President-elect Joe Biden pleaded with Americans on Wednesday to take steps to remain safe over the Thanksgiving holiday as Covid-19 cases soar, while President Donald Trump pardoned a former aide who twice pleaded guilty to lying to the FBI.

Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed yesterday ordered Ethiopia’s army to launch a final offensive against Tigray’s dissident leaders in their regional capital Mekele, saying the deadline for surrender had expired.

The Israel-led blockade of the Gaza Strip cost the Palestinian enclave more than $16bn and pushed more than one million people below the poverty line in just more than 10 years, according to a new United Nations report.

Austria is stepping up security at churches in case of copycat attacks after an Islamist gunman killed four people in a rampage earlier this month in which he may have intended to target houses of worship, the interior minister has said.

More than 20 million people across large swathes of England will be forced to live under the toughest category of Covid-19 restrictions when a national lockdown ends on December 2, while London has been placed in the “high alert” second-toughest tier.

Amid the coronavirus pandemic that has caused a slowdown of economies, the UK has announced a temporary reduction in overseas development aid from 0.7 percent of its gross national income to 0.5 percent.

France is leading a push for European Union sanctions on Turkey next month to follow through on a threat made by the bloc in October, but has yet to win support from EU governments beyond Greece and Cyprus, officials and diplomats said.

The Ethiopian military will begin the "final phase" of an offensive in the rebellious northern Tigray region, Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed said on Thursday, hours after an ultimatum for Tigray forces to surrender expired.

All adults should do a minimum of 150 minutes of vigorous physical activity per week, even more vital for well-being and mental health in the COVID-19 era, the World Health Organization (WHO) said on Wednesday in its first guidance in a decade.

President-elect Joe Biden said Wednesday that Americans "won't stand" for attempts to derail the US election outcome, as Donald Trump called for the results to be overturned.

The Covid-19-causing coronavirus is mutating as it spreads around the world in the pandemic, but none of the mutations currently documented appears to be making it able to spread more rapidly, scientists said yesterday.

Donors demanded an immediate ceasefire in Afghanistan as they pledged around $12 billion in aid over four years -- but tied their money to civil rights being upheld in peace talks with the Taliban.

India’s ruling Hindu nationalist party approved a decree in the country’s most populous state Uttar Pradesh on Tuesday laying out prison terms up to five years for anyone compelling others to convert their faith or luring them into these conversions through marriage, officials said.

US President Donald Trump plans to pardon his former national security advisor Michael Flynn, who pleaded guilty in 2017 to lying to the FBI over his Russian contacts, US media reported Tuesday.

Iran’s supreme leader has cautioned against hopes of an “opening” with the West, after President Hassan Rouhani’s government signalled a readiness to engage with US President-elect Joe Biden. Biden, who defeated Donald Trump at the ballot box on November 3, has promised a return to diplomacy with Iran after four tense years under the hawkish outgoing US president.

Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed yesterday said he rejected international “interference” in Ethiopia’s affairs, hours before a deadline for Tigray’s rebellious leaders to surrender or face an assault on their capital.

Several thousand people in south-eastern India fled their homes yesterday, out of the path of a cyclone due to slam coastal areas after midnight, bringing with it heavy rain. Nivar, classified as a very severe cyclonic storm, was expected to pack winds of 120 kilometres per hour and gusts of up to 145 km/h when it makes landfall, forecasters said.

Almost 100 pilot whales have died in a mass stranding on New Zealand’s remote Chatham Islands, conservation officials said yesterday.

Israeli air strikes in Syria overnight killed at least eight fighters operating in pro-Iran militias, a war monitoring group said yesterday.

Scotland on Tuesday voted to offer free universal access to period products, becoming the first country in the world to do so.