Researchers estimate there are significantly more species of trees on Earth than currently known, with more than 9,200 species yet to be

Discarded syringes, used test kits and old vaccine bottles from the Covid-19 pandemic have piled up to create tens of thousands of tonnes of

Increased instability in Myanmar since a military coup a year ago has seen a surge in narcotics production there and trafficking into Southeast

Russia’s embassy in Washington yesterday said that Moscow will not back down in the face of US sanctions threats over Ukraine, ahead of a phone call between the top US and Russian diplomats.

Amnesty International yesterday accused Israel of subjecting Palestinians to a system of apartheid founded on policies of “segregation, dispossession and exclusion” that it said amounted to crimes against humanity.

Iran has executed two gay men who were convicted on charges of sodomy and spent six years on death row, a rights group reported.

The World Health Organization says overuse of gloves, “moon suits” and the use of billions of masks and vaccination syringes to help prevent the spread of the coronavirus have spurred a huge glut of health care waste worldwide.

Amnesty International has joined Human Rights Watch and the Israeli rights group B’Tselem in accusing Israel of apartheid — both within its borders and in the occupied territories.

A pregnant New Zealand journalist who was stranded in Afghanistan by her home country’s Covid-19 border policy said today she will return home after NZ government offered her a pathway back.

The United States, Britain and Canada on Monday imposed sanctions against additional officials in Myanmar, in measures timed to mark one year since the military seized power and plunged the country into chaos.

The New Zealand government has defended its strict quarantine system known as MIQ after Charlotte Bellis, a pregnant New Zealand journalist, said that she had to turn to Taliban for help as her own country rejected her requests to get back there.

British nature broadcaster David Attenborough, the World Health Organization and Belarusian dissident Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya are among the nominees for this year’s Nobel Peace Prize after being backed by Norwegian lawmakers who have a track record of picking the winner.

The United States and Britain are prepared to punish Russian elites close to President Vladimir Putin with asset freezes and travel bans if Russia enters Ukraine, Washington and London said on Monday as tensions also spilled over at the United Nations.

The Russian and US foreign ministers are set to hold fresh talks today after a UN Security Council meeting on Ukraine, with Washington vowing to work with Western allies to beef up sanctions should Moscow decide to invade its neighbor.

The UN Security Council is scheduled to meet Monday for the first time on Russia’s troop buildup and threatening actions against Ukraine at the request of the United States, and all key players are expected to square off in public over the possibility of a Russian invasion and its global impact.

Russia said yesterday it wants “mutually respectful” relations with the United States and denied posing a threat to Ukraine, as the UK said it was preparing fresh sanctions against Moscow.

Israel’s President Isaac Herzog started his first visit to the United Arab Emirates yesterday, the latest high-profile diplomatic trip since the countries normalised ties.

The highly transmissible Omicron variant of the SARS-CoV-2 virus - the most common form of which is known as BA.1 - now accounts for nearly all of the coronavirus infections globally, although dramatic surges in Covid cases have already peaked in some countries.

A military court in Democratic Republic of Congo Saturday sentenced 51 people to death, several in absentia, in a mass trial over the 2017 murder of two UN experts in a troubled central region.

Blinding snow whipped up by powerful winds pummeled the eastern United States into yesterday’s early hours, as one of the strongest winter storms in years triggered transport chaos and power outages across a region of some 70 million people.