Worldwide

China has arrested more than a thousand people for using the profits from crime to buy cryptocurrencies, security officials said, as part of a growing crackdown on the industry. The country’s bitcoin mines power nearly 80 percent of the global trade in cryptocurrencies, although trading in China is banned. Officials …

European Council President Charles Michel said on Thursday that the European Union was ready to stand up to aggressive actions by China and Russia, offering support to U.S. President Joe Biden on his first European tour. “We will defend ourselves against practices that pose security risks,” Michel told an online …

South Korean lawmakers are pushing for reform to reduce the military’s judicial power after a female soldier who had suffered sexual abuse committed suicide, rekindling criticism of the military’s handling of sex crimes. An air force master sergeant, identified by her surname Lee, took her life last month after being …

U.S. President Joe Biden will bring a grave Brexit warning to his first meeting with British Prime Minister Boris Johnson: Prevent a row with the European Union from imperilling the delicate peace in Northern Ireland. On his first trip abroad since taking office in January, Biden meets Johnson on Thursday …

An analysis by United Nations agencies and aid groups estimates that about 350,000 people in Ethiopia’s conflict-torn Tigray region are in famine conditions, according to an internal U.N. document seen by Reuters on Wednesday. The Ethiopian government disputes the Integrated Food Security Phase Classification (IPC) analysis, according to the notes …

India reported on Thursday the highest single-day death toll from COVID-19 in the world, at 6,148, after a big eastern state revised its figures to account for people who succumbed to the disease at home or in private hospitals. The health department of Bihar, one of India’s poorest states, revised …

A Russian court on Wednesday approved a request by prosecutors to declare organizations linked to jailed Kremlin critic Alexei Navalny “extremist” in a move that outlaws the groups, his lawyers said on social media. The ruling, which takes effect immediately, effectively bars the groups’ members from running in a parliamentary …

Report by Save the Children says 51 minors taken by armed groups in conflict-hit Cabo Delgado in 2020, a figure likely an underestimate. Fighters in conflict-hit northern Mozambique abducted dozens of children during raids in 2020, according to a new analysis by Save the Children. The charity said in a …

Colombia reduced the area occupied by coca across the country by 7% in 2020, although the potential output of cocaine rose 8% to 1,228 metric tons a year, the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) said on Wednesday. Last year, Colombia reduced the area occupied by coca crops …

Sudan and Egypt agreed on Wednesday to coordinate efforts to push Ethiopia to negotiate “seriously” on an agreement on filling and operating a giant dam it is building on the Blue Nile, a joint statement said. The two countries, which are downstream from the dam, issued the statement after African …

Scores of Israeli firefighters have been deployed to tackle two major forest fires that broke out in the hills near Alquds (Jerusalem) on Wednesday. Hundreds of people were evacuated. Almost 800 people, were ordered to leave their homes as the flames approached. The fires also prompted the closure of some …

Trade union leader Pedro Castillo has declared himself the victor in the Peruvian presidential election. His opponent Keiko Fujimori refused to concede and claimed without evidence that the vote was fraudulent. “The people have spoken,” Castillo told supporters late on Tuesday in front of his Peru Libre party’s headquarters. He …

Two passengers on a cruise ship in the Mediterranean have tested positive for Covid-19. The pair were traveling on the MSC Seaside cruise ship and disembarked with their families in Syracuse, Sicily, on Tuesday, MSC said on Wednesday. The two passengers were asymptomatic. The cruise had previously docked in Malta …

Syria has categorically rejected remarks by US Secretary of State Antony Blinken about the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights, reiterating that the land was and will remain a “Syrian Arab” territory. “The Syrian Arab Republic absolutely rejects the statements of the US Secretary of State regarding the occupied Syrian Golan which come …

After talks in London ended without a breakthrough, European Commission vice-president Maros Sefcovic said patience with the UK was wearing “very, very thin” The EU has threatened to launch a trade war against the UK if it fails to implement checks on goods entering Northern Ireland under the terms of …

A five-story building being demolished in southern South Korea has collapsed, sending debris falling on a bus and killing nine people on board A five-story building being demolished in southern South Korea collapsed on Wednesday, sending debris falling on a bus and killing nine people on board, officials said. Concrete …

US President Joe Biden on Wednesday withdrew a series of Trump-era executive orders that sought to ban new downloads of WeChat and TikTok and ordered a Commerce Department review of security concerns posed by those apps and others. The administration of former President Donald Trump had attempted to block new …

The leaders of the European Union and the United States are set to commit at a summit in Brussels next week to ending their transatlantic trade disputes and to call for a new study into the origins of COVID-19, according to a draft communique. The seven-page draft, seeks to show …

After nearly four months of scorching heat and humidity, the season of rains, breezes and cloudy skies has started in several Indian regions – including Kerala, Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra, and Delhi. As the Monsoon season began in India, heavy rains have hit the country’s financial capital Mumbai. The downpour has …

The Indian government has ordered the temporary closure of all tiger reserves to tourism, after a spate of Covid-19 outbreaks in zoos around the country. The National Tiger Conservation Authority, an agency under the government’s environmental ministry, issued its order on Monday after the death of a Covid-positive lioness a …