WORLD NEWS

Italy is poised to elect a new president, a figure who is supposed to serve as the nation’s moral compass and foster unity by being above the political fray.

As he starts his second term as U.N. secretary-general, Antonio Guterres says the world is worse in many ways than it was five years ago because of the COVID-19 pandemic, the climate crisis and geopolitical tensions that have sparked conflicts everywhere.

Short of an all-out invasion, Russian President Vladimir Putin could take less dramatic action in Ukraine that would vastly complicate a U.S. and allied response.

President Joe Biden and Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida have used their first formal meeting to discuss concerns about China’s growing military assertiveness.

An Saudi-led coalition airstrike targeting a prison run by Yemen’s Houthi rebels has killed at least 70 detainees and wounded dozens.

Restaurants and bars will close early in Tokyo and a dozen other areas across Japan beginning Friday as the country widens COVID-19 restrictions due to the omicron variant, which has caused cases to surge to new highs in metropolitan areas.

Peru has declared an environmental emergency after announcing that 21 beaches on the Pacific coast were contaminated by an oil spill at a refinery run by Spain-based Repsol, following surging waves caused by the eruption of an underwater volcano near Tonga.

Brazilian samba singer Elza Soares has died in her Rio de Janeiro home at the age of 91.

Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro says he has spoken by phone with Russian President Vladimir Putin about cooperation between the two countries.

Trying to defuse large protests by environmentalists, Serbia’s populist government said Thursday that it was canceling all licenses for mining giant Rio Tinto to open a lithium mine in the Balkan country.

Cuban courts have wrapped up the hearing phase of six mass trials for people accused of involvement in the largest and most unruly protests on the island in decades.

The U.S. Treasury Department says it's levying new sanctions against four Ukrainian officials, including two current members of parliament who administration officials say are part of a Russian influence effort to set the pretext for further invasion of Ukraine.

U.S. President Joe Biden says any Russian troop movements across Ukraine’s border would constitute an invasion, saying Moscow would “pay a heavy price” for such an action.

Three Australian Federal Court judges have revealed their reasons for backing a government order to deport tennis star Novak Djokovic, explaining they did not consider the “merits or wisdom of the decision.”.

Officials in Liberia say that at least 29 people in Liberia, including 11 children and a pregnant woman, have died in a stampede of worshippers at a Christian ceremony in a densely populated area of the capital, Monrovia.

Germany’s health minister expects the number of coronavirus infections in the country to keep rising for several weeks reaching hundreds of thousands of cases a day.

Russia has announced sweeping naval drills in several parts of the world this month, and claims the West is plotting “provocations” in neighboring Ukraine where the Kremlin has been accused of planning aggressive military action.

A British man who held four people hostage in a Texas synagogue ranted against Jews and American wars in countries like Afghanistan as his brother pleaded with him to give up and free the captives.

Unilever, the maker of Vaseline skin care products and Dove soap, says it won’t increase a 50 billion-pound ($68.2 billion) offer for GlaxoSmithKline’s consumer healthcare unit that was rejected last week.

Some 1,200 police officers have been deployed to Rio de Janeiro’s working-class Jacarezinho neighborhood, marking the start of a state effort seeking to reclaim territory.

The global initiative intended to share coronavirus vaccines equally between rich and poor countries is asking for $5.2 billion in funds to be able to keep buying doses.

A United Arab Emirates ambassador says Yemen's Houthi rebels used cruise missiles, ballistic missiles and drones in an attack on Abu Dhabi this week that killed three people and set off fires at a fuel depot and an international airport.

The Russian Defense Ministry says all the troops deployed to Kazakhstan by a Russia-led security alliance to help quell violent unrest have left the former Soviet nation.

The United Nations secretary-general says he is delighted to hear “there is now a demonstrable effort to make peace” in Ethiopia after more than 14 months of war.