World

Ethiopia's government on Friday denied that the war in its northern Tigray region was preventing aid reaching civilians, as two foreign aid agencies confirmed some staff had been killed there and urged all sides to do more to protect noncombatants.

When Dr. Deborah Birx was brought into President Donald Trumps orbit to help fight the coronavirus pandemic, she had a sterling reputation as a former U.S. Army physician, a globally recognized AIDS researcher and a rare Obama administration holdover.

Veteran Palestinian negotiator and women's rights advocate Hanan Ashrawi resigned on Wednesday from her senior post in the Palestine Liberation Organization, and called for political reforms.

Canada is in the midst of a virulent second wave of the pandemic, with several areas of the country imposing new health restrictions, weighing down what had been a clear rebound after the first wave.

U.S. drugmaker Pfizer and its German partner BioNTech said on Wednesday that regulation documents related to their development of a COVID19 vaccine had been "unlawfully accessed" in a cyberattack on Europe's medicines regulator.

The United States on Wednesday slapped sanctions on Wan Kuok Kai, the leader of China's 14K Triad organized crime group and a member of the Chinese Communist Party's Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference, the U.S. Treasury said.

Finland's foreign minister Pekka Haavisto should not face charges despite breaking the law in an effort to quickly bring to Finland children of Finnish mothers who joined Islamic State, a parliamentary committee ruled on Wednesday.

Ukraine will introduce tight lockdown restrictions in January, hoping to stop the rapid spread of COVID19 infections, Prime Minister Denys Shmygal said on Wednesday.

United Nations human rights chief Michelle Bachelet voiced concern on Wednesday at the "rapidly shrinking" civil and democratic space in Hong Kong and urged judicial authorities to uphold the right to due process and fair trial.

United Nations human rights boss Michelle Bachelet called on Wednesday for the withdrawal of a draft law in France known as "Article 24" that would curb freedom to share images identifying police.

The European Union and Britain could still reach a Brexit trade agreement but the bloc's 27 remaining members are prepared to live with no deal if necessary, German Chancellor Angela Merkel said on Wednesday.

China said on Wednesday that it will take measures to uphold the rights of Chinese companies, in response to the United States blacklisting companies and ships accused of breaking sanctions on North Korea.

Election officials have declared Biden as the President-elect as he received more than the required 270 of the 538 electoral college votes. The elections are officially scheduled to be certified next week.

Two Canadian men who have been detained by China for more than two years, in what Canada sees as retribution for its arrest of a Chinese executive, are in good mental and physical condition, Ottawa's ambassador to Beijing said on Tuesday.

U.S. coronavirus cases crossed the 15 million mark on Tuesday as regulators moved a step closer to approving a COVID19 vaccine and Britain started inoculating people, offering hope of slowing a pandemic that killed 15,000 Americans in the last week alone.

President Vladimir Putin signed a law on Tuesday allowing Russia's national legislation precedence over international treaties and rulings from international bodies in cases when they conflict with the Russian constitution.