Iran has failed to explain traces of uranium found at several undeclared sites, a report by the UN nuclear watchdog showed on Monday, possibly setting up a fresh diplomatic clash between Tehran and the West that could derail wider nuclear talks.

The employers of an American journalist detained by Myanmar authorities said yesterday they were yet to receive any information on his whereabouts or wellbeing, a week after he was detained. Managing editor of news outlet Frontier Myanmar Danny Fenster, a US citizen, was detained on May 24 as he attempted to board a plane to leave military-ruled Myanmar.

Amid an ongoing tussle between the Centre and West Bengal government, state chief secretary Alapan Bandyopadhyay yesterday retired from his post and joined chief minister Mamata Banerjee as her chief adviser.

World Health Organization members yesterday agreed to strengthen the global body at the heart of the pandemic response and give it more secure and flexible funding to better deal with future outbreaks.

Political rivals of Israel’s right-wing Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu raced yesterday to forge a diverse coalition to oust the country’s longest-serving leader.

The US spied on top politicians in Europe, including German Chancellor Angela Merkel, from 2012 to 2014 with the help of Danish intelligence, Danish and European media reported on Sunday.

China will allow couples to have three children after a census showed its population is rapidly ageing, state media said yesterday, further unwinding four decades of strict family planning controls in the world’s most populous nation.

Gunmen kidnapped scores of children from an Islamic seminary in central Nigeria, officials said, the latest mass abduction to hit Africa’s most populous nation.

Hong Kong police have arrested an elderly democracy activist as she made a solo demonstration over China’s deadly Tiananmen crackdown in a vivid illustration of the zero protest tolerance now wielded by authorities in the financial hub.

Egypt's intelligence chief met Hamas leaders in Gaza on Monday in an effort to bolster a ceasefire between them and Israel and to discuss reconstruction plans following the recent hostilities, Egyptian and Palestinian officials said.

The US National Security Agency (NSA) used a partnership with Denmark's foreign intelligence unit to spy on senior officials of neighbouring countries, including German Chancellor Angela Merkel, Danish state broadcaster DR said.

Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau asked Sunday that flags at all federal buildings be flown at half-staff to honor more than 200 children whose remains have been found buried at what was once Canada’s largest Indigenous residential school — one of the institutions that held children taken from families across the nation.

China’s ruling Communist Party will ease birth limits to allow all couples to have three children instead of two to cope with the rapid rise in the average age of its population, a state news agency said Monday.

Greece reacted angrily on Sunday to a statement by Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu that described members of a Muslim minority in northern Greece as Turkish and that said they were not accorded full civic rights.

Ukraine’s ambassador to Thailand died early yesterday on the southern beach island of Koh Lipe while on vacation with his son, police said, with the cause of death still undetermined.

Hollywood actor Steven Seagal, a long-time admirer of Russian President Vladimir Putin, has joined a pro-Kremlin party, the party said yesterday.

The 46-year old Chinese Zhang Hong has scaled the tallest peak in the world from the Nepal side, becoming the first blind man in Asia and the third in the world to climb Mount Everest.

World leaders yesterday called for more action and inclusion of all countries in the global drive towards a cleaner and greener planet at a climate summit hosted virtually by South Korea.

At least 25 people have died after drinking toxic alcohol in northern India, police said yesterday.

Israeli and Egyptian officials yesterday held talks in both countries aimed at bolstering the Cairo-brokered ceasefire that ended the latest deadly flare-up of violence between the Jewish state and Gaza’s Hamas rulers.