World News

Iran has begun construction on a site at its underground nuclear facility at Fordo amid tensions with the US over its atomic program, satellite photos obtained Friday by The Associated Press show.

Authorities in several European countries banned flights from Britain on Sunday amid mounting fears over an infectious new strain of COVID-19.

Russia says it will return an Orthodox Church icon, presented to the Russian foreign minister in Bosnia-Herzegovina where local elections were held in a strategic city on Sunday. The announcement came after the gift triggered a protest from Ukraine.

China has detained a prominent journalist amid an intensified clampdown by the ruling Communist authorities on independent reporting.

U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo has blamed Russia for one of the largest cyberattacks on American government agencies and private companies in recent memory. Russia has denied involvement in the scandal.

A monitoring group reported Tuesday that, while there remains work to be done, Saudi Arabia has significantly reduced anti-Semitic and anti-Zionist content in its school books for the coming year, the Times of Israel reports. The Jerusalem-based Institute for Monitoring Peace and Cultural Tolerance in School Education (IMPACT-se) published its report amid speculation that Saudi Arabia, a long-time enemy of Israel, may follow Bahrain, Sudan, and the United Arab Emirates in normalizing relations with the Jewish State.

Authorities in North Korea have publicly executed the owner of a fishing fleet for secretly listening to broadcasts by U.S.-funded Radio Free Asia (RFA) and other media outlets, Worthy News learned Friday.

Nigeria’s army said Friday it had rescued all 344 schoolboys who were kidnapped a week earlier by Islamic militants in the nation’s troubled northwest.

An explosion rocked a religious gathering in eastern Afghanistan, killing 15 children and injuring some 20 people, police and officials confirmed.

Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei has appeared in public, countering unconfirmed publicized claims that his health had significantly deteriorated, the Times of Israel reports. At a meeting in Tehran Wednesday, Khamenei addressed the family of Iranian Revolutionary Guards Gen. Qassem Soleimani, who was assassinated in a US drone strike this year, and senior Iranian military leaders.

Britain and the European Union provided sober updates Thursday on the state of post-Brexit trade discussions, with only two weeks to go before a potentially chaotic split.

An arms race between Washington and Moscow “has already begun,” according to Russian President Vladimir Putin.

A leaked database of nearly 2 million Communist Party members has revealed the lengths to which China’s leaders have gone to place operatives in strategic positions in government and business around the world.

A Paris court has found 14 people guilty of involvement in a series of deadly Islamist terror attacks that shook the nation and much of Europe.

The UK and Mexico signed a continuity agreement Tuesday that will permit trade between them to continue on current terms after Britain leaves the European Union’s common trade policy on December 31, Reuters reports.

The International Criminal Court has refused calls to investigate alleged Chinese government oppression of Uighur Muslims, saying it has no jurisdiction to do so because China is not a signatory to the ICC, VOA reports. The ICC announced its decision in a report published by the office of prosecutor Fatou Bensouda on December 14.

As the U.S. reels from revelations that Russian hackers infiltrated sensitive American computer networks, a new report finds that Moscow in recent years built up and repositioned military forces in a key region that borders countries in Eastern Europe.

Hungary has adopted an amendment to its constitution that effectively bans the adoption of children by same-sex couples. The legislation also loosens oversight of public funds despite corruption concerns and detailed rules governing war times.

Governments in several European countries have tightened coronavirus restrictions ahead of Christmas despite mounting protests and upcoming vaccines.

With just over two weeks to the end-of-year deadline, EU chief negotiator Michel Barnier said Monday it is still possible a post-Brexit trade deal could be struck between Britain and the European Union, Deutsche Welle reports.