Centrist Armin Laschet was elected chairman of Germany’s Christian Democrats (CDU) yesterday,

Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas on Friday announced dates for the first Palestinian elections in more than 15 years, setting legislative polls for May 22 and a July 31 presidential vote.

A team of Nepali climbers made history yesterday after becoming the first to summit Pakistan’s K2 in winter, singing their country’s national anthem as they reached the top.

Pavel Zelensky, a member of the Anti-Corruption Foundation team of Kremlin critic Alexei Navalny, was jailed by a Moscow court today until Feb. 28 on charges of inciting extremism on the internet, according to a court statement.

Democratic President-elect Joe Biden today nominated US foreign policy veteran Wendy Sherman, a key negotiator of the 2015 nuclear deal with Iran, to be the No. 2 official at the State Department.

South African scientists have discovered chemical compounds that could potentially be used for a new line of drugs to treat malaria and even kill the parasite in its infectious stage, which most available drugs do not.

Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte’s government resigned yesterday over a child benefits scandal, threatening political instability as the country battles the coronavirus pandemic.

Iran has for years faced accusations of cooperation with al-Qaeda despite stark ideological differences, but while mutual interests may have sometimes converged any relationship has been marked by distrust, analysts say.

Congress leaders Rahul Gandhi and Priyanka Gandhi Vadra yesterday protested outside Delhi Lieutenant Governor Anil Baijal’s official residence, in solidarity with those farmers who have been protesting against the central government’s recently introduced agricultural laws.

The world is on course for a “catastrophic” temperature rise this century, the United Nations said Thursday as it confirmed that 2020 rivalled 2016 as the hottest year on record.

More than 30 million coronavirus cases have been officially recorded in Europe, according to an AFP tally based on official health statistics at 0800 GMT yesterday.

The UN Human Rights Council elected Fiji’s ambassador as its 2021 president in an unprecedented secret ballot after a diplomatic stand-off blocked the usual consensus decision.

Forty-six Pygmies have been massacred in eastern DR Congo’s Ituri province by the notorious Allied Democratic Forces (ADF) militia, local sources said yesterday.

The US military has cut troop levels in Afghanistan and Iraq to 2,500 each, their lowest levels in the nearly two decades since the wars began, the Pentagon announced yesterday.

This picture taken on Thursday and released from North Korea’s official Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) yesterday shows what appears to be submarine-launched ballistic missiles during a military parade celebrating the 8th Congress of the Workers’ Party of Korea (WPK) in Pyongyang.

The center of Washington was in lockdown Thursday as more than 20,000 armed National Guard troops were mobilized following the deadly assault on the Capitol and the threat of more violence at the presidential inauguration of Joe Biden.

The UN refugees chief said Thursday he was “extremely troubled” by the humanitarian situation facing Eritrean refugees in northern Ethiopia, citing strong indications of “major violations” of international law.

A city in northern China is building a 3,000-unit quarantine facility to deal with an anticipated overflow of patients as COVID-19 cases rise ahead of the annual Lunar New Year travel rush.

A Pakistan International Airlines plane has been held back by Malaysian authorities due to a British court case over the jet’s lease, the airline said on Friday, adding it would pursue the matter through diplomatic channels.

Twitter Inc on Thursday said it will transfer institutional White House Twitter accounts to Biden administration when the US President-elect swears in on January 20.