Romania’s Prime Minister Florin Citu was due to hold crisis talks with his coalition partners on Friday, urging them to stay united to rebuild the economy after the coronavirus pandemic despite a row over the sacking of the justice minister. The USR-Plus, a junior ally to Citu’s Liberals, has begun …

Japan’s prime minister Yoshihide Suga has announced he will not run for the leadership of his governing party later this month – paving the way for a new premier after just a year in office marred by an unpopular COVID-19 response. Mr. Suga was appointed to the role in September …

Germany’s health minister has warned that Covid-19 is becoming the “pandemic of the unvaccinated” as 90% of the country’s intensive care patients are those who refused a potentially life-saving shot. Speaking on Friday, Health Minister Jens Spahn said people who have not been vaccinated against the virus have a responsibility …

Britain will not recognise the Taliban as the new government in Kabul, but must deal with new realities in Afghanistan and does not want to see its social and economic fabric broken, Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab said on Friday. Speaking during a visit to Pakistan, Raab said it would not …

Fighting broke out in Tripoli early on Friday between rival armed forces, witnesses said, the heaviest clashes in the Libyan capital since the conflict between eastern and western factions paused a year ago. A resident of the Salah al-Din district in southern Tripoli said shooting began at about 2.30 a.m. …

As long as cocaine is illegal, the cat-and-mouse game between drug runners from Colombia and the authorities will continue. Decades of busts and subsequent innovation have led to a regular sort of news story, where black-market businessmen have created a new way to get drugs to their customers. Tunnels, planes, …

New Zealand police on Friday shot dead an Islamic State-inspired attacker after he injured six people in a supermarket knife rampage, despite round-the-clock surveillance by undercover officers. Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern said she was “gutted” the man, a Sri Lankan national, had managed to carry out his “hateful” assault even …

Mullah Baradar, the head of the Taliban’s political office, will lead the new government in Afghanistan, at least three sources in the group said on Friday. Mullah Mohammad Yaqoob, the son of late Taliban founder Mullah Omar, and Sher Mohammad Abbas Stanekzai will take senior positions in the government, the …

The European Commission and AstraZeneca said on Friday they had reached a settlement on delivering remaining COVID-19 vaccine doses by the British drugmaker and also ended pending litigation in Brussels. The settlement clears a major overhang for AstraZeneca, whose cheap and easily transportable vaccine has faced several setbacks, including the …

A stunned US East Coast woke to a rising death toll, surging rivers and destruction after the remnants of Hurricane Ida walloped the region with record-breaking rain, filling low-lying apartments with water and turning roads into car-swallowing canals. At least 12 people died in New York City in flooding caused …

A new study of breakthrough Covid-19 infections finds that vaccines not only reduce the risk of severe disease and hospitalization, but can lower the odds of having long-term Covid-19 symptoms too. “We found that the odds of having symptoms for 28 days or more after post-vaccination infection were approximately halved …

Eight people suffocated to death when police in Burkina Faso used tear gas against unauthorised gold miners at Nordgold’s Bissa mine, a prosecutor said on Thursday. About 40 were on site on Wednesday when the police fired tear gas, which “caused panic and the suffocation of the clandestine gold miners”, …

Twelve people died and 4,400 fell sick in the southern Democratic Republic of Congo following a tailings leak from the Catoca diamond mine in Angola in July, Congo’s environment minister said on Thursday. Following a visit to Kasai province, where the Tshikapa river turned red and many fish died, environment …

Western Union Co is resuming money-transfer services to Afghanistan, a senior executive told Reuters on Thursday, a decision he said was in line with a US push to allow humanitarian activity to continue after the Taliban’s takeover. The world’s largest money-transfer firm and MoneyGram International Inc, another global remittance provider, …

Poland declared a state of emergency in two regions bordering Belarus on Thursday following a surge of illegal migration that Warsaw has blamed on its neighbour. Poland and the European Union have accused Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko of encouraging hundreds of migrants to cross into Polish territory to put pressure …

The US reportedly used a secret CIA compound to rescue Americans, along with members of elite Afghan special forces, amid the chaos in and around the Kabul airport. The compound, known as the Eagle Base and located less than three miles north of the Hamid Karzai International Airport in Kabul, …

Oil prices edged higher on Thursday, supported by a sharp decline in U.S. crude stocks and a weaker dollar, though gains were capped by an OPEC+ decision to stick to its policy of gradually increasing output. Brent crude was up 45 cents, or 0.6%, at $72.04 a barrel by 1101 …

Divided court denies emergency request for an injunction barring enforcement of the most restrictive abortion measure since 1973. The Supreme Court of the United States has refused to block a Texas law banning abortion after six weeks of pregnancy. The judges voted 5-4 early on Thursday to deny an emergency …

The Ministry of Planning announced, on Thursday, that it will conduct a new survey of unemployment in Iraq. Ministry spokesperson Abdul-Zahra Al-Hindawi said in an interview, “It is hoped that a new survey of unemployment in Iraq will be conducted soon,” noting that “the Ministry is still dependent on previous …

A British-born man who was a member of a team of Islamic State terrorists in Syria nicknamed “The Beatles” accused of beheading American hostages was due to plead guilty on Thursday to U.S. criminal charges, according to a federal court record. A docket entry for the U.S. District Court in …