World News

The Taiwan defense ministry announced Saturday that Chinese military aircraft and vessels are heading for the island days after a $500 million arms deal was approved between the U.S. and Taiwan, according to the Associated Press.

The Chinese military is building sophisticated biological weapons and small-scale electronic tools made with nanotechnology that could be used in covert warfare, a major study warns.

Romania’s Prime Minister Marcel Ciolacu announced late Saturday that patients will be rushed to hospitals in Italy and Belgium after two explosions at a liquified petroleum gas (LPG) station close to Bucharest caused dozens of causalities. Authorities said at least 46 people were injured, and one person died in the blasts in the town of Crevedia near the Romanian capital.

Russia’s Wagner mercenaries group leader Yevgeny Prigozhin was likely assassinated by a bomb that exploded on the plane he was traveling in on Wednesday, according to briefings from U.S. officials.

Iran and Saudi Arabia were among six countries set to join Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa in the BRICS economic bloc from next year, the bloc announced Thursday, a move that will likely throw more scrutiny on Beijing’s political influence in the Persian Gulf.

The Biden administration has approved a $500 million arms sale to Taiwan as it ramps up military assistance to the island despite fervent objections from China.

Japan started releasing treated radioactive water from the wrecked Fukushima nuclear power plant into the Pacific Ocean on Thursday, a polarising move that prompted China to announce an immediate blanket ban on all aquatic products from Japan.

Russian President Vladimir Putin broke his silence late Thursday and confirmed the death of Wagner mercenary group leader Yevgeny Prigozhin in a plane crash that also killed all nine other people on board.

The government of Kenya on Friday has finally deregistered the ministry of so-called pastor Paul Nthenge Mackenzie after the cult leader forced more than 400 members of his congregation to starve themselves to death in order to meet Jesus, Religion News Service (RNS) reports. The Kenyan government also banned four other churches on the grounds they were promoting religious extremism.

Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelensky has denied Ukrainian involvement in the reported death of Russia’s Wagner mercenary group boss Yevgeny Prigozhin in a plane crash near Moscow. He spoke after Wagner vowed revenge over the death of its leader, who led a brief mutiny in June that shook Russia’s military establishment.

A unit of Russia’s nuclear power company Rosatom has begun building new reactors for Hungary’s only nuclear power plant in defiance of European Union criticism.

Russia’s Wagner mercenary group leader Yevgeny Prigozhin, who led a short-lived uprising that challenged Russian President Vladimir Putin’s authority, has died in a plane crash near Moscow, Russian authorities confirmed.

India has become the first nation in known human history to successfully land near the Moon’s South Pole, just days after Russia’s space lander crashed into the area.

Pope Francis made a prayer appeal for war-torn Ukraine on Wednesday as authorities said three people were killed in Russian artillery fire near the eastern Ukrainian city of Lyman. The reported Russian strike came after Russian authorities accused Ukraine of hitting Moscow and other parts of the country.

Greece mourned Tuesday as eighteen bodies were found in a forested area in the north of the country hit by wildfires for the past four days.

Pakistan’s caretaker prime minister thanked all involved in the daring rescue of eight people trapped in a cable car dangling high above a valley in the north-western Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province.

Ancient DNA has been extracted from a 2,900-year-old clay brick, potentially unlocking new ways of studying life from generations gone by.

Russia and China will look to gain more political and economic ground in the developing world at a summit in South Africa this week, when an expected joint dose of anti-West grumbling from them may take on a sharper edge with a formal move to bring Saudi Arabia closer.

Iran’s Defense Ministry unveiled a drone on Tuesday resembling America’s armed MQ-9 Reaper, claiming that the aircraft is capable of staying airborne for 24 hours and has the range to reach the country’s archenemy Israel.

Officials from the US intelligence community have told the Washington Post that they believe Ukraine’s Spring counteroffensive against Russia’s invasion will not succeed in its principal aims. The new report by the Washington Post echoes a similar report by the Wall Street Journal published last month, according to which Western officials said they did not believe Ukraine had the necessary equipment or training to push back the Russian offensive.