Oil rebounds 

Oil rebounded on Thursday after posting the biggest two-day loss for the start of a year in three decades with the shutdown of a US fuel pipeline providing support, though economic concerns capped gains.
5 January 2023

Belarus Nobel Prize winner Bialiatski goes on trial

Jailed Nobel Prize winner Ales Bialiatski went on trial in Minsk yesterday in what supporters see as a bid to clamp down on Viasna, Belarus’s top rights group which he founded. Bialiatski, who was co-awarded last year’s Nobel Peace Prize, founded Viasna
5 January 2023

Iran closes French institute to protest Khamenei cartoons

Iran yesterday announced the closure of a Tehran-based French Institute for Research in protest against cartoons of the Islamic republic’s supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei published by French satirical weekly Charlie Hebdo. The magazine printed
5 January 2023

German MPs, minister to visit Taiwan

Germany will send a high-ranking parliamentary delegation to Taiwan next week, an MP told AFP yesterday, followed by the first ministerial visit in two decades in moves certain to spark tensions with China. Deputies from the pro-business Free Democratic
5 January 2023

EVs make up 80 percent of new car sales in Norway

Electric vehicles accounted for almost four out of every five new car registrations in Norway last year, setting a new record, according to figures released Monday.
3 January 2023

Gazans risk death at sea dreaming of life in Europe

Younis al-Shaer left Gaza dreaming of a better life in Europe, only to return to the Palestinian enclave in a coffin.
3 January 2023

I want my father, brother back Says Prince Harry

Britain’s Prince Harry said his troubled relationship with the royal family “never needed to be this way” and he wants to get his father King Charles and his brother “back”, in an excerpt from an interview with broadcaster ITV released on Monday.
3 January 2023

Russian gas exports outside ex-Soviet states fell 45.5pc in 2022

Russian gas exports to countries outside a group of former Soviet republics plunged by 45.5 percent in 2022, figures from gas giant Gazprom showed yesterday.
2 January 2023

Canada bans most foreigners from buying homes

A ban on foreigners buying residential property in Canada took effect on Sunday, aiming to make more homes available to locals facing a housing crunch.
2 January 2023

Armed attack on Mexican prison kills 14

Gunmen attacked a prison in the northern Mexican city of Ciudad Juarez on Sunday, leaving 14 people dead and allowing 24 inmates to escape, the Chihuahua state prosecutors’ office said.
2 January 2023

Croatia switches to euro, enters borderless Europe club

Croatia on Sunday switched to the euro and entered Europe's passport-free zone -- two major milestones for the country after joining the EU nearly a decade ago.
1 January 2023

Former pope Benedict XVI passes away

Former pope Benedict XVI has died at the age of 95, the Vatican announced yesterday, almost a decade after he became the first pontiff to resign in six centuries.
31 December 2022

13 Moroccans drown trying to reach Spanish

The bodies of 13 Moroccans were recovered after their boat sank off the country's southern coast while attempting to reach Spain's Canary Islands, Moroccan media reported.
31 December 2022

Former Pope Benedict dies aged 95

Former Pope Benedict, who in 2013 became the first pontiff in 600 years to resign, died on Saturday aged 95 in a secluded monastery in the Vatican where he had lived since stepping down, a spokesman for the Holy See said.
31 December 2022

Nearly 1,700 journos killed in 20yrs: RSF

Nearly 1,700 journalists have been killed worldwide over the past 20 years, an average of more than 80 a year, according to an analysis published by Reporters Without Borders.
30 December 2022

Ramp up Russia-China military cooperation

Russian leader Vladimir Putin yesterday told Chinese President Xi Jinping he was keen to ramp up military cooperation and hailed the two countries’ efforts to counter Western influence.
30 December 2022

No New Year’s greetings for US, France, Germany: Kremlin

US President Joe Biden, France’s Emmanuel Macron and German Chancellor Olaf Scholz will not be receiving New Year’s greetings from Russian leader Vladimir Putin, the Kremlin said yesterday.
30 December 2022

Putin, Xi to speak today

Russian President Vladimir Putin will hold talks by video link with Chinese leader Xi Jinping today, the Kremlin said, as Russia seeks to bolster
29 December 2022

Germany shrugs off Russia's oil export ban

Germany on Wednesday shrugged off Russia's ban on oil sales to countries and companies that comply with a price cap agreed by Western allies, saying it has "no practical significance".
28 December 2022

Fighting rages in east Ukraine

Russian forces shelled and bombed towns and cities in eastern and southern Ukraine yesterday, a day after Russia’s foreign minister said Kyiv must accept Moscow’s demands for ending the war or else suffer defeat on the battlefield.
27 December 2022