More children could be pushed into joining armed groups in conflict zones as families face increasing poverty due to the Covid-19 pandemic, a top UN official warned yesterday.

Turkey will not turn back from its acquisition of Russian S-400 defense systems despite US sanctions, it said, but added it would seek to resolve issues with its Nato ally through dialogue.

House prosecutors wrapped up their impeachment case against Donald Trump on Thursday with an impassioned appeal to the Senate to convict the former president of inciting the deadly January 6 attack on the US Capitol and bar him from holding office again.

Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte said the United States must pay if it wants to keep a two-decade-old troop deployment agreement with his country that is central to US strategy in Asia.

US President Joe Biden and his Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping held their first telephone call as leaders and appeared at odds on most issues, even as Xi warned that confrontation would be a “disaster” for both nations.

The leader of al-Qaeda’s branch in Yemen appears to be still at large despite a United Nations report which claimed he had been under arrest for months, the SITE Intelligence Group and two local tribal leaders said yesterday after he was seen in a video released by the jihadist group.

Pressure mounted yesterday on Republicans still backing Donald Trump after President Joe Biden said that harrowing video evidence of the January assault on the US Capitol by Trump supporters may change “some minds” in the former president’s impeachment trial.

Haitian police fired tear gas on hundreds of protesters who were marching against President Jovenel Moise in Port-au-Prince Wednesday, and attacked journalists covering the demonstration, in the latest clashes to mark the country’s political crisis.

Twitter will not allow former president Donald Trump back on the platform even if he runs for office again, the company’s chief financial officer said Wednesday.

Nepalis yesterday protested against proposed new travel rules that could force young women to require permission from their family for travelling in some circumstances, calling them an attack on fundamental rights.

China’s broadcasting regulator announced yesterday it has pulled BBC World News from the air, saying the channel’s content had “seriously” violated guidelines for reporting in the country.

All the Covid-causing virus circulating in the world right now could easily fit inside a single cola can, according to a calculation by a British mathematician whose sum exposes just how much devastation is caused by minuscule viral particles.

Europe’s oldest person, French nun Sister Andre, turned 117 yesterday after surviving Covid-19 last month and living through two world wars, with a special birthday feast including her favourite dessert -- baked Alaska.

Russia yesterday urged Iran to show restraint after it started producing uranium metal in a new breach of limits laid out in Tehran’s nuclear deal with world powers.

Joe Biden challenged Chinese leader Xi Jinping on human rights, trade and regional muscle-flexing, in their first call since the new US president took office.

India’s technology minister Ravi Shankar Prasad yesterday warned US social media firms to abide by the country’s laws, a day after a face-off between Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s administration and Twitter over content regulation.

Saudi authorities on Wednesday released prominent women’s rights activist Loujain al-Hathloul after nearly three years in detention, her family said, as the kingdom comes under renewed US pressure over its human rights record.

AstraZeneca’s Covid-19 vaccine is not perfect, but will have a big impact on the pandemic, its chief executive has predicted, as the drugmaker pledged to double supplies to more than 200 million doses per month by April.

Myanmar’s new junta leader has called on civil servants to return to work and urged people to stop mass gatherings to avoid spreading coronavirus, as a sixth day of protests against him and his coup spanned the Southeast Asian country.

US President Joe Biden said he had approved an executive order paving the way for new sanctions on Myanmar military officers and their businesses after the military detained elected leaders and seized power on February 1.