BUSINESS

Bitcoin hit a record high above $109,000 on Monday as Donald Trump, who has signalled plans to deregulate the cryptocurrency sector, prepares to be sworn in as US president.

A year of unprecedented pressures on the global football calendar begins with a Champions League first, as two rounds of matches in Europe's elite club competition take place in January and some of the continent's biggest names face a scrap to avoid a humiliating exit.

Within five hours while sitting at home in India, retired professor Kamta Prasad Singh handed over his hard-earned savings to online fraudsters impersonating police.

South Korea's impeached President Yoon Suk Yeol had his mug shot taken and underwent a physical check before spending his first night in jail as a criminal suspect, a prison officer said Monday.

Most Asian markets rose Monday following a rally on Wall Street and record-breaking day in Europe, with sentiment boosted by positive talks between Donald Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping that soothed worries about the incoming US leader's second term.

A leading NGO warned Monday of an emerging "aristocratic oligarchy" with massive political clout and primed to profit from Donald Trump's presidency, as global elites descend on Davos for their annual confab.

US President-elect Donald Trump vowed a blitz of emergency actions Sunday at a huge victory rally on the eve of his inauguration, starting with a crackdown on an "invasion" of immigrants at the border with Mexico.

Thousands of supporters of US President-elect Donald Trump braved long waits in freezing temperatures, rain and snow to attend a "victory rally" in the US capital on Sunday, saying they were eager to see him get to work.

Exhausted Los Angeles firefighters on Sunday braced for the return of yet more dangerously strong gusts, as California's governor slammed "hurricane-force winds of misinformation" surrounding blazes that have killed 27 people.

Barbed wire lines the road to work for Pawel Sawicki, deputy spokesman of the Auschwitz museum at the site of the former Nazi death camp that was liberated 80 years ago this month.

TikTok went dark in the United States on Sunday as millions of dismayed users found themselves barred from the popular app, with President-elect Donald Trump vowing to seek a reprieve.

Built in just days as Covid-19 cases spiked in Wuhan in early 2020, the Huoshenshan Hospital was once celebrated as a symbol of the Chinese city's fight against the virus that first emerged there.

For Curtis Sparrer, a work-from-home evangelist, an office is nothing less than a "corporate jail."

Donald Trump landed in Washington on Saturday ahead of his inauguration, with the billionaire Republican set to attend a series of events and celebrations before reclaiming the presidency.

Lighter winds in the Los Angeles area this weekend brought momentary respite to the thousands of firefighters battling deadly wildfires, but meteorologists said stronger winds would add to "critical fire weather" as soon as Monday.

Thousands gathered in northern Liberia on Saturday for the funeral of warlord-turned-politician Prince Johnson, a notorious face of the country's brutal civil wars who died without facing trial.

Benedetta slid a manicured nail through the sellotape of a mystery package to unwrap a garden hoe and earbuds.

A Russian missile strike on the Ukrainian capital killed three people on Saturday, Ukrainian leaders said, in branding it a "heinous" attack, while Moscow called it "retaliation" for bombardments on its territory.

A ceasefire in the Gaza war will begin Sunday morning at 0630 GMT, mediator Qatar said on Saturday after Israel's cabinet voted to approve the truce and hostage-prisoner release deal.

TikTok says it will "go dark" in the United States on Sunday, threatening access to the app for 170 million users, unless the government provides assurances that a law mandating its sale or ban won't be used to punish service providers.

Iga Swiatek demolished Emma Raducanu on Saturday to sweep into the last 16 of the Australian Open, where Jannik Sinner will later step up his title defence and young tyro Learner Tien is also in action.

An avalanche of disinformation about a new economic measure proved so tricky for Brazil's government to navigate that they backtracked entirely this week in a rout egged on by the opposition.

Israel's cabinet voted to approve a Gaza ceasefire and hostage release deal on Saturday, the office of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said, ending days of uncertainty about whether the truce would go into effect this weekend.

Skepticism rages about whether Elon Musk actually put in the hours to become a top player of video games "Diablo IV" and "Path of Exile 2."

Elon Musk's self-proclaimed persona as a top-class gamer took a thrashing on Friday, as video game enthusiasts mercilessly mocked the tech billionaire following a disastrous performance in a livestream.

The US Treasury Department will start taking "extraordinary measures" next week to avoid risking a default on government debt, Secretary Janet Yellen said Friday, days before President-elect Donald Trump takes office.

The United States unveiled a new rule Friday to tighten an exemption allowing low-value imports to enter the country duty-free, taking aim at Chinese shipments that might be benefiting from it.

Chancellor Olaf Scholz on Friday laid out his vision to secure the future of Germany's ailing economy at a campaign event in the historic home base of the crisis-hit auto titan Volkswagen.

Tech bigwigs like Mark Zuckerberg, Jeff Bezos and Elon Musk plan to attend Monday's events.