World News

A Russian court has jailed the nation’s most prominent Kremlin critic Alexei Navalny for 30 days despite several countries’ calls to release him immediately. The decision came shortly after Navalny was detained following his return from Germany, where he received medical treatment for nerve agent poisoning.

German regional authorities are opening detention centers in which to hold people who repeatedly refuse to quarantine after exposure to COVID-19, the Daily Mail reported Monday. Legal experts have said state governments are authorized to detain people for breaking quarantine rules under the Disease Protection Act, passed by the German Bundestag last March.

For the second time in as many weeks, the Air Force has flown B-52 bombers over the Middle East in what are known as “presence patrols,” officials said Sunday.

Germany and France attacked Twitter Inc. and Facebook Inc. after U.S. President Donald Trump was shut off from the social media platforms, in an extension of Europe’s battle with big tech.

US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo on Friday imposed sanctions on three of his primary targets — China, Iran and Cuba — in a last-minute push aimed in part at boxing in President-elect Joe Biden.

Russia said Friday it will withdraw from an international treaty allowing observation flights over military facilities following the U.S. exit from the pact.

Russia’s prominent Kremlin critic Alexei Navalny was detained at a Moscow airport Sunday after returning from Germany, where he received medical treatment for nerve agent poisoning.

European powers urged Iran to observe a nuclear deal after the Islamic nation test-fired long-range missiles and planned uranium metal production.

Indonesian rescuers retrieved more bodies of a massive earthquake that killed scores of people in a nation already coping with a string of disasters.

Centrist Armin Laschet has pledged to heal divisions after being elected to lead Angela Merkel’s Christian Democrats (CDU) and perhaps succeed her as Germany’s chancellor.

Health authorities in Norway confirmed Saturday that 23 people died within days of receiving their first dose of Pfizer-BioNTech coronavirus vaccine.

The European Union has suspended some 88 million euros ($107 million) in support of Ethiopia, citing reports of ethnic-targeted killings and possible war crimes in the Tigray region.

Europe searched for effective leadership Saturday after the collapse of several governments and an expected tough election for Germany’s next chancellor.

Several European countries were without governments Friday after Cabinets collapsed over abuse of power and corruption charges.

Iran has recently sent its Houthi allies in Yemen unmanned aircraft loaded with explosives known as “suicide drones,” which can reach and operate against a variety of targets including Israel, American outlet Newsweek reported.

China has rapidly expanded its nuclear and conventional missile forces over the past decade, nearly tripling its ballistic missile production capability and deploying a wide array of nuclear and conventional missile systems, according to an intelligence assessment released by the State Department.

The United States on Wednesday blacklisted two Iranian foundations controlled by Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, and their subsidies, saying the institutions enabled Iran’s elite to sustain a “corrupt” system of ownership over large parts of the economy.

Iran may have moved significantly closer to actually building a nuclear weapon, the Wall Street Journal reports. The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) said in a confidential report Wednesday that Tehran has started work on an assembly line for producing a central component of nuclear warheads.

Both the US and Russia have sent military reinforcement to Syria in recent days, in separate moves apparently timed to coincide with the inauguration of President-Elect Joe Biden on January 20, AMN reports.

China has staged military activity near Taiwan ahead of a Jan. 13 official visit to Taipei by US Ambassador to the United Nations, Kelly Craft, Just the News reports.