The kidnap of 344 schoolboys in northwest Nigeria had the appearance of an Islamist militant attack. There was even a video purporting to show some of the boys with members of Boko Haram, the extremists behind the 2014 kidnapping of more than 270 schoolgirls in the northeast.

At least 20 migrants from Africa died when their boat sank off Tunisia on Thursday as they tried to cross the Mediterranean to the Italian island of Lampedusa, a Tunisian security official told Reuters.

Gunmen killed more than 100 people in a dawn attack in the western Benishangul-Gumuz region of Ethiopia on Wednesday, the human rights commission said, as residents described fleeing the latest deadly assault in an area bedevilled by ethnic violence.

Singapore has confirmed its first case of the new coronavirus variant found in the United Kingdom, the city-state said, while 11 others who were already in quarantine had returned preliminarily positive results for the new strain.

US President Donald Trump issued new pardons Wednesday for allies including the father of his son-in-law Jared Kushner and two people caught up in the probe into Russian meddling in the 2016 election that brought him to power.

Nepal’s Supreme Court yesterday started hearing petitions challenging Prime Minister KP Sharma Oli’s sudden dissolution of parliament and call for fresh elections, a move denounced by his opponents as unconstitutional. Oli’s decision, the culmination of months of political turmoil in the Himalayan country situated between China and India, has triggered unrest in his party and protests on the streets of the capital Kathmandu.

US President Donald Trump granted pardons Tuesday to two people linked to a probe into alleged collusion between his campaign and Russia along with a list of others as time ticks away on his remaining weeks in office.

An alliance of political parties in Indian-administered Kashmir opposed to India’s policies in the region has won a majority of seats in local elections, the first since New Delhi revoked the disputed region’s semi-autonomous status last year.

The coronavirus has landed in Antarctica, the last continent previously free from Covid-19, Chile’s military said, as health and army officials scrambled to clear out and quarantine staff from a remote research station there.

With less than a month before Joe Biden moves into the White House, Moscow yesterday accused the incoming US administration of “Russophobia” after the president-elect promised to punish Russia for a major cyber attack.

Dundar’s lawyers refused to attend the final hearing. “We do not want to be part of a practice to legitimize a previously decided, political verdict,” they said in a written statement ahead of the hearing.

The coronavirus has landed in Antarctica, the last continent previously free from COVID-19, Chile’s military said this week, as health and army officials scrambled to clear out and quarantine staff from a remote research station surrounded by ocean and icebergs.

French and EU citizens will again be allowed to enter France from Britain from Tuesday midnight provided they have a negative Covid-19 test that is less than 72 hours old, the French prime minister’s office has said.

Russian President Vladimir Putin has signed laws granting former Russian presidents expanded immunity from prosecution and allowing them to become senators for life in the upper house of parliament once they leave the Kremlin.

India is likely to approve Oxford/AstraZeneca’s coronavirus vaccine for emergency use by next week after its local manufacturer submitted additional data sought by authorities, two sources with knowledge of the matter have told Reuters.

Hackers broke into systems used by top US Treasury officials during a massive cyberattack on government agencies and may have stolen essential encryption keys, a senior lawmaker said Monday.

Hundreds of foreigners in France whose jobs expose them to high Covid-19 risks will be naturalised quickly for their commitment during the health crisis, the interior ministry said yesterday.

President Donald Trump, with only a month left in office, issued an order Monday that future federal buildings must be “beautiful” and preferably built in the Greco-Roman classical style.

US President Donald Trump on Monday presented the prestigious Legion of Merit to Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi for his leadership in elevating strategic partnership of the two countries and emergence of India as a global power.

The father of one of the 39 Vietnamese migrants who suffocated in a truck in Britain said Tuesday he felt sorry for the two men convicted of manslaughter over the deaths.