World

Moldova's constitutional court threw out a law on Thursday that would have given special status to the Russian language, passed last month by the proRussian parliament over the objection of the country's newly elected, proEU president.

European Union leaders meet online on Thursday to address the mounting challenge of new and more infectious coronavirus variants and the slow rollout of vaccines. [L1N2JW0PN]

The senior nurse in the intensive care unit of Barcelona's Sant Pau Hospital is anxiously watching the wards fill up and fears that Spaniards are letting their guard down against the coronavirus, numbed by the daily litany of deaths.

U.S. special climate envoy John Kerry said on Thursday measures to tackle climate change needed to be ramped up significantly, and achieving net zero global carbon emissions by 2050 would require a radical transformation of the economy.

Thailand's Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has granted emergency use approval for the COVID19 vaccine of AstraZeneca Plc, three health ministry sources said on Thursday.

Portugal's government is set to shut down all schools across the country to tackle a steep worsening of the pandemic, Lusa news agency and Public newspaper said on Thursday.

A Japanese court found on Thursday the lawmaker wife of a former justice minister guilty of votebuying.

U.S. President Joe Biden on Wednesday announced America's return to the international Paris Agreement to fight climate change, the centerpiece of a raft of dayone executive orders aimed at restoring U.S. leadership in combating global warming.

At least three people died and six were injured on Wednesday when a building in central Madrid belonging to the Catholic Church was blown apart by an explosion, local authorities said.

Britain said on Wednesday it was helping Kenya prepare to roll out the COVID19 vaccine developed by Astrazeneca and Oxford University, as African nations race to ensure their populations are inoculated.

At least 43 West African migrants trying to reach Europe drowned off the coast of Libya on Tuesday, after their boat capsized in rough seas, in the first shipwreck of 2021 in the central Mediterranean, United Nations agencies said on Wednesday.

Israel has included pregnant women among those getting priority access to COVID19 vaccines, seeing no risk to them or their foetuses, a senior public health official said on Wednesday.

Thailand's government on Wednesday filed a criminal complaint of defaming the monarchy against a banned opposition politician after he criticised the country's COVID19 vaccine strategy.

Britain said on Wednesday it was helping Kenya prepare to roll out the COVID19 vaccine developed by Astrazeneca and Oxford University, as African nations race to ensure their populations are inoculated.

Blinken — who described China as posing the “most significant challenge of any nation state to the United States” – said the country must be approached from a “position of strength.”

Sweden has seen a decline in new COVID19 cases and hospitalisations in recent weeks, the Health Agency said on Tuesday, though it warned it was too early to say if it represented a lasting slowdown.