Russian forces kept up their offensive in eastern Ukraine as they pressed to encircle the small mining city of Bakhmut, the scene of the toughest fighting in battlefields saturated by rain and an early spring thaw.

The United States asked Mexico's government to extradite Ovidio Guzman, son of jailed drug boss Joaquin "El Chapo" Guzman, so that he can face criminal charges in a US court, two Mexican government sources told Reuters on Monday.

Hong Kong will drop its COVID-19 mask mandate, chief executive John Lee said on Tuesday, in a move to lure back visitors and business and restore normal life more than three years after stringent rules were first imposed in the financial hub.

The US government on Monday announced plans to clamp down on an "alarming" surge in child labor in the country, where the number of illegally employed minors has jumped by two thirds since 2018.

As Britain entered a third week of shortages of salad items, the government told big supermarket groups to re-examine their relationships with farmers.

North Korean leader Kim Jong Un has opened a key party meeting to discuss agricultural development, state media said Monday, following a report of "grave" food shortages in the isolated country.

Japan will purchase 400 Tomahawk missiles from the United States, Prime Minister Fumio Kishida said Monday, as his government beefs up the country's defenses with eyes on threats including China.

Poland has reported outbreaks of African swine fever (ASF) in five wild boar in the northern part of the country, the World Organization for Animal Health (WOAH) said on Monday citing Polish authorities.

A 5.6 magnitude earthquake hit eastern Turkey on Monday, killing one person and wounding dozens others while causing some damaged buildings to collapse, the government's disaster agency said.

China on Monday rejected claims that the COVID-19 pandemic arose from a leak at one of its laboratories, following media reports that the US Department of Energy has determined that was the most likely cause of the outbreak.

The United States warned China of serious consequences were it to provide arms to support Russia's invasion of Ukraine, as Kyiv's top general visited the frontline town of Bakhmut where Ukrainian defenders were holding out against constant attacks.

Four people charged in connection with the killing of 28-year-old model Abby Choi appeared in court on Monday morning, after police found parts of her body in a village house on the outskirts of the financial city.

Billionaire Elon Musk on Sunday accused the media of being racist against whites and Asians after US newspapers dropped a white comic strip author who made derogatory comments about Black Americans.

A Palestinian gunman killed two Israeli brothers as they were driving in the occupied West Bank on Sunday, sparking attacks by Israeli settlers on houses and cars during which one Palestinian was killed, according to officials.

The photo of a father holding his daughter's hand killed in Turkey's February 6 earthquake has provoked an outpouring of sympathy and support from around the world, he told Agence France-Presse.

Heavy snow fell in southern California on Friday, as the first blizzard in a generation pounded the hills around Los Angeles, with heavy rains threatening flooding in other places.

President Joe Biden indicated Friday that he will indeed be announcing a 2024 bid for a second term -- only not right away.

China called Friday for urgent peace talks as it released its plan to end the war in Ukraine, but several Western powers rebuffed the proposals while warning against Beijing's deepening ties to Moscow.

The search for the remaining 12 campers caught in Friday's deadly landslide at an unlicensed campsite in Malaysia continued for a second day, but heavy rains overnight have complicated the operation, officials said.

The death toll after heavy flooding in the Democratic Republic of Congo's capital Kinshasa this week has risen to 169, the United Nations' humanitarian office (OCHA) said on Friday, citing authorities.

Russia fired more than 70 missiles at Ukraine on Friday in one of its biggest attacks since the start of the war, knocking out power in the second-biggest city and forcing Kyiv to implement emergency blackouts nationwide, Ukrainian officials said.

UN chief Antonio Guterres on Friday declared himself "very disturbed" by Elon Musk's suspension of journalists from Twitter, calling it a "dangerous precedent."

Pope Francis is to return to Greece three fragments of Athens' Parthenon temple, in what the Vatican called Friday a gesture of friendship.

In a near pitch-black home set back from fierce fighting in Donbas, Ukraine soldier Volodymyr relishes a few moments of calm before deploying again to the front.