KYIV (Reuters) – Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy vowed on Friday to stay in Kyiv as his troops battled Russian invaders who are advancing toward the capital in the biggest attack on a European state since World War Two. Russia…
Read MoreKYIV (Reuters) – Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy vowed on Friday to stay in Kyiv as his troops battled Russian invaders who are advancing toward the capital in the biggest attack on a European state since World War Two. Russia…
Read MoreWASHINGTON (AP) — President Joe Biden hit back Thursday against Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, unleashing robust new sanctions, ordering the deployment of thousands of additional troops to NATO ally Germany and…
Read MoreRussian President Vladimir Putin launched a full-scale invasion of Ukraine on Thursday, forcing residents to flee for their lives and leaving at least 40 Ukrainian soldiers and 10 civilians dead….
Read MoreRussian President Vladimir Putin authorised a military operation in eastern Ukraine on Thursday in what could be the start of war in Europe over Russia’s demands for an end to…
Read MoreThe Ukrainian parliament has approved a declaration of a state of emergency in the entire country, except for two eastern regions where it has already been in place since 2014….
Read MoreTORONTO (AP) — Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau announced Wednesday he is removing emergency powers police can use after authorities ended the blockades at the borders and the occupation in…
Read MoreBEIJING/TAIPEI, Feb 23 (Reuters) – Taiwan is “not Ukraine” and has always been an inalienable part of China, China’s foreign ministry said on Wednesday, as Taiwan President Tsai Ing-wen called…
Read MoreAs the host of Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) 2022, Thailand is spearheading efforts to enhance connectivity and greater business mobility, to ensure that safe and seamless travel will resume. According…
Read MoreThailand’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MFA) has developed a plan to evacuate about 250 Thai nationals in Ukraine, in case an emergency situation develops. MFA Spokesperson Tanee Sangrat said that…
Read MoreA man with a firearm who held several people hostage in an Apple store in central Amsterdam late Tuesday was overpowered after a siege lasting several hours, police said, adding…
Read MoreThe United States said Tuesday that Russia’s move into eastern Ukraine amounts to the “beginning of an invasion” and warned that “severe” sanctions would be announced shortly. President Joe Biden…
Read More(AP) — Oil prices surged nearly 5% and stock prices dropped after Russian President Vladimir Putin recognized the independence of rebel-held regions of Ukraine, raising fears that a full-scale invasion was…
Read MoreBOGOTA (AP) — Colombia became the latest country in Latin America to expand access to abortion Monday as the nation’s Constitutional Court voted to legalize the procedure until the 24th…
Read MoreMOSCOW, Feb 21 (Reuters) – Russian President Vladimir Putin ordered the deployment of troops to two breakaway regions in eastern Ukraine after recognising them as independent on Monday, accelerating a…
Read MoreBEIJING, Feb 20 (Reuters) – Beijing doused its Olympic flame on Sunday night, closing a Games that will be remembered for the extremes of its anti-COVID-19 measures and outrage over…
Read MoreCANBERRA (AP) — International tourists and business travelers began arriving in Australia with few restrictions on Monday for the first time in almost two years after the government lifted some…
Read MoreBritain’s 95-year-old Queen Elizabeth II tested positive for COVID-19 on Sunday but her symptoms are “mild” and she intends to continue with light duties at her Windsor Castle residence, aides said. The…
Read MoreA telephone conversation between French President Emmanuel Macron and Russian leader Vladimir Putin about the situation in Ukraine got underway on Sunday as planned, Macron’s office said. The call, described by the French side as…
Read MoreRussia could launch an attack on Ukraine “at any time,” the White House reaffirmed Saturday, as Western politicians gathered in Munich to discuss the crisis. US Press Secretary Jen Psaki…
Read MoreSEOUL, Feb 18 (Reuters) – South Korea’s new daily COVID–19 cases topped 100,000 for the first time amid its Omicron outbreak, with authorities saying social distancing measures would be only slightly eased ahead of the March 9 presidential election. Authorities…
Read MoreOTTAWA, Feb 18 (Reuters) – Canadian police are poised to clear out on Friday hundreds of truck drivers from Ottawa who have staged a three-week-long protest against pandemic restrictions that…
Read MoreMOSCOW/KYIV (Reuters) – Shelling in Ukraine on Thursday renewed Western fears of an imminent Russian invasion as U.S. President Joe Biden said Moscow is preparing a pretext to justify a possible attack and the Kremlin expelled an American diplomat. Early morning…
Read MoreJapan will ease border controls imposed to counter the pandemic, Prime Minister Fumio Kishida said on Thursday, softening measures that have been among the strictest imposed by wealthy nations and…
Read MoreBeijing Olympics organisers hit out at “lies” about Xinjiang on Thursday and reiterated the Chinese government’s stance on Taiwan, while also railing against “politicising” the Games. The United States…
Read MoreThailand will join 57 other countries from the Indo-Pacific region to discuss a range of issues related to defence and security, digital connectivity and transnational issues, such as climate change…
Read MoreEurope is contemplating sanctions against Russia if it invades Ukraine — and the work is far from simple. Sanctions would seek to maximize the pain for the Kremlin, its key…
Read MoreMOSCOW (AP) — While the U.S. warns that Russia could invade Ukraine any day, the drumbeat of war is all but unheard in Moscow, where pundits and ordinary people alike…
Read MoreHONG KONG, Feb 15 (Reuters) – Hong Kong leader Carrie Lam on Tuesday ruled out a citywide lockdown to fight COVID-19, but a surge of infections meant she could not…
Read MoreMOSCOW/KYIV, Feb 14 (Reuters) – Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelenskiy on Monday called on the country’s people to fly flags and sing the national anthem in unison on Feb. 16, a…
Read MoreOTTAWA, Feb 14 (Reuters) – Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau on Monday activated rarely used emergency powers in an effort to end protests that have shut some U.S. border crossings…
Read MoreBEIJING, Feb 14 (Reuters) – Beijing 2022 organisers welcome, protect and encourage diversity among athletes including any gay participants, Yang Yang, China’s first-ever Winter Olympics gold medallist, said on Monday….
