The influential sister of North Korean leader Kim Jong Un yesterday said it was “admirable” of the South to propose a formal end to the Korean War but demanded Seoul first drop its “hostile policies” towards Pyongyang.

New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern said yesterday the country should aim for a 90%-plus rate of inoculation, and could drop strict coronavirus lockdown measures once enough people were vaccinated.

Humanity needs to “grow up” and deal with the issue of climate change, British Prime Minister Boris Johnson told world leaders at the United Nations General Assembly in New York on Wednesday.

British Prime Minister Boris Johnson told France on Wednesday to get a grip and give allies in the United States and Australia a break over a row about a trilateral nuclear submarine deal that tore up a separate French contract.

Scientists have discovered another clue to the origins of the virus that causes Covid-19, with bats living in caves in Laos found to be carrying a similar pathogen that experts suggest could potentially infect humans directly.

European allies rallied cautiously around France on Tuesday after the US and Australian decision to strip Paris of a submarine supply contract, but some warned the dispute should not torpedo trade talks.

We plan to present the Paris climate agreement to our parliament’s approval next month...Unlike the past, this time no one has the right to say: I am powerful, I do not pay the bill. Because climate change treats mankind quite fairly. 

Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau hung onto power on Monday as his main rival conceded defeat. Trudeau said he had won a clear mandate to govern although he fell short of his goal for a majority win.

Sweden’s tax authority has rejected a couple’s request to name their newly born son “Vladimir Putin,” arguing the name was inappropriate.

Britain’s defence ministry has apologised after it accidentally revealed the email addresses of more than 250 Afghan interpreters seeking to move to the UK.

President Emmanuel Macron and Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi yesterday vowed to “act jointly” in the Indo-Pacific region, the French presidency said, as a row with Australia and the US intensifies.

UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson urged leaders of the world’s major economies including the United States to deliver on their commitments toward a $100 billion per year climate fund with less than six weeks to go before a UN climate summit.

Sudan’s fragile transitional government said it foiled an attempted coup early yesterday involving military officers and civilians linked to the ousted regime of longtime President Omar al-Bashir.

French President Emmanuel Macron yesterday asked “forgiveness” on behalf of his country for abandoning Algerians who fought alongside France in their country’s war of independence.

1939 - In Romania, Prime Minister Armand Calinescu was murdered by the fascist Iron Guard.

A gunman opened fire on a university campus in central Russia yesterday and killed six people before being detained, investigators said, in the country’s second mass shooting this year to target students.

Russia’s ruling United Russia party, which supports President Vladimir Putin, won an emphatic parliamentary majority after its most vociferous critics were prevented from contesting an election that opponents said was marred by large-scale fraud.

An Italian prisoner shot at fellow inmates through the bars of their cell with a weapon believed to have been smuggled in by drone, a prison union said yesterday.

A volcano erupted on the Spanish Canary Island of La Palma on Sunday, sending jets of lava and a plume of smoke and ash into the air from the Cumbre Vieja national park in the south of the island.

Bookings for coronavirus vaccines in Italy spiked this week after the government said all employees must show proof of a jab, negative test or recent recovery from Covid-19, authorities said.