The Covid-19 pandemic continued its retreat this week, with fewer deaths and the number of new cases decreasing in most regions of the world.

Donald Trump can be prosecuted for his role in the attack on the US Capitol by his supporters, a judge decided Friday, ruling that the Republican does not enjoy presidential immunity in this case.

At least seven people were killed in the central Somali town of Beledweyne on Saturday after a suicide bomber blew themselves up in a restaurant packed with local officials and politicians, witnesses said.

Russia's President Vladimir Putin launched exercises by strategic nuclear missile forces on Saturday and Washington said Russian troops massed near Ukraine's border were "poised to strike".

Separatist leaders in eastern Ukraine ordered a full military mobilization Saturday amid a spike of violence in the war-torn region and fears in the West that Russia might use the strife as a pretext for an invasion.

Ukraine's army on Saturday reported the first death of a soldier in weeks and accused Moscow-backed rebels of sharply escalating attacks that have redoubled fears of an imminent Russian invasion.

Twelve people are missing after a blaze swept through a ferry sailing from Greece to Italy early on Friday, Greek authorities said on Saturday, as firefighters battled to control the flames.

A federal judge has rejected efforts by former President Donald Trump to toss out conspiracy lawsuits filed by lawmakers and two Capitol police officers, saying in his ruling that the former president’s words “plausibly” led to the January 6, 2021, insurrection.

US President Joe Biden said Friday that he is “convinced” Russian President Vladimir Putin has decided to invade Ukraine, including an assault on the capital, as tensions spiked along the militarized border with attacks that the West called “false-flag” operations meant to establish a pretext for invasion.

The world must by 2030 slash $1.8 trillion in annual subsidies that destroy the environment, in order to “finance a net-zero global economy”, according to a study Thursday from business groups including one founded by tycoon Richard Branson. 

Israel’s military said its air defences fired at an unmanned aerial vehicle that had crossed into its airspace from Lebanon yesterday, the second such incident in as many days.

South Africa’s already alarming number of murders and rapes kept increasing at the end of 2021, the police minister announced yesterday.

Mali’s army-led government yesterday asked France to withdraw its troops from the Sahel state “without delay”, calling into question Paris’ plans to pull out over several months.

Germany yesterday accused Russia of endangering Europe’s security with demands that recall the Cold War, as Western leaders arrived for a Munich Security Conference set to be dominated by the Ukraine crisis.

Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas met with US House Speaker Nancy Pelosi in the Israeli-occupied West Bank Thursday for talks on reviving a two-state solution to the conflict, Abbas’s office said.

Mexican authorities on Thursday said they intercepted more than 1,000 migrants in the last 24 hours as the government tried to curb entry of undocumented travellers seeking to make their way to the United States.

A US judge ruled Thursday that former president Donald Trump and his eldest children must testify under oath in New York’s civil probe into alleged fraud at his family business.

Canadian police on Thursday began arresting leaders of the trucker-led protest that has choked the capital’s streets for three weeks and provoked the government into calling on rarely used emergency powers.

Fighting in northern Ethiopia’s Afar region has “engulfed” a camp housing refugees from neighbouring Eritrea, the UN said yesterday, killing five people and forcing thousands to flee.

Hong Kong parents rushed children as young as 3 years old to vaccination centres this week as the government lowered the age limit for the shots and the deaths of two toddlers exacerbated concerns in a city struggling to cope with a Covid-19 surge.