WORLD NEWS

A potentially worrisome variant of the coronavirus detected in India may spread more easily.

Ukraine has indicted a top opposition figure who is a close ally of Russia’s president with treason and attempts to steal natural resources from Russia-annexed Crimea.

The Dutch government says zoos and theme parks will be allowed to re-open next week under strict conditions and bars and cafes can extend the opening hours of their outdoor terraces, if hospital and ICU admissions continue to fall.

While the U.S. president is calling for suspending patents on COVID-19 vaccines, experts at UNESCO are quietly working on a more ambitious plan.

For 50 years the Minuteman missile has been armed and ready, day and night, for nuclear war on a moment’s notice.

South African president Cyril Ramaphosa has intensified the country’s anti-corruption drive with the suspension of his African National Congress party’s secretary-general, who is facing corruption charges in court.

Bulgaria has moved to quell a political crisis by appointing a retired general as interim prime minister until an election is held in July.

A coroner in Northern Ireland has ruled that 10 people killed during a military operation in west Belfast half a century ago were innocent and soldiers were responsible for nine of the deaths.

Israeli aircraft have attacked another building in Gaza City.

German investors are increasingly optimistic about the country’s economy as the latest surge in the coronavirus pandemic seems to be slowing.

Iran’s powerful Revolutionary Guard has rejected the United States Navy’s claim that Iranian speedboats maneuvered too close in the Strait of Hormuz and sparked a tense encounter in the already sensitive region.

The Australian government has released a big-spending economic plan for the next fiscal year that includes hefty investments in defense and national security as relations with China worsen.

Israel has stepped up attacks on the Gaza Strip, flattening a building used by Hamas and killing at least three militants.

One hundred days since their takeover, Myanmar’s ruling generals maintain just the pretense of control over the country.

Iran has opened registration for potential candidates in the country's June presidential election.

China’s weak population growth is falling closer to zero, adding to strains on an aging society with a shrinking workforce as fewer couples have children.

The head of a U.N. team investigating atrocities in Iraq says it has found “clear and compelling evidence” that Islamic State extremists committed genocide against the Yazidi minority in 2014.

A top World Health Organization official has strongly denied making false statements to Italian prosecutors about a spiked U.N. report into Italy’s coronavirus response.

Hopes are fading for a young minke whale lost who became trapped in the River Thames near London.

A French court has dismissed the case of a French-Vietnamese woman who sued 14 companies that produced and sold the powerful defoliant dioxin Agent Orange, used by U.S. troops during the Vietnam War.

An activist for Black rights has gone on trial in Paris for defacing a statue of a historical figure from France’s colonial, slave-trading past.

Veteran British broadcaster David Attenborough has been appointed the “people’s advocate” at the U.N. global climate summit this year, where he is expected to address political leaders about the need for urgent action to tackle the “crippling” threat of climate change.

Turkey's Foreign Ministry says its top diplomat is traveling to Saudi Arabia as Turkey seeks to repair ties that hit an all-time low over the 2018 killing in Istanbul of Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi.

In less than a week, people in England will be able to give someone outside their household bubble a hug for the first time since restrictions were put in place in March last year when the coronavirus.