Russia wants the Ukrainian people to be independent and have the possibility to freely define their destiny, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said on Friday.

Missiles pounded Kyiv on Friday and families cowered in bomb shelters as Russian forces pressed their advance and authorities said they were girding for an assault aimed at overthrowing the government.

Ukraine wants peace and is ready for talks with Russia, including on neutral status regarding NATO, Ukrainian presidential advisor Mykhailo Podolyak told Reuters on Friday.

The prayers of the entire world are with the people of Ukraine tonight as they suffer an unprovoked and unjustified attack by Russian military forces. … The world will hold Russia accountable.

US President Joe Biden met with his counterparts from the Group of Seven allies on Thursday morning to map out more severe measures against Russia after President Vladimir Putin launched what Biden called "a premeditated war" against Ukraine.

India’s Covid-19 death toll today crossed the grim milestone of five lakh with the addition of 1,072 fresh fatalities,

US President Joe Biden has approved sending additional forces to eastern Europe, two U.S. officials told Reuters on Wednesday, as Washington reinforces its allies against what it describes as a Russian threat to invade Ukraine.

India says it has fully vaccinated 75 percent of its estimated 94 crore adult population with Covid-19 vaccines.

When the coronavirus began spreading around the world, the remote Pacific archipelago of Kiribati closed its borders, ensuring the disease didn’t reach its shores for nearly two full years.

A member of Ukraine’s National Guard on Thursday opened fire on his fellow soldiers, killing five people and wounding five more, Ukraine’s Interior Ministry said. The serviceman was detained by police but his motives remain unclear.

A lone gunman wounded several people at a lecture hall in the southwestern German city of Heidelberg on Monday, police said.

Burkina Faso President Roch Kabore has been detained at a military camp by mutinying soldiers, four security sources and a West African diplomat said on Monday, following heavy gunfire around his residence on Sunday night in the capital Ouagadougou.

The European Union is ready to impose "never-seen-before" economic sanctions on Russia if it attacks Ukraine, Denmark said on Monday, and EU foreign ministers said they would send a unified warning to Moscow.

A former minister in Britain’s Conservative government says she was told her Muslim faith was a reason she was fired, a claim that has deepened the rifts roiling Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s governing party.

At least 17 people were killed and scores injured when a truck carrying explosives to a gold mine in western Ghana collided with a motorcycle, setting off an explosion that flattened a rural community, the government said on Friday.

France’s interior minister said on Wednesday he had ordered the closure of a mosque on the French Riviera because of anti-Semitic remarks made there.

A strong earthquake struck off the coast of eastern Taiwan on Monday evening with shaking felt in the capital Taipei, but authorities said there were no immediate reports of widespread damage or injuries.

Bangladesh and India have resumed monitoring the water level of the Ganges and Padma rivers at different points under the Ganges Water Sharing Treaty 1996.

At least 12 people were killed and 14 injured in a stampede caused by a surge of devotees on the New Year's Day at a famous hill-top Hindu shrine in Jammu and Kashmir, Indian media reported today.

Iran said Thursday it launched a rocket with a satellite carrier bearing three devices into space, though it’s unclear if any of the objects entered orbit around the Earth.