Monaco Journal - News from Monaco, Monte-Carlo and the world

Phil Mickelson said Wednesday he does not condone human rights violations in Saudi Arabia, on the eve of the first tournament of the divisive LIV Golf Invitational Series near London funded by the Gulf kingdom.

One person was killed and eight injured when a car drove into a group of people in central Berlin on Wednesday, the fire service said.

Officially it is just a research vessel, but China's newly unveiled drone carrier is a clear sign Beijing is rushing to deploy an autonomous swarm of unmanned devices in its push for military supremacy in the Pacific Ocean.

A Japanese man was jailed for 20 months on Wednesday for attacking a Thai academic in Japan where he lives in self-exile following his vocal criticism of the military and monarchy.

Belgium's King Philippe on Wednesday decorated the last surviving Congolese World War II veteran, an AFP correspondent said, during a historic visit to the Democratic Republic of Congo.

US President Joe Biden heads Wednesday to a Latin America summit on a mission to woo back the region as his administration pushed out pledges, including a plan to train half a million health workers.

The OECD warned Wednesday that the world economy will pay a "hefty price" for Russia's invasion of Ukraine as it slashed its 2022 growth forecast and projected higher inflation.

Sepp Blatter and Michel Platini, once the chiefs of world and European football, went on trial in Switzerland on Wednesday over a suspected fraudulent payment.

China has approved the release of dozens of new video games, sending the shares of some of its biggest tech firms soaring Wednesday on hopes that a long-running and painful crackdown on the sector is easing.

Indonesian police have arrested a fugitive accused of masterminding a lucrative scheme in his native Japan to defraud a government fund offering Covid-19 relief subsidies, officials said Wednesday.

Ukrainian forces may have to retreat from the eastern city of Severodonetsk which is being shelled by Russian troops "24 hours a day", an official said Wednesday, following days of raging street battles.

Cambodia and China on Wednesday broke ground on a Beijing-funded project to revamp a naval base that the US fears is intended for Chinese military use.

At least 17 people were killed and dozens injured Wednesday when a train derailed near the central Iranian city of Tabas after hitting an excavator, state media reported.

There are 1.4 billion people in India but none currently on the books of the Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC).

China's US-born double gold medallist Eileen Gu said Tuesday that she will be an ambassador for Salt Lake City's Winter Olympics bid, sparking both anger and support on social media in China.

A flashy Thai cop nicknamed "Joe Ferrari" for his taste in fast cars was on Wednesday jailed for life for torturing a drugs suspect to death during a brutal interrogation.

As the MeToo movement evolves, the film industry is seeking practical ways to ensure its opposition to harassment and abuse is translated into tangible improvements.

Rodolfo Hernandez, a millionaire businessman and ex-mayor under investigation for corruption, has made poverty and government graft the focus of his campaign for the Colombian presidency.

In October 2015, volunteers flooded an impoverished neighborhood of Bucaramanga in northeast Colombia with thousands of pamphlets promising free houses if Rodolfo Hernandez, a millionnaire engineer, were elected mayor.

Gripping a sheep firmly between her legs, Vanesa Castillo holds its head with one hand while she tries to shear off its thick fleece with electric clippers.

Before the launch of Russia's military campaign in Ukraine, printer Sergei Besov was part of a burgeoning art scene centred around in a converted factory in northern Moscow.

The World Health Organization is battling a barrage of disinformation alleging it is scheming to take over health policy in sovereign nations, as it tries to chart a way forward towards averting future pandemics.

The World Bank has sharply slashed its annual growth forecast for China, warning in a report Wednesday that Covid disruptions could further slow recovery in the world's second-largest economy.

India's central bank on Wednesday hiked rates for a second time, as Asia's third-largest economy reels from galloping inflation in the wake of the Ukraine war.

China has approved the release of dozens of new video games, boosting the shares of some of its biggest tech firms Wednesday on hopes that a long-running and painful crackdown on the sector is easing.

Rights groups and families of a British journalist and Brazilian Indigenous expert who went missing deep in the Amazon after receiving threats pleaded Tuesday for authorities to accelerate the search operation.

Russia claimed its forces have taken full control of residential neighbourhoods in eastern Ukraine's Severodonetsk, as President Volodymyr Zelensky vowed the "heroic defence" of the Donbas region will persist against the odds.

Nonito Donaire said he was felled by "the hardest punch I've ever been hit with" as bantamweight king Naoya Inoue inflicted a sensational second-round stoppage on the Filipino veteran in Saitama.

After 25 years and 490 million copies sold worldwide, the beloved Japanese manga "One Piece" is entering its final chapter, according to its creator Eiichiro Oda.

A train bell rouses a Thai grandmother dozing in her fruit and flower stall, sending her rushing to fold in her awning before the locomotive slowly rumbles past, so close it almost touches her wares.

Asian markets rallied Wednesday, building on a hearty performance on Wall Street and helped by the reopening in China, though analysts continue to warn of near-term volatility caused by surging inflation, rising interest rates and the Ukraine war.

Nigeria's ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) party voted on Wednesday in key primaries to choose a candidate for next year's election to replace President Muhammadu Buhari.