There is a trope that Pacific nations are merely pawns in a global contest, but the Premier of Malaita has played a strong geopolitical game.

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Carlos Nuzman has been found guilty of corruption and other crimes. A former Rio governor and two other officials have also been sentenced.

Honiara is on fire, the local high school has been looted, rioters have torched a timber company and protesters have vandalised Chinese-owned businesses. Why?

France and Italy are signing a new treaty, keen to navigate together the economic uncertainty, a more assertive Russia, a rising China and a more disengaged US.

A fire at a coal mine in Russia’s Siberia has killed at least 14 people and injured more than 40, with dozens of others remaining trapped, authorities said.

Gratitude is in short supply this Thanksgiving. Instead, the overwhelming sentiments are grumpiness and pessimism.

PM Manasseh Sogavare rejected criticism of the Pacific nation’s 2019 decision to end diplomatic relations with Taiwan in favour of Beijing.

Moon Jae-in, the president and a known animal-lover, has suggested it was time to ban the sale and consumption of dog meat.

B.1.1529 is likely to have evolved during a chronic infection of an immunocompromised person, possibly in an untreated HIV/AIDS patient, said one researcher.

National Geographic magazine’s famed green-eyed “Afghan Girl” has arrived in Italy as part of the West’s evacuation of Afghans following the Taliban takeover of the country.

Human rights groups have condemned the election of an Emirati general accused of torture and a senior Chinese official to key posts on Interpol.

Honiara was put into lockdown after protesters demanding the Prime Minister’s resignation set fire to parts of Parliament and several other buildings on Wednesday. 

Shingo Yamagami emphasised Taiwan’s importance to the “peace and stability” across the East China Sea, the Pacific and the world.

Forty year later, Anthony Broadwater has been exonerated after a producer working on a new film adaptation of Sebold’s memoir raised doubts about the prosecution.

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The advice is timely for Prime Minister Boris Johnson, who is expecting his seventh child in coming weeks and has attracted questions about his wellbeing after he gave a rambling speech to business leaders.  

Three white men were convicted of murdering an unarmed black man in Georgia that became part of the larger American reckoning on racial injustice.

Member states are meeting next week to begin discussions on a new pandemic treaty that former New Zealand prime minister Helen Clark says could be agreed in as soon as six months.

The shake-up plunged the country into political uncertainty - and showed the difficulty of forming coalitions that exclude the anti-immigration Sweden Democrats from power. 

Almost 30 people died after their dinghy capsized while crossing the Channel from France to Britain, in the worst disaster on record involving migrants in the waters separating the countries.

Social Democrat leader Olaf Scholz said he had reached a coalition deal to form a new government that would modernise Europe’s largest economy and accelerate the green transition.

France is courting Indonesia and has pointedly omitted Australia from its strategy as anger continues to simmer over the cancelled $90b submarines contract.

The latest statistical yearbook puts the number of children born between 2000 and 2010 at 172.5 million, well above the 2010 census count.

On a 42-degree day at Melbourne Park, and in front of the world’s most powerful political organisation, Chinese tennis star Peng Shuai showed breathtaking courage.

The durability of T-cells from the Oxford University jab could be keeping older people safer than those on the European continent.

White nationalist leader Richard Spencer vowed to appeal the verdict over the Charlottesville rally, saying its “entire theory is fundamentally flawed”.

A Boston Globe survey identified at least 139 incidents in which vehicles rammed into crowds of demonstrators since George Floyd’s death in May 2020.

Brian Laundrie had been the subject of a manhunt as investigators searched for clues in the slaying of his girlfriend during their cross-country van trip together.

Auction house Christie’s had estimated the value of the manuscript at between €2 million and €3 million. 

President Joe Biden has ordered 50 million barrels of oil released from America’s strategic reserve to help bring down energy costs.

Newly released records provide the most detailed look yet at the last days of the disgraced financier, and show mistake after mistake made by jail and bureau officials.

Chun, who seized power in a 1979 coup and brutally crushed pro-democracy protests before going to prison for misdeeds while in office, died at his home in Seoul.

Television footage showed the bus charred and gutted by fire in the middle of the highway, which was wet from rain.

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Even as case rises in neighbouring countries have sparked new lockdowns, the Macron government has relied on its 70 per cent full vaccination rate for protection.

The mass vaccination of children could make a real difference to preventing the future spread of the coronavirus, medical researchers say.

Arbitrators found the actor violated his contract’s demands for professional behaviour by “engaging certain conduct in connection with several crew members”.

The royals are up in arms about a new BBC documentary, but it should be remembered they would rather nothing negative ever appeared in the media about them.

Meanwhile, German Chancellor Angela Merkel reached out to Belarusian opposition leader in exile Svetlana Tikhanouskaya in support of free elections.

Downing Street condemned the targeting of the 56-year-old, while Police Scotland confirmed it was investigating the protest.

The driver was arrested after at least five people died and more than 40 others were injured when a vehicle ploughed through a Christmas parade in the US.

A series featured several rioters who floated an unfounded conspiracy theory that the federal government facilitated the storming of the US Capitol to entrap supporters of Donald Trump. 

If President Biden announces a diplomatic boycott of the Games, other nations will follow.

Federal prosecutors had asked the judge to restrict the psychologist’s testimony, calling some of her opinions “unreliable”.

The appearance of Chinese tennis star Peng Shuai in a series of orchestrated videos after she was missing for more than two weeks has been described as “disturbing on another level” by human rights advocates.

In one video posted on social media, a red sport utility vehicle appeared to speed toward holiday parade marchers.

Prabowo Subianto has revealed a pragmatism about Australia’s submarine ambitions, saying he understands countries “will do whatever they can to protect themselves”.

The best photos from the international wire agencies as chosen by our picture editors

A number of demonstrators carried rifles as they traced the route Kyle Rittenhouse took last year when he shot and killed two people during protests over police brutality.