President Joe Biden on Tuesday warned that if the United States ended up in a “real shooting war” with a “major power” it could be the result of a significant cyber attack on the country, highlighting what Washington sees as growing threats posed by Russia and China. 

Electronic cigarettes and similar devices are dangerous to health and must be regulated to curb the tobacco industry’s “criminal” tactics to get young people hooked on nicotine, the World Health Organization warned Tuesday.

Four Democratic lawmakers in Washington on Monday suggested blacklisting or imposing sanctions against the Israeli firm NSO Group that licensed spyware used by governments to hack the smartphones of journalists, human rights activists and business executives.

Facebook on Monday said it was combining specialists from across its hardware, gaming and virtual reality units to build an immersive digital world known as the “metaverse.”

President Joe Biden declared US relations with Iraq would enter a new phase with American troops exiting combat operations in the country by year-end as he held talks with Prime Minister Mustafa al-Kadhemi.

Thousands of US firefighters were battling a blaze in California yesterday that has grown so big it is generating its own weather system, with authorities warning conditions could worsen.

The United Nations warned yesterday that Afghanistan could see the highest number of civilian deaths in more than a decade if the Taliban’s offensives across the country are not halted.

A lagoon in Argentina’s southern Patagonia region has turned bright pink in a striking, but frightful phenomenon experts and activists blame on pollution by a chemical used to preserve prawns for export.

About 60 Cubans have been prosecuted so far for participating in unprecedented demonstrations against the government earlier this month, a senior official said Saturday.

Another presidential candidate was arrested in Nicaragua on Saturday, police said -- the seventh potential contender detained by Daniel Ortega’s government in the lead-up to elections on November 7.

President Joe Biden plans to nominate Caroline Kennedy, daughter of the late President John F Kennedy, as US ambassador to Australia, CNN reported on

The United States and Russia will hold high-level talks next week in the second bid in as many months to encourage stability in the tense relationship, officials said Friday. 

Elon Musk’s private rocket company SpaceX was awarded a $178 million launch services contract for Nasa’s first mission focusing on Jupiter’s icy moon Europa and whether it may host conditions suitable for life, the space agency said on Friday. 

Afghan authorities yesterday imposed a night-time curfew across 31 of the country’s 34 provinces to curb surging violence unleashed by a sweeping Taliban offensive in recent months, the interior ministry said. 

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken will travel next week to India, an important partner in US efforts to counter China and in vaccine diplomacy that is hobbled by its own Covid-19 crisis. 

The United States imposed sanctions on Cuba’s defense minister and a special forces unit Thursday for repressing peaceful protests, a step President Joe Biden warned is “just the beginning” of punitive measures against Havana.

Ecuador on Thursday declared a state of emergency in its penitentiary system after riots at two prisons left 22 dead and 57 wounded. 

About 100 of the 613 US athletes descending on Tokyo for the Olympics are unvaccinated, the US Olympic and Paralympic Committee’s medical chief said hours before Friday night’s opening ceremony.

Two shootings in downtown Milwaukee as crowds celebrated the Milwaukee Bucks first NBA championship in 50 years left three people wounded, police said.

US life expectancy fell by a year and a half in 2020, the largest one-year decline since World War II, public health officials said.