The charming German city of Luebeck was lovingly done up for the holidays with fairy lights and garlands but the usual festive bustle was eerily absent this pandemic-scarred winter. Across the country, all non-essential businesses have been forced to shut until at least mid-January to help...

 The EU campaign to vaccinate Europeans against COVID-19 has got off to an uneven start in what will be a marathon effort to administer shots to enough of the bloc's 450 million people to defeat the viral pandemic. The vaccination drive kicked off at the weekend, with health workers...

Belarusian leader Alexander Lukashenko said on Monday that a National Assembly of unelected delegates would meet in February for the first time since 2016, part of a reform plan critics view as a stalling tactic to weather a political crisis. Belarus has been rocked by mass protests since...

Iran's state gas company said on Monday it had slashed supplies to neighbouring Iraq over arrears of more than $6 billion, after the Iraqi electricity ministry said the cuts placed Baghdad and other cities at risk of serious power shortages. "The Iraqi Ministry of Electricity owes more than...