The deployment of additional United States troops in Eastern Europe is escalating tensions in the region, the Kremlin said yesterday, after Washington said it would send 3,000 extra troops to Poland and Romania.

The Dutch port city of Rotterdam said Wednesday it would temporarily dismantle an historic bridge to allow a superyacht built for Amazon founder Jeff Bezos to pass.

Nato leaders pursued diplomatic efforts on the Ukraine crisis yesterday after President Vladimir Putin accused the West of trying to draw Russia into a war but left the door open to further talks.

The European Commission yesterday defied protests from green campaigners and dissent in its own ranks to give a sustainable finance label to investments in both gas and nuclear power.

Discarded syringes, used test kits and old vaccine bottles from the Covid-19 pandemic have piled up to create tens of thousands of tonnes of

Russia’s embassy in Washington yesterday said that Moscow will not back down in the face of US sanctions threats over Ukraine, ahead of a phone call between the top US and Russian diplomats.

A military court in Democratic Republic of Congo Saturday sentenced 51 people to death, several in absentia, in a mass trial over the 2017 murder of two UN experts in a troubled central region.

Blinding snow whipped up by powerful winds pummeled the eastern United States into yesterday’s early hours, as one of the strongest winter storms in years triggered transport chaos and power outages across a region of some 70 million people.

A pregnant New Zealand journalist denied re-entry to her home country to give birth due to strict Covid-19 regulations said she has been offered refuge by the Afghan Taliban.

Russia said yesterday it wants “mutually respectful” relations with the United States and denied posing a threat to Ukraine, as the UK said it was preparing fresh sanctions against Moscow.

Spain's sea rescue service on Wednesday picked up more than 300 migrants trying to reach the Canary Islands in rickety boats, with nine of them clinging to a semi-sunken dinghy.

Russia’s population declined by more than one million people in 2021, the statistics agency Rosstat reported Friday, a historic drop not seen since the collapse of the Soviet Union.

The number of deaths from Covid-19 soared by a fifth worldwide in the last week, as the number of daily cases surged in the Middle East, Europe and Asia.

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan yesterday threatened Turkish media with legal action over content “incompatible with national and moral values,” in a move seen by critics as an attempt to stifle the dissent.

Italy’s warring parties were yesterday set to beg outgoing President Sergio Mattarella to stay for another term, fearing political chaos due to a possible failure to elect his successor.

The latest round of talks to salvage the Iran nuclear deal have been put on pause, the European Union’s coordinator said, calling for “political decisions” to break the deadlock.

Russian President Vladimir Putin yesterday told his French counterpart Emmanuel Macron that the West had ignored Moscow’s security concerns over Nato expansion and Ukraine, the Kremlin said.

Russia selling S-400 missile defense system to India “shines a spotlight on the destabilising role” that Moscow is playing in the region and potentially beyond as well, the United States has said.

London police yesterday denied delaying a long-awaited government report into lockdown-breaking parties in Downing Street that have put Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s future in jeopardy.

Russia yesterday sent its strongest signal so far that it is willing to engage with US security proposals and reiterated that it does not want war over Ukraine.