WORLD

Japan is set to earmark 40 trillion to 43 trillion yen ($295 billion-$318 billion) for defence spending over five years starting in the next fiscal year, which begins in April, three sources with knowledge of the matter told Reuters on Friday.

Swedish-Swiss engineering giant ABB has been fined four million Swiss francs ($4.3 million) over bribery linked to the construction of a huge power plant in South Africa, Switzerland announced on Friday.

A US-led coalition fighting jihadists resumed regular patrols in Kurdish-held areas of northeast Syria on Friday after earlier Turkish air strikes, an AFP correspondent and a Kurdish military source said.

The West's plan to starve Russia of resources to fight its war in Ukraine by imposing a price cap on its oil exports hit a diplomatic logjam in Brussels on Friday.

Candidate says, "Every human being has something of value that they brought to the table, especially Hitler."

China on Thursday accused a committee of British lawmakers visiting Taiwan of "gross interference" in China's internal affairs and threatened a forceful response to anything that undermines Chinese interests.

Unemployment in the eurozone has dropped to a record low, at 6.5 percent in October, the EU's Eurostat statistics office said Thursday.

A 27-year-old man was reportedly shot dead by Iranian security forces for celebrating his national football team's defeat against the US in the FIFA World Cup.

OPEC oil output has fallen in November, led by top exporter Saudi Arabia and other Gulf members, after the wider OPEC+ alliance pledged steep output cuts to support the market amid a worsening economic outlook.

Former Chinese leader Jiang Zemin died Wednesday at the age of 96, state media reported, hailing him as a great communist revolutionary who helped quell the 1989 pro-democracy protests.

The OPEC+ decision to hold its Dec. 4 meeting virtually signals little likelihood of a policy change, sources told Reuters on Wednesday, as the group assesses the impact of the looming Russian oil-price cap on the market.

Three men managed to survive their eleven-day voyage on a ship's rudder.

Italy's ruling rightist parties are preparing to vote on allowing the government to continue sending weapons to Ukraine throughout 2023, a draft amendment and a parliamentary motion seen by Reuters showed on Tuesday.

The European Commission on Tuesday updated drone rules in a bid to boost a fast-growing commercial market while measures to tackle the malicious use of drones will be adopted in the near future.

Belgium launches its largest ever trial on Wednesday to determine whether 10 accused men played a part in the 2016 Islamist bombings of Brussels airport and the city's metro that killed 32 people and injured more than 300.

Ukraine said on Monday that Russia was preparing for a fresh wave of missile attacks on its energy grid that have plunged swathes of the country into the cold and dark.

At least seven people, including a newborn baby and two children, were killed on the southern Italian holiday island of Ischia after a landslide caused by torrential rain devastated a small town, an official said on Sunday.

Fossil fuel producers benefited from sympathetic treatment in Egypt at the COP27 climate talks, government officials said, bringing their influence to bear in rushed final negotiations and frustrating those who hoped for a more ambitious outcome.

Software developer Victor Varlamov logs in every morning to work on a sunny Spanish island off the coast of Africa after the prospect of steep heating bills and a winter made harsher by the Ukraine war drove him to leave his adoptive home in Poland.

Australia's Labor government said it will move a parliamentary censure motion against former Liberal prime minister Scott Morrison this week after an inquiry found his secret appointment to multiple ministries undermined trust in government.

Chinese protesters have turned to blank sheets of paper to express their anger over COVID-19 restrictions in a rare, widespread outpouring of public dissent that has gone beyond social media to some of China's streets and top universities.

Oil prices fell close to their lowest this year on Monday as street protests against strict COVID-19 curbs in China, the world's biggest crude importer, stoked concern over the outlook for fuel demand.

European Union ministers warned on Friday that time was running out to resolve differences with Washington over U.S.

French members of parliament are expected to vote for the first time Thursday on a complete ban on bullfighting, after a national debate that has pitched animal rights defenders against fans of the traditional blood sport.

Russian lawmakers unanimously approved a bill banning all forms of LGBTQ "propaganda" in a final reading on Thursday, as Moscow presses ahead with its conservative drive at home while its troops fight in Ukraine.

The European Commission is likely to approve next week Hungary's post-pandemic recovery plan to keep open the possibility of EU disbursements later, but hold back any payouts until Budapest fulfils all agreed conditions, sources at the EU executive said.

Donald Trump was sued for defamation a second time on Thursday by a writer who accused the former U.S. president of lying by denying that he raped her 27 years ago.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy appealed to the United Nations Security Council on Wednesday to take action to stop Russian air strikes targeting vital infrastructure that have once again plunged Ukrainian cities into darkness and cold as winter sets in.

EU energy ministers failed Thursday to agree a cap on gas prices to mitigate the energy crunch in Europe amid deep divisions over an initial proposal slammed by many as a "joke."