International News

The Czech government has further tightened its lockdown to slow down a surge of a highly contagious coronavirus variant

A large group of gunmen raided a school in northern Nigeria early Friday.

Protesters have taken to the streets of Algiers and other cities around Algeria in a bid to restart weekly pro-democracy demonstrations

A look at the week's top photos from around the globe.

One of Haiti’s most powerful gang leaders has been killed

Political tensions in Armenia remain high after the prime minister accused top military officers demanding his resignation of an attempted coup

A U.N. investigation into the attack on a humanitarian convoy in Congo will look into whether security protocols were followed and whether information might have leaked to the unknown gunmen involved in the ambush

"Africa is on the rise and African people are also ascending," one person said.

An Iraqi militia official says a U.S. airstrike in Syria has killed one militiaman and wounded a number of others with a powerful Iranian-backed Iraqi group

COVID restrictions forced the diplomats to find an unorthodox way home.

Sydney Zoo's oldest koala, Faith, celebrated her 16th birthday with a koala-friendly eucalyptus cake.

An Iraqi human rights monitor says three anti-government protesters have died after Iraqi security forces used live ammunition to disperse crowds in the fifth day of protests in southern Iraq

A group of Russian diplomats and their family members have returned to Russia from North Korea using a hand-pushed rail trolley because the coronavirus pandemic has halted all passenger traffic between the countries

At least seven policemen have been injured during clashes in North Macedonia’s capital Skopje after a court this week upheld terrorism-related convictions for ethnic Albanian men accused of murders that inflamed ethnic tensions in the Balkan country

An explosion has struck an Israeli-owned cargo ship sailing out of the Middle East, an unexplained blast renewing concerns about ship security amid escalating tensions between the U.S. and Iran

Russian embassy employees in North Korea and their families left the country on a hand-pushed rail trolley.

COVID-19 Vaccine Global Access is an initiative launched by the WHO to ensure vaccine access to the world’s most vulnerable.

An Italian man living in Berlin has been convicted of attempted extortion for threatening to blow up a British National Health Service hospital unless he was paid off with 10 million pounds ($13.2 million) in crypto currency

Protesters in Bangladesh have blocked a busy intersection in the capital to protest the death in prison of a writer and commentator who was arrested on charges of violating the sweeping digital security law, which critics say stifles freedom of expression

A judge has ruled that the terrorism trial of the man who inspired the film “Hotel Rwanda” can be held in Rwanda

An international research group examining the fatal shooting of a Palestinian motorist has challenged self-defense claims by Israeli troops

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A former interior minister, an ex-intelligence chief, and four other former officials from North Macedonia have been convicted for their roles in an unauthorized wiretapping operation that targeted some 20,000 people

A U.S. airstrike targeting facilities used by Iran-backed militias in Syria appears to be a message to Tehran delivered by a new American administration still figuring out its approach to the Middle East

German automaker Volkswagen made 8.8 billion euros, or $10.7 billion, last year despite the pandemic

An Amnesty International report says soldiers from Eritrea systematically killed “many hundreds” of people, the large majority men, in a massacre in late November in the Ethiopian city of Axum

French authorities have ordered a local weekend lockdown starting on Friday evening in the French Riviera city of Nice and the surrounding coastal area to try to curb the spread of the virus

A German court has sent a man who attacked a Jewish student in Hamburg in October to a psychiatric hospital

Two U.S. Navy warships operating in the Mideast have been struck by coronavirus outbreaks

India’s economy expanded by a weaker-than-expected 0.4% in the October-December quarter, which still allowed it to escape recession following large contractions in the two previous quarters during the pandemic

A Dutch appeals court has ruled that the government was entitled to use an emergency law to underpin its coronavirus curfew

The parent company of British Airways and Iberia says it lost 6.9 billion euros ($8.3 billion) last year as the pandemic caused a near-total collapse in international air traffic

Russian media report that a Boeing 777 made an emergency landing in Moscow in the early hours on Friday after a pilot reported a problem with the engine

Authorities say explosion strikes ship in Gulf of Oman; crew safe and heading to nearby port

A woman who as a teenager ran away from London to join the Islamic State group has lost her bid to return to the U.K. to fight for the restoration of her citizenship, which was revoked on national security grounds

Germany’s Birkenstock, known for its upmarket sandals, says it is selling a majority stake to private equity firm L Catteron and affiliates including Financière Agache, the family investment company of French billionaire Bernard Arnault

An explosion has destroyed a café building and injured three people in a Russian city 400 kilometers (248 miles) east of Moscow

A local official in western Afghanistan says that gunmen have killed at least three family members of an assassinated journalist

Myanmar security forces have cracked down on anti-coup protesters in the country’s second-largest city, injuring at least three people, two of whom were shot in the chest by rubber bullets and another who suffered a flesh wound on his leg

Tribal and security officials in Yemen say that heavy fighting between rebels and government forces has killed at least 27 people in the oil-rich province of Marib

Authorities detained eight suspects in connection with a far-right network.

Hundreds of schoolgirls missing in northern Nigeria after attack on their school in Zamfara state, residents say

Authorities in Spain’s northern Cantabria region are investigating how an elephant killed a worker at a local zoo

The foreign ministers of China and India are urging further steps to stabilize tensions along their disputed border following the pullback of forces from an area where a deadly clash broke out last summer

Opposition presidential candidates in Somalia have delayed a planned protest on Friday over the country’s election delay after the government apologized for its actions during last week’s protest and affirmed the right to peacefully demonstrate

The German defense minister has arrived in Afghanistan for an unannounced visit to the country’s troops there

Structures were targeted in Al Bukamal, Syria.

Libya’s newly-elected prime minister has failed to name members of a much-anticipated Cabinet ahead of an expected deadline

Michael Somare, a pivotal figure in Papua New Guinea’s independence and the South Pacific island nation’s first prime minister, has died

Millions of people have joined a 45-day Hindu bathing festival in the northern Indian city of Prayagraj, where devotees take a dip at Sangam, the sacred confluence of several rivers. There, they bathe on certain days considered to be auspicious in the belief they will be cleansed of all sins. Rows and rows of colorful tents, in which the devotees stay, line the sprawling festival site. Millions of Hindus travel every year to the event, called Magh Mela, where pilgrims offer prayers and enter the holy waters where the Ganga, Yamuna and mythical Saraswati rivers meet. In Hinduism, this period is called Kalpvas and the devotees who choose to stay for the entire time are known as Kalpvasis. They give up their daily routine and instead camp at the site, living on frugal meals and performing rituals. Virender Kumar Shukla, a Kalpvasi devotee, is attending for the fifth time. He said he hopes by offering prayers to “find a place in heaven” and earn “a better rebirth.” Authorities took...