Leaked videos of staff from Australia’s conservative government performing sex acts in parliament, including one man performing a lewd act over a female MP’s desk, left Scott Morrison’s administration facing yet another major scandal yesterday.

Norwegian police yesterday said they have begun questioning Prime Minister Erna Solberg over a birthday party she held last month, which could lead to a fine of 10,000 crowns ($1,165) for breaking Covid-19 social distancing rules.

Roughly 60 migrants are presumed dead after their boat engine caught fire off the Libyan coast during an attempted Mediterranean crossing, a rescue charity said yesterday.

Israelis yesterday voted in a fourth election in two years, with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu hoping a world-beating Covid-19 vaccine rollout will win him another term.

Twitter boss Jack Dorsey sold his first tweet as an NFT for just over $2.9 million dollars on Monday. The tweet is in the form of a non-fungible token (NFT) - a kind of unique digital asset that has exploded in popularity so far in 2021.

The West Bengal BJP yesterday released what could be its final list of candidates for the upcoming Assembly polls. It has 13 names - but no Mithun Chakraborty.

Russia and China yesterday said they wanted a summit of permanent members of the UN Security Council amid what they called heightened political turbulence, with Moscow saying they both believed the United States was acting in a destructive way.

Scores of people have died in the deadliest suspected jihadist massacre ever to hit Niger, the government said Monday, underscoring the huge security challenge facing new President Mohamed Bazoum.

Microsoft Corp is in talks to buy messaging platform Discord Inc for more than $10 billion, Bloomberg News reported, citing people familiar with the matter.

A gunman opened fire at a supermarket in Boulder, Colorado, killing 10 people, including a police officer, before being arrested, marking the second deadly US mass shooting in less than a week.

Germany is extending its lockdown until April 18 and calling on citizens to stay at home for five days over the Easter holidays to try to break a third wave of the Covid-19 pandemic, Chancellor Angela Merkel said.

Myanmar protesters held candle-lit vigils for the scores killed in demonstrations against military rule, as Western countries imposed more sanctions on individuals and groups linked to last month’s coup and an ensuing brutal crackdown on dissent.

A dozen top United Nations officials called for a stop to indiscriminate and targeted attacks against civilians in Ethiopia’s northern Tigray region, particularly calling out reports of rape and “other horrific forms of sexual violence.”

Australian authorities have warned more evacuation orders may be issued as relentless rains pummelled the country’s east coast, with several regions in Sydney’s west facing the worst floods in half a century.

Israelis vote on Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s political survival in a fourth election in two years, with the veteran leader hoping his role in a rapid Covid-19 vaccine campaign will win him another term.

United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres is concerned about the rise of violence against Asians and people of Asian descent globally during the Covid-19 pandemic, a UN spokesman said.

Australia’s international student sector was worth about A$40 billion (S$41.5 billion) in 2019, making it the country’s fourth-biggest export. But the Covid-19 pandemic has caused incoming student numbers to plunge.

Israeli authorities confiscated the VIP border pass of Palestinian Foreign Minister Riyad al-Maliki upon his return to the West Bank from a meeting at the International Criminal Court, a Palestinian official said on Sunday.

India and Pakistan will hold the first meeting in three years of a commission that deals with water rights on the Indus River today, the two sides said yesterday, illustrating a broader resumption of diplomatic ties.

Top Biden administration officials had previously undisclosed ties to large corporations including tech giants Microsoft Corp, Alphabet’s Google and Facebook Inc, financial disclosures by the White House show.