BUSINESS

Chancellor Olaf Scholz visited Ukraine on Monday to reaffirm German support for Kyiv after becoming the first major ally of the war-torn country to speak to Vladimir Putin in years to urge negotiations.

Malaysia's jailed ex-leader Najib Razak began his defence Monday against graft charges tied to more than $500 million in alleged bribes and several counts of money laundering, saying they were "politically motivated".

German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock on Monday warned her Chinese counterpart that Beijing's support for Moscow would impact ties and instead urged China to help end the Ukraine conflict.

The Syrian military and its ally Russia conducted deadly joint air raids on areas under Islamist-led rebel control on Monday, as they battle a lightning offensive that has wrested swathes of Syria from government control.

App-based food delivery firm Glovo's freelance riders in Spain will be hired as employees following pressure from the government to give them labour contracts, its German owners Delivery Hero said Monday.

AWS launched new Data Transfer Terminals that could upload data at jaw-dropping speeds.

French Prime Minister Michel Barnier faces the biggest risk yet of being deposed by a hostile National Assembly as his government presents Monday a social security financing plan that has the opposition up in arms.

The UN environment chief insisted Monday that talks on a landmark plastic pollution treaty were not a failure, saying important progress was made despite negotiations collapsing without agreement.

Equities rose across Asia on Monday following another record day on Wall Street, with traders also cheered by data suggesting China's economic malaise is showing signs of easing.

Taiwan President Lai Ching-te kicked off his second day in the United States on Sunday, as China fumed over more US arms sales to the island and Lai's stopover in Hawaii that is part of his Pacific tour.

Thousands of Volkswagen workers were to go on strike Monday in an escalating industrial dispute at the crisis-hit German auto giant with thousands of jobs at stake.

Stellantis chief executive Carlos Tavares on Sunday resigned "with immediate effect", the auto giant announced, signalling differences over how to confront the group's profit slump.

The incumbent centre-right parties Fianna Fail and Fine Gael looked set to retain power in Ireland as vote counting in the European Union member's general election resumed on Sunday.

Workers at German factories for carmaker Volkswagen are to go on strike from Monday over plans to cut thousands of jobs, union IG Metall said Sunday.

For Caleb Justin Smith-White, negotiations in South Korea on a landmark global deal to curb plastic pollution are about more than the environment.

Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic on Sunday denied that Belgrade had masterminded a strike on Kosovar infrastructure, saying Kosovo itself had mounted a "hybrid attack" against his country.

Syria's second-largest city Aleppo has fallen from government control for the first time since the country's conflict began more than a decade ago, a war monitor said Sunday, after a surprise advance by rebels.

Iceland's opposition Social Democrats were ahead in vote counting on Sunday after a snap election prompted by the collapse of the fraught coalition government.

A top Bangladeshi politician accused of masterminding a deadly 2004 grenade attack against ex-premier Sheikh Hasina had his conviction quashed Sunday, another step in his expected return from London exile.

Baker Sergo Gornakashvili grew up near Georgia's Pankisi Gorge, haunted by echoes of the wars in nearby Chechnya, before trading his apron for a rifle and dying on Ukraine's front line.

Vast lines of solar panels reflect the blazing sun in India's western deserts, a dazzling ocean broken only by bristling wind turbines.

Malaysia's jailed ex-leader Najib Razak will begin his defence this week against graft charges tied to more than $500 million in alleged bribes, and argue to serve the rest of his sentence under house arrest.

Australia's prime minister said Sunday he was ready to "engage" with billionaire X owner Elon Musk over his criticism of the government's ban on under-16s joining social media.

Three months before elections, Germany's embattled Olaf Scholz kicked off the campaign Saturday by attacking his conservative rival as cold towards the poor but a hothead who would play "Russian roulette" with Moscow.

Kosovo stepped up security measures around "critical" infrastructure Saturday after an explosion at a key canal feeding two of its main power plants, as neighbouring Serbia rejected accusations it had staged the blast.

Rebel forces opposing President Bashar al-Assad have launched their biggest offensive in years this week, controlling a majority of Syria's second city of Aleppo according to a monitor.

Vote counting in Ireland's general election began Saturday with an exit poll indicating a tight finish with the incumbent centre-right coalition most likely to form the next government.

Kosovo stepped up security measures around "critical" infrastructure Saturday after an explosion at a key canal feeding two of its main power plants, as neighbouring Serbia rejected accusations it had staged the blast.

Greenpeace activists boarded a tanker off South Korea on Saturday in an action intended to draw attention to calls for a treaty to curb plastic pollution, the environmental group said.