Read MoreJan 14 (Reuters) – A burst of East-West diplomacy this week produced no breakthrough on the Ukraine crisis and tensions are arguably higher than before, with Ukraine suffering a massive…
Read MoreWASHINGTON, Feb 12 (Reuters) – U.S. President Joe Biden and his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin will speak on Saturday as Western nations warned that a war in Ukraine could ignite…
Read MoreIt was 80 years ago. On a cold day of 20 January 1942, a group of fifteen representatives of Third Reich authorities and high functionaries of the SS convened for…
Read MorePARIS (Reuters) – French President Emmanuel Macron refused a Kremlin request that he take a Russian COVID-19 test when he arrived to see President Vladimir Putin this week, to prevent…
Read MoreThe Canadian trucker protest has temporarily sidelined a key auto industry transport route, adding stress to a North American car industry already pinched by low inventories and supply chain problems…
Read MoreSEOUL (Reuters) – The COVAX global COVID-19 vaccine-sharing programme has scaled back the number of doses allocated for North Korea, international aid organisations said, as the country has so far failed to arrange for…
Read MoreWellington (AFP) – Police and anti-vaccine protesters clashed on the grounds of New Zealand’s parliament Thursday, with dozens arrested after demonstrators who have laid siege to the legislature for three days…
Read MoreKYIV, Ukraine (AP) — French President Emmanuel Macron said Tuesday that Russian President Vladimir Putin told him that Moscow would not further escalate the Ukraine crisis. Macron also said it…
Read MoreVATICAN CITY (Reuters) Former Pope Benedict on Tuesday acknowledged that errors occurred in handling sexual abuse cases when he was Archbishop of Munich and asked for forgiveness, as his lawyers argued he was…
Read MoreNEW YORK (AP) — The reading of this year’s Oscar nominees has begun. Actors Tracee Ellis Ross and Leslie Jordan are announcing the nominees for the 94th Academy Awards live on multiple…
Read MoreIt must be the first time that the leaders of Russia and China have met exclusively and mentioned ASEAN during their discussion. Annually, each of them held bilateral meetings with…
Read MoreWASHINGTON, Feb 7 (Reuters) – U.S. President Joe Biden said on Monday that the Nord Stream 2 gas pipeline would be halted if Russia invades Ukraine and stressed unity with…
Read MoreSYDNEY, Feb 7 (Reuters) – Australia said on Monday it will reopen its borders to vaccinated travellers this month, ending two years of misery for the tourism sector, reviving migration…
Read MoreBEIJING, Feb 7 (Reuters) – Chinese tennis player Peng Shuai has denied she ever accused anyone of sexual assault, adding that she herself had deleted her social media post in…
Read MoreTORONTO (AP) — The mayor of Canada’s capital declared a state of emergency Sunday and a former U.S. ambassador to Canada said groups in the U.S. must stop interfering in…
Read MoreIceland, one of the only countries that still hunts whales commercially, said Friday it plans to end the practice from 2024 as demand for whale meat dwindles. For the past…
Read MoreMoroccan emergency crews found a five-year-old boy dead at the bottom of a well late Saturday in a tragic end to a painstaking five-day rescue operation that gripped the nation…
Read MoreBEIJING (AP) — Chinese President Xi Jinping declared the Winter Olympics open Friday night, inviting the world back — sort of — for the pandemic era’s second Games, this time…
