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.

About 100 pilot whales and bottlenose dolphins have died in a mass stranding on the remote Chatham Islands, about 800 km (497 miles) off New Zealand’s east coast, officials said on Wednesday.

Countries around the world have agonised over new coronavirus curbs ahead of Christmas and other holidays as global infections approach 60 million and US officials have pleaded with Americans to stay home over Thanksgiving.

Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has joined a growing list of public figures targeted by pranksters posing as climate activist Greta Thunberg, reports BBC.

Myanmar should immediately schedule by-elections in areas where the Union Election Commission (UEC) cancelled the November 8 polls, and ensure the right to vote for all eligible persons, including Rohingya and others disenfranchised under discriminatory laws, said Fortify Rights yesterday.

Global shares reached record highs on Wednesday after the Dow Jones broke 30,000, with investors relieved at the prospect of a smooth handover of power after the US presidential election and confident a COVID-19 vaccine would soon be ready.

Bangladesh has established diplomatic relationship with the Caribbean island state of Dominica, expecting cooperation in trade and commerce with the country that’s witnessing rapid industrialisation.

The United Arab Emirates has stopped issuing new visas to citizens of 13 mostly Muslim-majority countries, including Iran, Syria and Somalia, according to a document issued by a state-owned business park.

President-Elect Joe Biden faces a challenging task fulfilling his foreign policy vision of the United States reclaiming its global leadership role after years in which the country stepped back and rival powers like China stepped in.

The aviation industry has taken a historic hit from the coronavirus and pending an effective vaccine, can only bounce back with systematic testing, sector association IATA said Tuesday.

Australia has hit out at “needlessly” worsening relations with China, with the country’s prime minister appealing for smaller nations not to be caught in the crossfire of Sino-US rivalry.

Evidence suggesting an initial half dose of the vaccine being developed by drugs firm AstraZeneca and the University of Oxford is more effective than a full dose is counterintuitive, and even took the researchers by surprise.

Two of Charles Darwin’s notebooks containing his pioneering ideas on evolution and his famous “Tree of Life” sketch are missing, believed stolen, the Cambridge University Library said yesterday.

In a new book, Pope Francis for the first time calls China’s Muslim Uighurs a “persecuted” people, something human rights activists have been urging him to do for years.

India on Monday told the main UN Security Council powers that it feels pressure to hit back at Pakistan after accusing its neighbour of arming four militants shot dead in a gun battle last week, diplomats who attended a special meeting said. Prime Minister Narendra Modi has said the four were plotting “to wreak major havoc” with an attack aiming to disrupt local elections in the disputed territory of Kashmir starting this week.

US President-elect Joe Biden spoke with the heads of the European Union institutions and Nato on Monday in a round of calls seen as part of his efforts to repair tattered transatlantic ties.

International pressure mounted yesterday on the warring parties in northern Ethiopia to cease fighting and protect civilians in Tigray, whose leaders Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed has given a deadline to surrender.

Joe Biden nominated his longtime adviser Antony Blinken to be secretary of state. Blinken, 58, served as deputy secretary of state and deputy national security adviser during the Obama administration and has close ties with Biden.

With Covid-19 vaccines on the horizon, the planet’s poorest must not be trampled as countries scramble to get their hands on them, the World Health Organization said Monday.