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.

The rise in share price of the electric car-firm Tesla pushed its CEO Elon Musk to become the second-richest person in the world, surpassing Microsoft’s co-founder Bill Gates.

Two Bangladeshi women -- Rina Akhter, a former sex worker, and Rima Sultana Rimu, a teacher -- have been included in BBC’s annual list of 100 inspiring and influential women from around the world.

Former US secretary of state John Kerry helped broker the landmark Paris Agreement and signed it on behalf of the United States, a decision subsequently reversed by President Donald Trump.

The international community must continue aiding Afghanistan or risk “disastrous consequences,” UN refugee chief Filippo Grandi urged yesterday as a donors conference kicked off in Geneva.

Greenhouse gases in the atmosphere, the main driver of climate change, hit record highs last year and have continued climbing this year, despite measures to halt the pandemic, the UN said yesterday.

Ethiopia’s Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed gave the leaders of a dissident northern region 72 hours to surrender ahead of a threatened all-out assault on Tigray’s capital, Mekele.

A Turkish court will resume the trial in absentia of 20 Saudi officials today for the gruesome killing of journalist Jamal Khashoggi.

Congress’s Ghulam Nabi Azad, one of the key dissenters in the party, on Sunday offered another explanation of the party’s recent slump when it comes to elections.

The US on Sunday formally exited the decades-old Open Skies Treaty, some six months after President Donald Trump first announced the decision, according to the State Department.

Three young Hong Kong dissidents including Joshua Wong were remanded into custody yesterday after pleading guilty to inciting a rally during last year’s pro-democracy protests, deepening the crackdown against Beijing’s critics.

France’s former president Nicolas Sarkozy went on trial yesterday on charges of corruption, becoming the first French ex-head of state to stand as an accused in the dock and risking a humiliating end to a career tainted by legal woes.

Nearly 2 billion doses of Covid-19 vaccines will be shipped and flown to developing countries next year in a “mammoth operation”, the UN children’s agency Unicef said yesterday, as world leaders vowed to ensure the fair distribution of vaccines.

Ethiopian federal forces are encircling the Tigray region’s capital from around 50 km (31 miles), the government has said, after giving the Tigray People’s Liberation Front (TPLF) a 72-hour surrender ultimatum.

Patrick Quinn, whose personal battle with ALS helped power the Ice Bucket Challenge fundraising campaign, died on Sunday at age 37, seven years after his diagnosis, supporters announced on Facebook.

A member of Benjamin Netanyahu’s cabinet and Likud party confirmed media reports on Monday that the Israeli prime minister had held a meeting in Saudi Arabia, calling it an “amazing achievement”.