The 77-year-old veteran leftist, who previously led Brazil from 2003 to 2010, took the oath of office before Congress, capping a remarkable political comeback for the metalworker-turned-president less than five years after he was jailed on corruption charges.

With Malaysian Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim’s ascension to power, Jakarta and Kuala Lumpur would soon see a “new force” that would likely enhance their relationship, said visiting Malaysian Foreign Minister Zambry Abdul Kadir on Friday.

Wang was replaced as China's foreign minister on Friday by Qin Gang, former ambassador to the United States, but he was widely expected to retain a prominent role in foreign policy after his promotion in October to the Communist Party's Politburo, the country's top decision-making body.

Qin, 56, replaces Wang Yi, who has been foreign minister for the past decade. Wang, 69, was promoted to the politburo of the Chinese Communist Party in October and is expected to play a bigger role in Chinese foreign policy. 

Three years after the coronavirus first emerged in the Chinese city of Wuhan, Beijing this month began ditching its hardline containment policy known as "zero-Covid". 

The social media giant had previously said it will decide by Jan 7 whether to allow the former president to return. However, that decision is now expected to be announced later in the month, the newspaper said, citing a person familiar with the matter.

Many were ready to set aside pinched budgets and a virus that is increasingly forgotten but not gone, and embrace a party atmosphere on New Year's Eve after a few pandemic-dampened years.

Last month, Beijing abruptly began dismantling its "zero-Covid" containment policy of lockdowns and mass testing, three years after the coronavirus first emerged in the city of Wuhan.

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

The Palestinians on Saturday welcomed a vote by the United Nations General Assembly requesting that the International Court of Justice (ICJ) provide an opinion on the legal consequences of Israel's occupation of the Palestinian territories.

The world's eight billion people on Saturday prepared to usher in 2023 and farewell a turbulent 12 months marked by war in Europe, stinging price rises and Lionel Messi's world cup glory.

The close encounter followed what the United States has called a recent trend of increasingly dangerous behavior by Chinese military aircraft.

Chinese state-media said COVID testing requirements imposed by several places around the world in response to a surging wave of infections were "discriminatory", in the clearest pushback yet against restrictions that are slowing down its re-opening.

Hospitals and crematoriums across China continue to be overwhelmed by the explosion of Covid cases, which have hit the elderly especially hard.

United States National Guard troops trudged door-to-door on Wednesday looking for winter storm victims who may be unaccounted for in parts of Buffalo hit by prolonged power outages, after a deadly Christmas blizzard that buried New York's second-largest city in blinding snow.

Senior security and law enforcement officials have already voiced concern over its direction, as have Palestinians.

An explosion of COVID-19 cases in China as the country lifts its zero-COVID measures could create a "potential breeding ground" for new variants to emerge, health experts warn.

The United Nations refugee agency UNHCR has commended Indonesia for rescuing hundreds of Rohingya refugees who were stranded at sea for weeks and called on other nations in the region to do their part to address the fresh boat crisis.

China late Monday scrapped quarantine for inbound travellers from January 8 onwards, dismantling the last remaining piece of its stringent zero-Covid policy and ending some of the world's harshest border restrictions.

Nearly 500 Rohingya have reached Indonesia in the past six weeks while "many others did not act despite numerous pleas and appeals for help", the UNHCR said in a statement.

The letter -- marking two years since Morocco normalised ties with Israel -- was the first occasion an Israeli state official has paid tribute to the Holocaust-era actions of Morocco's monarch at the time, according to the presidency.

The United States "is following the science and advice of public health experts, consulting with partners, and considering taking similar steps... to protect the American people," said the officials, who spoke on condition of anonymity, citing concern expressed by the WHO as well as measures adopted by Japan, India and Malaysia.

Chinese hospitals were under intense pressure on Wednesday as a surge of COVID-19 infections strained resources in the last major country to move towards treating the virus as endemic.

He took flack from early morning Fox News hosts for being "ready to go have a good time" while Americans confront the blizzard.

The US government's two-year-old policy of invoking COVID-19 precautions to turn away hundreds of thousands of migrants at the Mexican border will remain in place for now, the Supreme Court ruled Tuesday.

Tokyo has eased its restrictions on tourists in recent months and the move means travellers from China will be the only visitors required to take COVID-19 tests on arrival, other than those who are displaying symptoms.

Protests have gripped Iran since the September 16 death of Iranian-Kurdish Amini, 22, after her arrest in Tehran for an alleged breach of the country's strict dress code for women. Tehran generally calls the protests "riots".