Read MoreBEIJING, Feb 4 (Reuters) – Russian President Vladimir Putin arrived in Beijing on Friday for the 2022 Winter Olympics and a meeting with Chinese President Xi Jinping, bringing with him…
Read MoreAMMAN/WASHINGTON, Feb 3 (Reuters) – The leader of Islamic State died when he blew himself and family members up during a U.S. military raid in Syria, President Joe Biden said…
Read MoreIndonesia’s holiday island of Bali will welcome its first direct flight carrying foreign tourists for nearly two years on Thursday, but just a handful of visitors will be on board…
Read MoreCOPENHAGEN (AP) — The director of the World Health Organization’s Europe office said Thursday the continent is now entering a “plausible endgame” to the pandemic and that the number of coronavirus deaths…
Read MoreThis year, the Cobra Gold military exercise will be held between February 22nd and March 4th and will be somewhat scaled down again, due to the COVID-19 pandemic, according to a…
Read MoreWASHINGTON/MOSCOW (Reuters) – The United States will send nearly 3,000 extra troops to Poland and Romania to shield Eastern Europe from a potential spillover from the crisis over the massing of Russian troops near Ukraine, U.S. officials said on Wednesday. Russia…
Read MoreWashington (AFP) – A US intelligence agency said Wednesday that its newest spy satellite successfully launched into orbit atop a reusable SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket. The rocket took off at 12:27…
Read MoreGENEVA (AP) — Late-night disco partying. Elbow-to-elbow seating in movie theaters. Mask-free bearing of faces in public, especially in Europe and North America: Bit by bit, many countries that have…
Read MoreBEIJING (AP) — Chinese people rang in the Lunar New Year on Tuesday despite pandemic restrictions, as small crowds gathered at temples to offer traditional prayers for the Year of…
Read MoreTORONTO (AP) — Prime Minister Justin Trudeau announced Monday he has tested positive for COVID-19 but is “feeling fine” and will continue to work remotely from home. Trudeau said two…
Read MoreWith a spectacular jail break in Syria and a deadly attack on an army barracks in Iraq, the Islamic State group was back in the headlines the past week, a…
Read MoreItalian President Sergio Mattarella was pulled away from his impending retirement and reelected Saturday to a second seven-year term as the country’s head of state, ending days of political impasse…
Read MoreNorth Korea fired an “unidentified projectile” Sunday, the South’s military said, its seventh weapons test this month in one of the most intense spates of launches on record as the…
Read MoreMELBOURNE, Jan 29 (Reuters) – Hip-hop artist Kanye West will have to be fully vaccinated if he wants to play concerts in Australia, Prime Minister Scott Morrison said on Saturday,…
Read MoreBeijing (AFP) – The upcoming Winter Olympics are the target of a US-led diplomatic boycott over China’s human rights abuses. But there will still be a gathering of leaders at the…
Read MoreMOSCOW (AP) — Russia’s top diplomat said Friday that Moscow will not start a war in Ukraine but warned that it wouldn’t allow the West to trample on its security…
Read MoreOTTAWA (Reuters) – Canadian truck drivers determined to shut down central Ottawa over a federal government vaccine mandate rolled across the country toward the capital on Thursday, boosted by praise…
Read MoreOUAGADOUGOU, Jan 27 (Reuters) – Burkina Faso’s new military leader Lieutenant Colonel Paul-Henri Damiba said on Thursday that the West African country return to constitutional order when conditions are right….
