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After arguably the most challenging year of his near-decade rule of North Korea, Kim Jong Un is sticking to his guns.

When the UK Prime Minister addressed the nation on December 20, the news was bad enough: Christmas was canceled.

The insurrection at the US Capitol has sparked a political firestorm and unnerved millions of Americans. It has also unleashed a wave of criticism over the role played by pro-Trump media outlets such as Fox News, which fed lies and conspiracy theories about the election to angry supporters of the president for weeks.

Apple, along with Amazon and Google, effectively kicked Parler off the internet in the wake of the January 6 US Capitol siege. Despite criticism that Big Tech wields too much power over speech, Apple CEO Tim Cook defended his decision.

Kremlin critic Alexey Navalny was ordered to remain in custody for 30 days during a surprise hearing in Russia on Monday, less than 24 hours after he returned to the country and five months after he was poisoned with the nerve agent Novichok.

When Costco opened its first store in China in 2019, it wasn't just the hot rotisserie chickens and discounted Birkin bags that lured frenzied crowds. A fiery, throat-tingling liquor called Kweichow Moutai also flew off shelves.

The French government has put an abrupt end to a $20 billion takeover of the country's biggest retailer by Canada's largest convenience store operator.

Ghana's Covid-19 infection rates are skyrocketing and include new strains of the virus not before seen in the country, filling treatment centres and threatening to overwhelm the health system, President Nana Akufo-Addo said on Sunday.

As Indonesia continues to count the number of dead from last week's earthquake on Sulawesi island, search and rescue teams are being stretched to breaking point, as they grapple with a series of disasters unfolding across the country.

China's economy grew more than expected last year, even as the rest of the world was upended by the coronavirus pandemic.

Speaking to reporters after casting her ballot in the Ugandan capital Kampala last week, one local resident was overjoyed to have voted for opposition leader Bobi Wine.

• Live updates: Australia's border restrictions likely to remain for most of 2021 • Why teachers are being sent to the Covid frontlines, some without PPE or even pay

China has revealed a prototype for a new high-speed Maglev train that is capable of reaching speeds of 620 kilometers (385 miles) per hour.

Russia's leading opposition figure and chief Kremlin critic, Alexey Navalny, has left Berlin on a flight bound for Moscow, where he will likely be greeted by his supporters as well as authorities poised to arrest him.

Amid a devastating resurgence of the coronavirus in parts of Brazil, federal health officials have finally voted to authorize two vaccines for emergency use. Sunday, Brazilian regulatory agency Anvisa approved both the Oxford/AstraZeneca vaccine and the Coronavac vaccine.

Russia's leading Kremlin critic, Alexey Navalny, was detained by local police, moments after his return to the country and five months after he was poisoned with the nerve agent Novichok. CNN's Frederik Pleitgen reports Navalny had originally been scheduled to land at Vnukovo airport, where a crowd of hundreds of supporters and journalists waited. CNN has been unable to establish why the flight was diverted.

Spanish mountaineer Sergi Mingote has died while climbing K2, the world's second highest summit, Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez announced Saturday.

Uganda's longtime leader Yoweri Museveni has been re-elected for a sixth term amid allegations of fraud and lack of transparency around the vote count.

England's historic Salisbury Cathedral was transformed into a Covid-19 vaccination center on Saturday, with patients vaccinated while organ music was played in the picturesque building.