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Sweden will reintroduce a raft of measures to curb rising COVID-19 infections, urging renewed social distancing and the use of masks in public transportation, the government said on Tuesday. “We see an increased spread of infection, but still from low levels,” Prime Minister Magdalena Andersson told a news conference. “We …

U.S. President Joe Biden and Russian President Vladimir Putin began virtual talks on Ukraine and other subjects on Tuesday, Russian state television reported, amid Western fears that Moscow plans to attack its southern neighbour. Biden will tell Putin that Russia and its banks could be hit with the toughest economic …

One of the suspected killers of Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi was arrested at the Roissy airport near Paris on Tuesday as he was about to board a flight to Riyadh, French RTL radio reported. RTL said the person arrested was a former Royal Guard of Saudi Arabia who is believed …

Democrats are worried that President Joe Biden’s sinking approval rating will cost them their slim majorities in Congress in next year’s midterm elections. With historical midterm headwinds and a Republican-led redistricting effort already at work, many Democrats fear that unless their party leader reverses his current slide, Congress will be …

India and Russia signed 28 investment pacts on Monday, including deals on steel, shipbuilding, coal, and energy, India’s Foreign Secretary Harsh Vardhan Shringla said. India has also begun to receive S-400 missiles from Russia this month, Shringla said, adding that supplies would continue.

Fewer migrants are trying to cross the frontier between Poland and Belarus, but the Polish Border Guard told journalists visiting the previously off-limits border zone on Monday that it still faces provocations from Belarusian forces. Reuters was among a group of journalists permitted to enter the area around the Kuznica …

A three-party deal to form a new German government under center-left leader Olaf Scholz cleared its final hurdle on Monday, setting the scene for Scholz to succeed longtime Chancellor Angela Merkel this week. Germany’s environmentalist Greens said their rank-and-file members approved the agreement reached last month, with 86% voting for …

New York City employers will have to mandate COVID-19 vaccinations for their workers under new rules announced Monday by Mayor Bill de Blasio. The vaccine mandate for private businesses will take effect on Dec. 27 and is aimed at preventing a spike in COVID-19 infections during the holiday season and …

An Indonesian volcano was active again on Monday, spewing out hot clouds of ash, two days after a powerful eruption killed at least 22 people and left dozens missing. Mt. Semeru, the tallest mountain on the island of Java, erupted dramatically on Saturday, shooting a towering column of ash into …

A court in military-ruled Myanmar found deposed leader Aung San Suu Kyi guilty of charges of incitement and breaching coronavirus restrictions on Monday, drawing international condemnation of what critics described as a “sham trial”. Suu Kyi is set to serve two years in detention at an undisclosed location, a sentence …

US Presidents Joe Biden and Vladimir Putin have a chasm of mutual distrust to bridge when they hold a virtual meeting on Tuesday in the shadow of what the United States believes is a threatened Russian invasion of Ukraine. “A lamentable state,” was how the Kremlin described relations ahead of …

India’s tally of reported cases of the heavily mutated Omicron variant of the coronavirus rose to 12 on Sunday after the state of Maharashtra said it had detected seven new cases. Local media also said a new case had been reported in New Delhi. India expects Omicron, which scientists say …

Five people were killed and at least 15 arrested after Myanmar security forces in a car rammed into an anti-coup protest on Sunday morning in Yangon, local news portal Myanmar Now reported. Witnesses on the scene told Reuters dozens had been injured. Photos and videos on social media show a …

The Belarusian defence ministry said on Sunday it had summoned Ukraine’s military attaché to protest against what it called repeated violations of Belarus’ airspace by Ukrainian aircraft. Relations between the two countries have plummeted since last year, when Russia sided with Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko during mass street protests and …

South Africans took to their beaches on Sunday to protest against plans by Royal Dutch Shell (RDSa.L) to do seismic oil exploration they say will threaten marine wildlife such as whales, dolphins, seals, and penguins on a pristine coastal stretch. A South African court on Friday struck down an application …

Police fired teargas and used water cannons on Sunday to disperse protesters pelting officers with cobblestones and fireworks as a demonstration in Brussels over government-imposed COVID-19 restrictions turned violent. A few thousand protesters marched peacefully through the centre of the Belgian capital to the neighbourhood which hosts the headquarters of …

The eruption of Semeru volcano has killed at least 14 people and injured dozens on Java island, Indonesia’s disaster agency said on Sunday, as rescue teams searched for victims under layers of ash, sometimes digging with their bare hands. Semeru, the tallest mountain on Java, threw up towers of ash …

Tens of thousands of protesters marched through several northwest European cities on Saturday to demonstrate against coronavirus restrictions imposed amid a surge in infections. Austria last month became the first country in Western Europe to reimpose a lockdown, which is set to last 20 days and said it would make …

China’s Communist Party took American democracy to task on Saturday, sharply criticizing a global democracy summit being hosted by President Joe Biden next week and extolling the virtues of its governing system. Party officials questioned how a polarized country that botched its response to COVID-19 could lecture others, and said …

India reported its third case of the Omicron coronavirus variant on Saturday, government officials said, as total Covid-19 cases inched closer to the 35 million mark. Officials in the western state of Gujarat said the patient who tested positive for Omicron was a 72-year old man of Indian origin who …