Read MoreSeveral dozen octogenarians, bundled against the cold, chattered in Russian and Hebrew as they picked through heaps of carrots, onions and grapefruit in a Jerusalem courtyard. Nearly all of them…
Read MoreHeirs of Pablo Picasso, the famed 20th-century Spanish artist, are vaulting into 21st-century commerce by selling 1,010 digital art pieces of one of his ceramic works that has never before…
Read MoreNuclear-armed North Korea fired what appeared to be two ballistic missiles into the sea off its east coast, South Korea‘s military said on Thursday, in what would be the sixth…
Read MoreVATICAN CITY (Reuters) – Pope Francis said on Wednesday that parents of gay children should not condemn them but offer them support. He spoke in unscripted comments at his weekly audience in reference to difficulties that parents can face in…
Read MoreAfter more than three decades of frozen Thai-Saudi ties, this week’s “historic” visit by Thailand’s Prime Minister Prayut Chan-o-cha to Saudi Arabia has had the effect of normalising one of…
Read MoreBEIJING (AP) — China has undergone history-making change since the last time it was an Olympic host in 2008: It is richer, more heavily armed and openly confrontational. As President…
Read MoreThailand and Saudi Arabia have agreed to resume normal diplomatic ties and are ready to begin a new era of bilateral relations, thanks to the joint efforts of Thai and…
Read MoreWASHINGTON/MOSCOW (Reuters) – U.S. President Joe Biden said on Tuesday he would consider personal sanctions on President Vladimir Putin if Russia invades Ukraine, as Western leaders stepped up military preparations and made plans…
Read MoreKYIV (AP) — Ukraine’s leaders sought to reassure the nation that a feared invasion from neighboring Russia was not imminent, even as they acknowledged the threat is real and prepared…
Read MoreAlmost 900 people were evacuated from the tourist town serving Machu Picchu, the Inca jewel of Peru’s travel industry, amid rains and floods that left one person missing and several…
Read MoreOUAGADOUGOU, Burkina Faso (AP) — More than a dozen mutinous soldiers declared Monday on state television that a military junta had seized control of Burkina Faso after detaining the democratically…
Read MoreBRUSSELS (AP) — Tensions soared Monday between Russia and the West, with NATO outlining a series of potential troop and ship deployments and Ireland warning that upcoming Russian war games…
Read MoreWASHINGTON (AP) — The State Department on Sunday ordered the families of all American personnel at the U.S. Embassy in Ukraine to leave the country amid heightened fears of a…
Read MoreAFP – The Omicron variant has moved the Covid-19 pandemic into a new phase and could bring it to an end in Europe, the WHO Europe director said Sunday. “It’s plausible that…
Read MoreHuman rights and the humanitarian crisis in Afghanistan, where hunger threatens millions, will be in focus at talks opening Sunday in Oslo between the Taliban, the West and members of Afghan…
Read MoreJan 23 (Reuters) – Families have stopped children playing outside as Tonga struggles to deal with ash and the psychological fallout of last week’s volcanic eruption and tsunami, aid workers…
Read MoreTwitter has suspended hundreds of accounts reportedly linked to supporters of Philippine presidential frontrunner Ferdinand Marcos Jr, which the social media giant said had violated its rules on manipulation and…
Read MoreHONG KONG, Jan 21 (Reuters) – Hong Kong police will deal with pet lovers who try to stop people giving up their hamsters to be put down, or who offer…
Read MoreMOSCOW, Jan 20 (Reuters) – A small preliminary laboratory study has shown that levels of Omicron-neutralising antibodies of people vaccinated with Russia’s Sputnik V vaccine did not decline as much…
Read MoreGENEVA (AP) — U.S. President Joe Biden said Thursday that any Russian troop movements across Ukraine’s border would constitute an invasion and that Moscow would “pay a heavy price” for…
Read MoreA long-awaited report on sexual abuse in Germany’s Munich diocese on Thursday faulted retired Pope Benedict XVI’s handling of four cases when he was archbishop in the 1970s and 1980s….
Read MoreWASHINGTON (AP) – US President Joe Biden ends his first year in the White House with a clear majority of Americans for the first time disapproving of his handling of…
Read MoreLONDON (AP) — British Prime Minister Boris Johnson defied calls to resign in a feisty performance Wednesday in Parliament — but it may be too little to prevent his Conservative…
Read MoreSYDNEY (AP) — Three of Tonga’s smaller islands suffered serious damage from tsunami waves, officials and the Red Cross said Wednesday, as a wider picture begins to emerge of the…
Read MoreBERLIN, Jan 19 (Reuters) – Former German chancellor Angela Merkel has turned down the offer of a job at the United Nations, her office said on Wednesday, a month after…
Read MoreAll the homes on one of Tonga’s small outer islands have been destroyed by a massive volcanic eruption and tsunami, with three people so far confirmed dead, the government said on Tuesday in…
Read MoreLONDON (Reuters) – Benchmark oil prices climbed to their highest level since 2014 on Tuesday as possible supply disruption after attacks in the Mideast Gulf added to an already tight…
Read MoreHONG KONG (AP) — Hong Kong authorities said Tuesday that they will cull some 2,000 small animals, including hamsters after several of the rodents tested positive for the virus at…
Read MoreGENEVA (AP) — Chinese President Xi Jinping called Monday for greater world cooperation against COVID-19 and pledged to send an additional 1 billion doses of vaccine to other countries, while urging…
Read MoreBEIJING (Reuters) – Mainland China’s birth rate dropped to a record low in 2021, data showed on Monday, extending a downward trend that led Beijing last year to begin allowing…
Read MoreSYDNEY/WELLINGTON, Jan 17 (Reuters) – Australia and New Zealand sent surveillance flights on Monday to assess damage in Tonga, isolated from the rest of the world after the eruption of…
Read MoreSEOUL (AP) — North Korea on Monday fired two suspected ballistic missiles into the sea in its fourth weapons launch this month, South Korea’s military said, with the apparent goal…
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