US Secretary of State Antony Blinken spoke with Saudi Foreign Minister Faisal bin Farhan Al Saud on Monday and repeated a call for progress on human rights.

Ethiopian Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed yesterday issued a call for all eligible civilians to join the armed forces as fighting rages in multiple regions of Africa’s second most populous nation.

US officials vowed Monday to review classified documents related to the September 11, 2001 terror attacks to see which could be made public -- a recurring demand of some victims’ relatives.

Guinea confirmed a case of Marburg disease, the World Health Organization said on Monday, the first recorded in West Africa of the lethal virus that’s related to Ebola and, like Covid-19, passed from animal hosts to humans.

Queen Elizabeth II’s second son, Prince Andrew, was sued in a New York court on Monday for alleged sexual abuse of a woman who says she was “lent out” for underage sex by late US financier Jeffrey Epstein.

After spending hundreds of hours in virtual meetings to complete this week’s major UN climate report, scientists Piers Forster and Joeri Rogelj celebrated in a way their peers could not: by hugging. 

Saudi Arabia announced the arrest of 207 employees across about a dozen government ministries in the latest sweep by an anti-corruption body empowered by Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman. 

A Brazilian indigenous organization asked the International Criminal Court (ICC) Monday to investigate President Jair Bolsonaro for “genocide” and “ecocide,” accusing him of persecuting native peoples and destroying their homelands.

Gov. Andrew Cuomo announced his resignation Tuesday over a barrage of sexual harassment allegations in a fall from grace a year after he was widely hailed nationally for his detailed daily briefings and leadership during some of the darkest days of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Calling for “massive” pressure to fight climate change after yesterday’s dire report by a UN science panel, activist Greta Thunberg said she plans to go to this year’s global climate conference in Glasgow, Scotland, after all.

“Today’s report makes for sobering reading, and it is clear that the next decade is going to be pivotal to securing the future of our planet.” BRITISH PRIME MINISTER BORIS JOHNSON

The Taliban seized a sixth Afghan provincial capital yesterday following a weekend blitz across the north that saw urban centres fall in quick succession and the government struggle to keep the militants at bay.

Earth’s average surface temperature is projected to hit 1.5 or 1.6 degrees Celsius above preindustrial levels around 2030 in all five of the greenhouse gas emissions scenarios  -- ranging from highly optimistic to reckless -- considered by the report.

Suspected jihadists massacred more than 40 civilians in northern Mali and killed 12 troops in an ambush in neighbouring Burkina Faso, officials said yesterday, highlighting the security crisis gripping the two fragile states.

A top aide to New York governor Andrew Cuomo resigned Sunday, US media reported, as the net closed further around a once-influential politician now facing the possibility of criminal charges over claims he sexually harassed 11 former and current state employees.

Some 40 Hungarian husbands, with their wives on their backs, clambered over rough terrain on Saturday in the nation’s second wife-carrying contest.

Iran’s new President Ebrahim Raisi yesterday told his French counterpart Emmanuel Macron that negotiations with world powers to revive the 2015 nuclear deal must guarantee Tehran’s “rights”.

The monstrous Dixie Fire in northern California has grown to become the second-largest wildfire in state history, authorities said Sunday, with three more people reported missing and thousands fleeing the advancing flames.

Britain imposed sanctions on Belarus's potash and petroleum product exports on Monday in an attempt to put pressure on President Alexander Lukashenko, who swiftly retorted that London should "choke on" the new measures.

At least 12 soldiers were killed in an attack in northwestern Burkina Faso on Sunday and seven others are missing, three security sources said.