Russia ordered the killing in broad daylight in a Berlin park of a former Chechen militant, a German court found on Wednesday, sentencing the agent who carried out the 2019 act of “state terrorism” to life imprisonment. Georgian citizen Tornike Khangoshvili was killed with three shots from a Glock pistol …

A NASA spacecraft became the first to “touch the sun,” scientists announced Tuesday — a long-awaited milestone and a potential giant leap in understanding the sun’s influence on the solar system. The Parker Solar Probe successfully flew through the sun’s corona, or upper atmosphere, in April to sample particles and …

The Argentina striker Sergio Aguero, who starred at Manchester City for a decade, on Wednesday announced his retirement from football at an emotional press conference, just over a month after he was diagnosed with a heart problem. “I have decided to stop playing professional football. It is a very hard …

Four migrants from Syria and Iraq were rescued from a swamp in Poland near the border with Belarus late on Tuesday in a life-or-death operation as bitter winter conditions set in, security services said. While the number of migrants trying to cross into the European Union from Belarus has decreased …

Russia and China should stand firm in rejecting Western interference and defending each other’s security interests, presidents Vladimir Putin and Xi Jinping agreed in a video call on Wednesday. Their conversation, eight days after Putin spoke to U.S. President Joe Biden in a similar format, underscored how shared hostility to …

Lithuania’s diplomatic delegation to China left the country on Wednesday in a hastily arranged exit, diplomatic sources said, as relations soured further over Taiwan, which opened a de facto embassy in Vilnius last month. Beijing, which has stepped up pressure on countries to sever relations with the island, downgraded diplomatic …

There is a “very high” risk the Omicron variant of COVID-19 will become dominant in Europe by early next year and lead to a growing number of hospital admissions and deaths, the European Union’s public health body said on Wednesday. The European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control (ECDC) said …

UNESCO on Tuesday added Arabic calligraphy, a key tradition in the Arab and Islamic worlds, to its Intangible Cultural Heritage list. A total of 16 Muslim-majority countries, led by Saudi Arabia, presented the nomination to the UN Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organisation, which announced the listing on Twitter. “Arabic calligraphy …

Ukraine’s parliament approved on Tuesday a draft law that allows foreign troops to take part in military exercises on the territory of the former Soviet republic in 2022, a move likely to infuriate Russia. According to the draft law, submitted by Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy, Ukraine plans to hold 10 …

Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte has officially withdrawn his candidacy for senator in Halalan 2022, local media reported, citing Comelec spokesperson James Jimenez. Duterte withdrew his candidacy on Tuesday hours after Senator Christopher “Bong” Go pulled out of the presidential race, as per the report.

Syarhei Tsikhanouski, the husband of Belarus’s opposition leader, was sentenced to 18 years in jail on Tuesday for organising mass unrest and inciting social hatred, according to the official Belta news agency. Alongside him, five supporters were tried and sentenced to prison terms ranging from 14 to 16 years. Tsikhanouski, …

Two police officers and a suspected attacker have been killed in bomb blasts at an airport in northeastern Colombia near the border with Venezuela. The suspected attacker managed to cross a wire fence to access the runaway at the Camilo Daza International Airport in the border city of Cucuta, Colombian …

A third of Americans have been forced to avoid necessary medical treatments due to the dire economic situation in the country, according to a new survey. The latest survey showed that 30 percent of participants said they had ruled out medical treatment due to the high costs of health care …

The UN’s food agency has warned that a failing economy could plunge Afghanistan into catastrophe next year. A spokesperson for the World Food Programme (WFP) said during a briefing in the Swiss city of Geneva on Tuesday that Afghanistan’s fragile economy was on the brink of collapse. “The spiraling economic …

A yet-to-be-identified disease has killed at least 89 people in Fangak in the South Sudan’s state of Jonglei, a World Health Organization (WHO) official told the BBC. The mysterious deaths happened in an area recently hit by flooding. Local health officials have ruled out cholera as the cause, the British …

British lawmakers will vote Tuesday on whether to approve new restrictions to curb the spread of the omicron variant of coronavirus — and many will have more than public health on their minds when they say yes or no. The votes are also an opportunity to express unhappiness with embattled …

Pfizer said Tuesday that its experimental COVID-19 pill appears effective against the omicron variant. The company also said full results of its 2,250-person study confirmed the pill’s promising early results against the virus: The drug reduced combined hospitalizations and deaths by about 89 percent among high-risk adults when taken shortly …

Russian President Vladimir Putin told his Finnish counterpart Sauli Niinisto on Tuesday that he wants “immediate” talks with the United States and NATO over security guarantees, the Kremlin said, as tensions mount over Ukraine. Putin “reiterated the need to immediately launch negotiations with the United States and NATO in order …

At least 50 people were killed when a fuel truck exploded in a street in Haiti’s second-largest city Cap-Haitien during the night, the city mayor said on Tuesday. The local hospital was stretched trying to treat the many injured, Mayor Pierre Yvrose told Reuters. “So far the situation is critical …

A joint force from al-Hashed al-Shaabi (Popular Mobilization Forces-PMF) Operations Command in Diyala and Diyala’s Operations Command of the Iraqi army launched a large-scale military operation to pursue ISIS remnants in the Hemrin mountains area. The Commander of the PMF Operations in Diyala, Taleb al-Mousawi, said that the operation covers …