Hunter Biden, the son of US President-elect Joe Biden and a frequent target of Republican attacks, said Wednesday he was under federal investigation about his taxes. The revelation about the probe included no details, but it promises to rekindle Republican rage about the Biden family,...

Prime Minister Narendra Modi was set Thursday to lay the foundations for a huge new Indian parliament, the centrepiece of a grand but contentious redevelopment of New Delhi's colonial-era core. Critics say the 200 billion rupees ($2.7 billion) that the Hindu nationalist government is...

Britain and Canada have already approved the Pfizer-BioNTech Covid-19 vaccine -- will the United States be next? Two dozen independent experts convened by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) will spend Thursday debating the issue during a livestreamed public event, an exercise in...

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. The sanctions also apply to three entities headed...

New York is expected to receive its first doses of the coronavirus vaccine as early as this weekend, Governor Andrew Cuomo said Wednesday. Cuomo said he expected the US Food and Drug Administration to grant emergency authorization for the Pfizer-BioNTech jab on Thursday, paving the way for...

Germany was battling a second virus wave much more deadly than the first on Wednesday with record fatalities, as Joe Biden pledged to inoculate 100 million people in his first 100 days as US president. German Chancellor Angela Merkel is urging regions to take much more drastic action to...

A senior U.S. envoy on Wednesday said the trust and alliance between Washington and Seoul will remain firm regardless of the upcoming change in administrations, South Korea’s foreign ministry said. The remarks came as the U.S. Deputy Secretary of State Stephen Biegun, who helped lead...

China has tested more than a quarter of a million people for the coronavirus after a handful of new cases were detected in the southern city of Chengdu. An elderly couple were diagnosed as confirmed cases on Monday, and authorities have been tracing their close contacts and testing food...

Pfizer chief executive Albert Bourla said Tuesday he understands concerns around the speed at which pharmaceutical companies have produced Covid-19 vaccines, but insisted that no corners had been cut. As Britain on Tuesday became the first Western country to start a mass coronavirus vaccine...

Facebook and Google could be required to pay news outlets for their content in "world first" legislation set to be introduced to Australia's parliament on Wednesday. In one of the most aggressive moves to check the power of the US digital giants, Canberra plans to compel the companies to...

New Zealand security agencies were “almost exclusively” focused on the perceived threat of Islamist terrorism before a white supremacist gunman killed 51 Muslim worshippers last year, a report into the country’s worst massacre found. The Royal Commission of Inquiry also criticised police...

Humiliation in the courts, witnesses who provide more farce than facts and a chief lawyer battling coronavirus -- Donald Trump's efforts to overturn the results of the November 3 presidential election are not going well. And time is running out. The Electoral College is to meet on...

Ethiopia's government denied on Monday that northern forces whom its troops have fought for a month would be able to mount a guerrilla insurgency, while diplomats said a United Nations team was shot at while trying to visit a refugee camp. Federal troops have seized the regional capital...

President-elect Joe Biden on Monday named the team tasked with turning around the United States' floundering efforts to quell the Covid-19 pandemic, nominating Xavier Becerra as his secretary of health. When Biden takes office on January 20, his health team will be immediately responsible...

President Donald Trump says his personal attorney Rudy Giuliani has tested positive for the coronavirus, making him the latest in Trump's inner circle to contract the disease that is now surging across the U.S. Giuliani was exhibiting some symptoms and was admitted Sunday to Georgetown...

Candidates supporting Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro have secured control of the national congress, the electoral board said on Monday, after a parliamentary election which opposition leaders boycotted because of what they said was fraud. The electoral board's president, Indira...

Ethiopia’s northern Tigray region is too volatile for aid to reach hundreds of thousands of civilians in need, humanitarian workers said on Sunday, amid reports of persistent fighting, looting and lawlessness. Aid agencies have warned of a lack of food, medication and body bags in Tigray,...

A Hong Kong pro-democracy politician who fled overseas is being investigated for national security crimes, police said Sunday, confirming they have frozen some of his bank accounts. The revelation comes as international banks in the semi-autonomous city become increasingly tangled up in...

The US has welcomed the formation and the first Leadership Committee meeting of the Afghanistan High Council for National Reconciliation.  The peace body set up in late May has 45 members from across the Afghan political spectrum and is chaired by Abdullah Abdullah. It held its maiden...

South Korea raised its coronavirus alert to the second-highest level in Seoul and surrounding areas Sunday as authorities struggle to contain a fresh outbreak. The country largely brought the virus under control with a "trace, test and treat" approach, but in recent weeks new infections...