World News

An aircraft carrier strike group led by the USS Nimitz is conducting operations in the disputed South China Sea, including practice strike missions by aircraft, the Navy disclosed Friday.

Authorities in Nepal confirmed Sunday that at least 68 people died after a regional passenger plane with 72 aboard crashed into a gorge while landing at a newly opened airport in the resort town of Pokhara.

Pope Francis urged prayers Sunday for those suffering in wartorn Ukraine on a day that authorities confirmed that at least 14 people were killed and 64 injured at an apartment block hit during a wave of Russian missile attacks across the country. The strikes came shortly after Moscow claimed victory in one of the war’s most brutal battles over a salt mine town in eastern Ukraine.

A billionaire, a general, and an academic were favorites going into the first round of the Czech presidential election held Friday and Saturday after a court acquitted one of the candidates for financial wrongdoing with European Union funds. The contenders seek to replace Milos Zeman, the retiring heavyweight of the country’s post-communist era.

Russian mercenaries say they have found the body of one of two British voluntary aid workers reported missing in eastern wartorn Ukraine. The announcement came as Western intelligence sources said heavy fighting continued around the eastern Ukrainian town of Soledar, where Kyiv claims it killed more than 100 Russian soldiers in a single strike.

The Netherlands entered the New Year with an intense debate about slavery after Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte apologized for what he called a “crime against humanity.” Rutte’s historic remarks came ahead of the 150th anniversary of liberation from slavery, despite warnings that not everyone is pleased with the apology for centuries of the slave trade in this seafaring nation.

Ukraine defied claims by Russian mercenaries that they seized an eastern Ukrainian town on Wednesday. The capture of Soledar would have been the first Russian military victory in months. But as the day progressed, the Kremlin and Kyiv acknowledged heavy battles in the troubled region.

Hungary’s foreign minister on Thursday pledged $2 million to the renovation of 30 Christian churches in Lebanon to “save Christians” and prevent “illegal migration.”

A key committee of the World Health Organization is moving ahead with plans to demand vaccine passports for global travel.

Iran’s navy is set to station warships for the first time in the Panama Canal, a critical trade route in America’s backyard that has never before seen an Iranian military presence.

Officials say at least six people have been injured in a knife attack at one of the world’s busiest train stations in Paris, France.

Russian mercenaries say they have retaken a contested Ukrainian town in the first Russian military victory in months after Moscow suffered significant setbacks.

Two top Brazilian security officials faced detention Tuesday after a senior judge on Brazil’s Supreme Court ordered their arrests over attacks on key government buildings.

NATO chief Jens Stoltenberg has called on Turkey to lift its block against Sweden’s accession to the transatlantic alliance, after Stockholm acknowledged it cannot meet Ankara’s demands.

The U.S. Navy said Tuesday that it seized over 2,100 assault rifles from a fishing vessel in the Gulf of Oman that it believes came from Iran and were meant for the Iranian-backed Houthi rebels in Yemen.

A Syriac Catholic monk and priest who was kidnapped in Syria by militants of the Islamic State (IS) group has been elected Archbishop of Homs, the Vatican confirmed Tuesday.

At least 17 people have been killed in Peru amid clashes between supporters of former left-wing President Pedro Castillo, who was arrested for sedition and high treason in December, and government security forces backing new president Dina Boularte, BBC News

Ignoring Western condemnation of its actions, Iran’s judiciary has sentenced three more anti-government protesters to death on charges of “waging war on God,” Reuters reports. Iran’s Islamic extremist regime has already executed four people involved in nationwide protests triggered by the death in custody of Mahsa Amini, a young woman who had been arrested for not wearing her hijab correctly in September last year.

Brazil’s former president and conservative rightwing leader Jair Bolsonaro has condemned supporters who invaded and ransacked the government’s top institutions on Sunday.

A remote region in Australia’s outback has been hit by “one-in-100-year” floods which have forced military aircraft to evacuate residents.