonia’s regional parliament, meaning he would lose his presidential post.

Indonesian rescue teams flew helicopters stuffed with food to remote flood-hit communities yesterday as the death toll from the disaster jumped to 53 and fears grew about the possibility of more torrential rain.

In mid-October, Iranian Major-General Qassem Soleimani met with his Iraqi Shia militia allies at a villa on the banks of the Tigris River, looking across at the US embassy complex in Baghdad.

Military confrontation: Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei and US President Donald Trump have talked tough during several crisis but neither have indicated an interest in all-out war.

The Trump administration on Friday justified its killing of a top Iranian general as an act of self-defense, trying to deflect accusations that it violated international law and concerns raised by legal experts and a senior UN rights investigator.

Thousands of mourners gather in Baghdad ahead of a funeral procession for Iran's slain military commander Qassem Soleimani, Iraqi militia leader Abu Mahdi al-Muhandis and others killed in a US air strike in Iraq.

Iranian military commander Qasem Soleimani will be laid to rest Tuesday in his hometown of Kerman as part of three days of ceremonies across the country, the Revolutionary Guards says.

Tensions between Iran and the United States are at their highest point since Iranian students seized the US Embassy in Tehran in 1979.

The US-led coalition fighting Islamic State has said it did not conduct any air strikes near Camp Taji north of Baghdad.

Bangladesh embassy in Iraq has advised Bangladeshi nationals to avoid travelling to troublesome areas in the country considering the ongoing insecurity and unsettling situation.

Up to 3,000 military reservists have been called up to tackle Australia's relentless bushfire crisis on Saturday, as tens of thousands of residents fled their homes amid catastrophic conditions.

A fresh air strike hits pro-Iran fighters in Iraq, as fears grow of a proxy war erupting between Washington and Tehran a day after an American drone strike killed a top Iranian general.

Turkey’s parliament has approved the deployment of troops to Libya aimed at shoring up the UN-backed government in Tripoli, sparking a blunt warning from US President Donald Trump against any “foreign interference” in the war-torn country.

Israel held emergency security talks yesterday and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu cut short a foreign visit as the Jewish state braced itself for fallout from the assassination of General Qasem Soleimani in a US air strike.

Hitting out at Prime Minister Narendra Modi for “frequently comparing India with Pakistan”, West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee yesterday wondered if he was an “ambassador of Hindustan or the neighbouring country”.

Beleaguered Australian communities braced for yet more catastrophic bushfire conditions expected today, as Australia’s navy evacuated around one thousand people from a southeastern town.