World News

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.

US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo announced Monday that Sudan has been officially removed from a list of countries that the US considers being state sponsors of terrorism, the Jerusalem Post reports. The 1993 US designation of Sudan as a terror sponsor was made during the brutal dictatorship of former president Omar al-Bashir, who was believed to be protecting terrorist groups, and who was finally ousted last year.

The United States has sanctioned Turkey, a NATO military alliance ally after it defiantly bought a Russian anti-aircraft missile system.

Russia has confirmed that it successfully test-fired four intercontinental ballistic missiles from a nuclear submarine on Saturday, the Washington Times reports.

The Chinese government has called on the new US administration to re-join the 2015 Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) Iran nuclear deal as soon as possible, Jerusalem Online reports. The Trump administration took the US out of the international deal in 2018.

The European Union wants to curb the market dominance of tech giants with regulations and multi-billion-dollar fines, according to draft legislation leaked late Monday.

The U.S. government stayed away from a weekend summit marking the fifth anniversary of the controversial Paris Agreement on climate change, where world leaders expressed worries about Earth’s future.

A significant leak shows that at least nearly two million Chinese Communist Party (CCP) members work worldwide, including US government agencies and the biggest companies, Australian media reported Sunday.