A former Canadian government official has been extradited to the United States to face criminal charges alleging he deployed ransomware known as "NetWalker" to target companies, municipalities, hospitals and law enforcement in US during the height of the Covid-19 pandemic.

The World Health Organization advised Ukraine to destroy high-threat pathogens housed in the country's public health laboratories to prevent "any potential spills" that would spread disease among the population, the agency told Reuters on Thursday.

Islamic State confirmed on Thursday the death of its leader Abu Ibrahim Al-hashemi Al-Quraishi and its spokesperson Abu Hamza Al-Quraishi, and announced Abu Al-Hassan Al-hashemi Al-Quraishi as its new chief.

Russian President Vladimir Putin said yesterday Western sanctions on Moscow for its actions in Ukraine could send global food prices soaring, as Russia was one of the world’s main producers of fertiliser, which is essential to global supply chains.

South Africa is the most unequal country in the world, with race playing a determining factor in a society where 10 percent of the population owns more than 80 percent of the wealth, a World Bank report said Wednesday.

Iran yesterday accused the United States of working to “complicate” efforts to restore a 2015 nuclear deal, after new Russian demands linked to its invasion of Ukraine raised concerns of further delays.

A summit between US President Joe Biden and leaders of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (Asean) due to be held later this month has been postponed and organisers will seek a new date, Cambodia’s foreign minister told Reuters on Wednesday.

Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said yesterday he did not believe the conflict in Ukraine would spiral into a nuclear war but cautioned the United States and Europe that Moscow never again wanted to be dependent on the West.

China’s censors, who quietly determine what can be discussed on the country’s buzzing social media platforms, are silencing views of citizens protesting against Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

Russia’s top diplomat Sergei Lavrov claims the hospital was a base for Ukrainian Azov Battalion and “other radicals” and slams the West for supplying them with “deadly weapons”.

Russia’s massive assault on Ukraine is providing Western intelligence agencies and analysts with a rare live opportunity to verify their assessments of the Russian army’s strengths and weaknesses in the field.

The Pentagon on Wednesday conclusively rejected as too “high risk” a plan to transfer fighter jets from Poland to Kyiv to battle Russian forces, pouring cold water for now on Ukraine’s bid for more firepower in the skies.

Russian firms have encountered problems in securing financing for April contracts to sell crude and oil products, but the situation can be resolved, Deputy Prime Minister Alexander Novak was quoted as saying by the Interfax news agency on Thursday.

China has refused to supply Russian airlines with aircraft parts, an official at Russia's aviation authority was quoted by Russian news agencies as saying on Thursday, after Boeing (BA.N) and Airbus (AIR.PA) halted supply of components.

The body of slain sailor Hadisur Rahman is in the process of being brought from Ukraine to Bangladesh via Romania and could reach Romania tomorrow, Bangladesh Ambassador to Poland, Sultana Laila, told The Daily Star today.

Ukraine said on Thursday Moscow had snubbed its plea for humanitarian access to rescue hundreds of thousands of civilians trapped under bombardment, as the opposing sides yielded nothing at the highest level talks since the Russian invasion began.

Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan said on Wednesday he believed his Israeli counterpart's visit will be a turning point in long-strained relations between the regional powers, and that Ankara was ready for cooperate in the energy sector.

Ukrainian's president accused Russia of carrying out genocide after officials said Russian aircraft bombed a children's hospital on Wednesday, burying patients in rubble despite a ceasefire deal for people to flee the besieged city of Mariupol.

The first person to receive a heart transplant from a pig has died, two months after the groundbreaking experiment, the Maryland hospital that performed the surgery announced Wednesday.

A Russian airstrike devastated a maternity hospital Wednesday in the besieged port city of Mariupol and wounded at least 17 people, Ukrainian officials said, amid growing warnings from the West that Moscow’s invasion is about to take a more brutal and indiscriminate turn.