Russian gas exports to countries outside a group of former Soviet republics plunged by 45.5 percent in 2022, figures from gas giant Gazprom showed yesterday.

A ban on foreigners buying residential property in Canada took effect on Sunday, aiming to make more homes available to locals facing a housing crunch.

Gunmen attacked a prison in the northern Mexican city of Ciudad Juarez on Sunday, leaving 14 people dead and allowing 24 inmates to escape, the Chihuahua state prosecutors’ office said.

Croatia on Sunday switched to the euro and entered Europe's passport-free zone -- two major milestones for the country after joining the EU nearly a decade ago.

Former pope Benedict XVI has died at the age of 95, the Vatican announced yesterday, almost a decade after he became the first pontiff to resign in six centuries.

The bodies of 13 Moroccans were recovered after their boat sank off the country's southern coast while attempting to reach Spain's Canary Islands, Moroccan media reported.

Former Pope Benedict, who in 2013 became the first pontiff in 600 years to resign, died on Saturday aged 95 in a secluded monastery in the Vatican where he had lived since stepping down, a spokesman for the Holy See said.

Nearly 1,700 journalists have been killed worldwide over the past 20 years, an average of more than 80 a year, according to an analysis published by Reporters Without Borders.

Russian leader Vladimir Putin yesterday told Chinese President Xi Jinping he was keen to ramp up military cooperation and hailed the two countries’ efforts to counter Western influence.

US President Joe Biden, France’s Emmanuel Macron and German Chancellor Olaf Scholz will not be receiving New Year’s greetings from Russian leader Vladimir Putin, the Kremlin said yesterday.

Russian President Vladimir Putin will hold talks by video link with Chinese leader Xi Jinping today, the Kremlin said, as Russia seeks to bolster

Germany on Wednesday shrugged off Russia's ban on oil sales to countries and companies that comply with a price cap agreed by Western allies, saying it has "no practical significance".

Russian forces shelled and bombed towns and cities in eastern and southern Ukraine yesterday, a day after Russia’s foreign minister said Kyiv must accept Moscow’s demands for ending the war or else suffer defeat on the battlefield.

Protesting Serbs in the ethnically divided city of Mitrovica in northern Kosovo erected new barricades on Tuesday, hours after Serbia said it had put its army on the highest combat alert following weeks of escalating tensions between Belgrade and Pristina.

Russia yesterday placed a senior journalist with the Bellingcat investigative website on a wanted list, following his extensive reporting on Moscow’s offensive in Ukraine.

Christian Aid and ActionAid yesterday became the latest foreign aid groups to suspend operations in Afghanistan after the country’s Taliban rulers ordered all NGOs to stop women staff from working.

Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelensky yesterday said he sought India’s help with implementing a “peace formula” in a phone call with Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

A French man suspected of killing three people in a “racist” attack at a Kurdish cultural centre in Paris has been transferred to a psychiatric unit, prosecutors said, as police and demonstrators clashed in the French capital.

Pope Francis called for an end to the war in Ukraine and other conflicts in his Christmas message yesterday, saying the world was suffering from a “famine of peace”.

<B>Pope Francis called for an end to the war in Ukraine and other conflicts in his Christmas message on Sunday, saying the world was suffering from a “famine of peace”.</B>.Delivering the 10th Christmas “Urbi et Orbi” (to the city and the world) blessing and message of his pontificate, h