Deeply-divided Americans voted in record numbers in the November 3 presidential election between outgoing Republican Donald Trump and Democrat Joe Biden after a nasty election campaign.

Nearly 2,200 migrants died trying to reach Spain by sea this year, the vast majority of them on their way to the Canary Islands, a migrant rights group said Tuesday.

Donald Trump, facing a humiliating first veto override of his presidency, lashed out at Republican leaders in Congress on Tuesday as relations soured ahead of a crucial pair of runoff elections in Georgia that could determine control of the Senate.

At least five people have been killed and dozens more wounded in an attack on Aden airport, shortly after a plane carrying a newly formed government for Yemen arrived from Saudi Arabia.

Argentina’s Senate has voted to legalise abortion, a first for a big country in Latin America and a triumph for women’s rights campaigners achieved over the visceral objection of the Catholic Church.

Over 100 retired senior civil servants and diplomats urged the Hindu nationalist leader of Uttar Pradesh state to repeal a new law criminalising forced religious conversion of brides, warning in an open letter that it risked fuelling communal tensions.

US Vice-President-elect Kamala Harris received her Covid vaccine live on television on Tuesday (Dec 29) and urged public trust in the process, while her choice of hospital highlighted the plight of the hard-hit African-American community.

The first study of the safety and effectiveness of a coronavirus vaccine in Iran began Tuesday, state TV reported, with dozens due to receive the domestically developed shot even as details about its production remained slim.

The first reported US case of the COVID-19 variant that’s been seen in the United Kingdom has been discovered in Colorado, Gov Jared Polis announced Tuesday, adding urgency to efforts to vaccinate Americans.

Palestinian armed groups staged military exercises in Gaza yesterday, including firing rockets into the sea, to mark the anniversary of the start of the 2008 conflict with Israel.

Democratic-led US House of Representatives voted on Monday to override President Donald Trump’s veto of a $740 billion defense policy bill, a rebuke that underscored divisions in the Republican Party during Trump’s final weeks in office.

Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov yesterday said that Moscow and Ankara’s military cooperation would not be deterred by US sanctions on Turkey for acquiring a Russian missile defence system.

Indian movie superstar Rajinikanth yesterday cancelled his plans to enter politics, saying a health scare had been “a warning from god”.

Russia’s prison service on Monday gave Kremlin critic Alexei Navalny a last minute ultimatum: Fly back from Germany at once and report at a Moscow office immediately, or be jailed if you return after that deadline.

In the drought-prone plateau of Isan in the northeastern region of Thailand, farming is the way of life for almost half of the population.

An earthquake of magnitude 6.4 struck a town in central Croatia yesterday, killing a child, injuring many people and wrecking houses, officials said.

India has found six cases of a more infectious strain of the coronavirus, which has prompted border closures around the world, in people arriving from Britain and will likely extend a flight ban to guard against it, officials said yesterday.

An earthquake of magnitude 6.4 struck central Croatia, killing five people and injuring at least 20, and shook several neighbouring countries, officials and residents have said.

Beijing sealed off 10 areas of its northeastern Shunyi district on Tuesday, the first lockdown in the Chinese capital since the last coronavirus outbreak in the months of June and July.

At least 50 journalists were killed worldwide in 2020, according to the second part of the annual round-up of abusive treatment and violence against journalists, published on December 28 by Reporters Without Borders (RSF).