World

NEW YORK,  (Reuters) – New York Governor Kathy Hochul revealed 12,000 more people died of COVID-19 than was reported under her disgraced predecessor, making good on her promise for greater transparency on just her second day leading the state.

BEIJING/WASHINGTON, (Reuters) – China yesterday criticized the U.S. “politicization” of efforts to trace the origin of the coronavirus, demanding without any evidence that American labs be investigated, ahead of the release of a U.S.

WASHINGTON,  (Reuters) – A U.S. judge yesterday sanctioned Sidney Powell and other lawyers who sued in Michigan to overturn Democratic President Joe Biden’s election victory over Donald Trump, and suggested they might deserve to lose their law licenses.

LOS ANGELES,  (Reuters) – Porn actor Ron Jeremy yesterday pleaded not guilty to more than 30 counts of sexual assault, including 12 of rape, in the Los Angeles area over a 23 year period.

CHICAGO, (Reuters) – Delta Air Lines yesterday said employees will have to pay $200 more every month for their company-sponsored healthcare plan if they choose to not be vaccinated against COVID-19.

MEXICO CITY, (Reuters) – A deadly weekend fire at on offshore platform in the southern Gulf of Mexico operated by Mexican state oil firm Petroleos Mexicanos (Pemex) could have been caused by a gas leak, Pemex’s chief executive said yesterday.

(Reuters) – A man who appeared as a naked baby on the cover of Nirvana’s 1991 “Nevermind” album has filed a lawsuit against the surviving members of the influential band, alleging the image was child sexual exploitation.

(Reuters) – The Nicaraguan attorney general’s office on Tuesday accused prominent journalist Carlos Chamorro, a fierce critic of the government of President Daniel Ortega, of money laundering.

BRUSSELS/COPENHAGEN,  (Reuters) – Denmark and Costa Rica are trying to forge an alliance of countries willing to fix a date to phase out oil and gas production and to stop giving permits for new exploration, government ministers said and documents showed.

CARACAS,  (Reuters) – With U.S. sanctions spooking key oil buyers and depriving its government of cash, Venezuela last year inked a deal with a little-known local company to swap crude for food, Reuters has learned.

(Reuters) – President Joe Biden said yesterday the United States is on pace to finish evacuations from Afghanistan by Aug.

LONDON,  (Reuters) – Rolling Stones drummer Charlie Watts, widely regarded as one of the coolest men in rock, a jazz enthusiast and a snappy dresser, died yesterday just three weeks after pulling out of the band’s upcoming U.S.

ALGIERS, (Reuters) – Algeria cut diplomatic relations with Morocco yesterday, citing what it called “hostile actions” by its most populous neighbour with which it has had strained relations for decades.

DAKAR,  (Reuters) – Hissene Habre, the former strongman president of Chad and security ally of the West during the Cold War who was later jailed for war crimes, died yesterday in Senegal at the age of 79, Senegal’s justice minister said.

HANOI,  (Reuters) – Cuba will supply large quantities of its home-grown COVID-19 vaccine, Abdala, to Vietnam and also transfer the production technology to the Southeast Asian country by the end of the year, the Vietnamese health ministry said yesterday.

(Reuters) – The weekend flooding in Tennessee that killed at least 21 people was more destructive than originally estimated, with about 120 homes washed off foundations, destroyed or simply “gone,” officials said today.

GENEVA, (Reuters) – The U.N. human rights chief said today that she had received credible reports of serious violations committed by the Taliban in Afghanistan, including “summary executions” of civilians and Afghan security forces who have surrendered.

(Reuters) – The Russian and British empires battled over Afghanistan in the 19th century, and the United States and the Soviet Union in the 20th.

(Reuters) – The U.S. drug regulator yesterday granted full approval to the Pfizer Inc/BioNTech SE COVID-19 vaccine – the first to secure such Food and Drug Administration validation – prompting President Joe Biden to make a fresh pitch to vaccine skeptics to get the shot to fight the relentless pandemic.

NEW DELHI/LONDON,  (Thomson Reuters Foundation) – From television screens and universities to the national parliament, Afghan women spent two decades battling to have their voices heard and their faces seen.