The NATO military alliance launched a massive exercise Monday to defend its expanded Nordic territory as concern mounted that Russia’s invasion of Ukraine would escalate into a broader world conflict.

Suspected Iran-backed Houthis cut four Red Sea underwater cables providing internet and telecommunications worldwide in a further escalation of the crisis in the Middle East sparked by the Israel-Hamas war, officials said Monday.

France became the world’s first country to enshrine abortion rights in its constitution on Monday, despite appeals from church leaders to reconsider the move.

The government of Haiti on Sunday declared a “renewable” 72-hour state of emergency after armed gangs stormed three police stations and two prisons , freeing 3,700 prisoners and leading to the deaths of 12 people. The government added that the gangs’ acts of “disobedience” were a threat to national security.

Moscow claims that Ukraine launched a massive drone strike on the Russian-occupied Crimean peninsula on Sunday, prompting Turkey to call for a ceasefire. Sunday’s strike came as Ukrainian authorities said the bodies of a mother and baby found in the rubble of an apartment block hit by a Russian attack in the Ukrainian Black Sea port city of Odesa brought the death toll from a Russian drone attack to 10.

Germany’s Chancellor Olaf Scholz pledged Saturday to investigate a Russian leak of a secret German military meeting where officers discussed giving wartorn Ukraine long-range missiles – and possible targets.

Ghana’s legislators were hoping the lights would stay on Friday after the state-run Electricity Company of Ghana (ECG) briefly cut power supplies to the parliament over a debt of 23 million Ghanaian cedi ($1.8 million).

Canada was mourning Friday after its former prime minister Brian Mulroney, seen as a giant of Canadian politics, died at age 84.

Voting was underway Friday in Iran’s first elections since the 2022 anti-government protests threatened its Islamic leadership.

Russia’s late opposition leader Alexei Navalny was buried at a cemetery on the outskirts of Moscow following a funeral service in a church and a love-filled message from his widow.

Germany has come under British criticism for a “flagrant abuse of intelligence” after revealing that British and French soldiers are in Ukraine to support Ukrainian troops launching long-range Storm Shadow missiles.

European discount retailer Pepco Group is trying to calm down families in Hungary seeking cheaper products during inflation, saying it will continue operations after computer hackers stole 15 million euros ($16.3 million).

At least 43 people were killed late Thursday after a fire broke out in a six-story building in Bangladesh, the country’s health minister said about the latest tragedy to hit the troubled South Asian nation.

Russian President Vladimir Putin has threatened to attack Western countries with nuclear weapons if they send troops to fight in Ukraine.

Viewed by some as responding to the United States’ reversal of a 50-year federal right to abortion, France’s Senate on Wednesday passed a bill enshrining a woman’s right to abortion under the French constitution, the Associated Press reports. The Senate passed the bill 267-50.