Prime Minister Mark Rutte on Monday officially apologised for the Dutch state's involvement in slavery in its former colonies, calling it a "crime against humanity".

The crash of the Nairobi-bound Boeing 737 MAX six minutes after take-off from Addis Ababa on March 10, 2019, which killed all passengers and crew aboard, triggered the global grounding of the MAX and the worst crisis in Boeing's history.

A crisis situation was unfolding in Buffalo, in western New York, where a blizzard has left the city marooned, with emergency services unable to reach high impact areas.

The People's Liberation Army said it had conducted a "strike drill" on Sunday in response to unspecified "provocations" and "collusion" between the United States and the self-ruled island.

Shanghai authorities urged residents to stay at home this weekend, seeking a toned-down Christmas in the nation's most populous city as COVID-19 rages nationwide after tough curbs were lifted.

More than a million US power customers were in the dark Friday as a "bomb cyclone" winter storm walloped the country, closing highways, grounding flights and causing misery for Christmas travelers.

North Korea fired two short-range ballistic missiles on Friday, Seoul's military said, the latest in a flurry of sanctions-busting weapons tests.

Women university students across Afghanistan were in disbelief on Wednesday, barred by the Taliban from studying and condemned to a life of feeling "like caged birds". 

Ukrainians generally celebrate Christmas on Jan. 7 in common with Russians, but the country's Orthodox church has gradually shifted from Moscow's orbit in recent years.

Two people were killed and four injured in a shooting in central Paris on Friday, police and prosecutors said, adding that the shooter, in his 60s, had been arrested.

Patients quarrel with doctors to access drugs that are in short supply, like cough medicines and pain killers. Medics are overloaded; infected staff continue to work because of a scarcity of personnel.

The World Bank´s board of directors approved late on Thursday a $500 million project in Brazil to expand sustainability-linked finance and strengthen the private sector’s capacity to access carbon credit markets and help the country curb deforestation.

China is battling a wave of infections that has hit the elderly hard, but has officially logged only a handful of deaths from the coronavirus after the government redefined the criteria by which Covid deaths are counted.

Employees of Chinese tech giant ByteDance improperly accessed data from social media platform TikTok to track journalists in a bid to identify the source of leaks to the media, the company admitted Friday.

Myanmar authorities have arrested more than 110 Rohingya, including children, for traveling "without official documents" as they tried to make their way to Malaysia, state media reported Friday.

Thai Prime Minister Prayut Chan-O-Cha is to seek another term in a general election due to be held in the kingdom before May next year, he told local media on Friday.

Foreign ministers of Myanmar, Laos and Cambodia and Vietnam's deputy foreign minister joined the talks hosted by Thailand's foreign minister, according to Thai foreign ministry spokeswoman Kanchana Patarachoke.

A "once-in-a-generation" winter storm with temperatures as low as -40 degrees Fahrenheit (-40 Celsius) caused Christmas travel chaos in the United States on Thursday, with thousands of flights canceled and major highways closed.

China has requisitioned medical supplies production across the country as millions struggle to obtain basic drugs and testing kits in the face of a surge in COVID-19 cases.

The alleged boss of Asia's biggest crime syndicate and one of the world's most wanted men has been extradited to Australia and arrested on drug trafficking charges, police said Thursday.

Ukraine's president thanked "every American family" in an emotional but defiant address to the US Congress Wednesday aimed at countering growing skepticism over US military aid as Kyiv's war with Russia drags into the new year.

The UN Security Council called for Myanmar's junta to release Aung San Suu Kyi Wednesday as it adopted its first ever resolution on the situation in the turmoil-ridden Southeast Asian country.

The Philippines said Wednesday it was "seriously concerned" over a report that China has started reclaiming several unoccupied land features in the disputed South China Sea. 

Argentina's World Cup heroes had to abandon an open-top bus parade in Buenos Aires on Tuesday as millions of ecstatic fans flooded onto the streets and brought the city to a standstill, with Lionel Messi and his team mates whisked into helicopters to complete the celebrations.

The death toll from a landslide at an unauthorized campsite in Malaysia rose to 25 as search and rescue teams continued to comb muddy terrain on Wednesday.

Elon Musk said Tuesday he would resign as chief executive of Twitter once he finds a replacement, in apparent response to a poll he launched that suggested users wanted him to step down.

US lawmakers have released the text of a $1.7 trillion funding bill which Congress hopes to pass within days to avert a government shutdown.