Chinese President Xi Jinping yesterday called for a rejection of hegemonic power structures in global governance, amid growing tensions between Washington and Beijing over a widening range of issues including alleged human rights abuses.

Chad's President Idriss Deby, who ruled his country for more than 30 years and was an important Western ally in the fight against Islamist militants in Africa, has been killed on the frontline against rebels in the north.

Bangladesh has slipped one notch in this year’s World Press Freedom Index, by Reporters Without Borders, also known as Reporters sans frontières (RSF).

Southeast Asian countries will discuss the crisis in Myanmar at a summit in Jakarta on Saturday, the ASEAN bloc's secretariat said on Tuesday, after the European Union imposed its toughest sanctions yet on the junta that seized power there on Feb. 1.

Former UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon urged the world body and Southeast Asian countries Monday to take swift and strong action to stop the deadly crackdown that has followed the military coup in Myanmar, saying he had tried unsuccessfully to make a diplomatic visit himself.

Malawi President Lazarus Chakwera on Sunday fired Labour Minister Ken Kandodo for diverting $800 worth of Covid-19 funds to pay for a government trip, part of a wider embezzlement scandal.

Eleven Pakistani police officers seized by supporters of a radical Islamist group as part of their campaign to get the French ambassador expelled have been released, officials said yesterday.

Secretary of State Antony Blinken on Sunday defended the US decision to withdraw from Afghanistan, saying the terror threat had moved elsewhere and that Washington needed to refocus resources on challenges such as China and the pandemic.

The foreign ministers of India and Pakistan made crossover visits to the United Arab Emirates this weekend, after it was revealed the Gulf nation has been mediating between the hostile neighbours.

EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell said yesterday that Russia has massed over 150,000 troops along the Ukrainian border and in the annexed Crimea peninsula.

India is set to accept the Serum Institute of India’s (SII) request for a 30 billion rupee ($400 million) grant to boost its capacity to make the AstraZeneca Covid-19 vaccine, a government source with knowledge of the matter told Reuters.

The EU yesterday imposed sanctions on 10 Myanmar junta officials and two conglomerates linked to the military over the coup and bloody crackdown on protesters, European officials said.

Cuba's ruling Communist Party elected President Miguel Diaz-Canel to succeed Raul Castro as party first secretary, the most powerful position in the country, on the final day of its congress on Monday.

In a major decision to widen the Covid-19 vaccination drive, India today announced that people above the age of 18 would be eligible for the jabs from May 1, with Prime Minister Narendra Modi cautioning that the pandemic was spreading fast in smaller Tier 2 and 3 cities.

Five people were hospitalised after being shot and critically injured in a drive-by shooting at a liquor store in Shreveport, Louisiana, CBS-affiliated television station KSLA reported late Sunday.

Facebook (FB.O) will announce a series of products under the umbrella of "social audio" on Monday, including its take on audio-chat app Clubhouse and a push into podcast discovery and distribution, Recode reported on Sunday.

China is shoring up ties with autocratic partners like Russia and Iran, as well as economically dependent regional countries, while using sanctions and threats to try to fracture the alliances the United States is building against it.

Pakistan's foreign minister has welcomed mediation efforts by the United Arab Emirates between his country and India but told UAE newspaper Khaleej Times that he was not planning to meet his Indian counterpart in the country.

At least 11 people were killed on Sunday when some train carriages derailed in Egypt's Qalyubia province north of Cairo, the health ministry said in a statement.

Saudi and Iranian officials held direct talks this month in a bid to ease tensions between the two foes, a senior Iranian official and two regional sources said, as Washington works to revive a 2015 nuclear pact with Tehran and end the Yemen war.