German and European Union leaders have gathered experts to start work on what they describe as a “new Marshall Plan” for the rebuilding of Ukraine.

BUCHAREST – Romania will speed up defence procurement and intensify talks with Turkey, Bulgaria and Georgia to counter potential spillovers from Russia’s war in Ukraine towards the Black Sea, the country’s supreme defence council said on Tuesday.

Myanmar’s central bank has promised improvements and warned against currency manipulation after an international watchdog put the military-controlled country on a terrorism and financial crimes blacklist.

China’s economic growth accelerated in the latest quarter but still was among the slowest in decades as the country wrestled with repeated closures of cities to fight virus outbreaks.

CAIRO – The decision to hold next month’s COP27 climate summit in a highly secured tourist resort in Egypt, along with restrictions on access, is curbing civil society’s participation in the event, some prominent activists say.

PRETORIA  – Negotiators for the Ethiopian government and regional forces from Tigray were due to meet in the South African capital Pretoria for the first formal peace talks since war broke out two years ago.

DUBAI – Iran’s atomic energy organization said that an e-mail server belonging to one of its subsidiaries had been hacked from a foreign country and information published online, state media reported on Sunday.

Authorities in Costa Rica have found two bodies in the search for six people, apparently including the German businessman behind Gold’s Gym, who went missing when their small plane disappeared from radar just off the country’s Caribbean coast.

British government debt rose to the highest level in almost 60 years last month and retail sales slumped.

LA PAZ – Thousands of people in Bolivia launched an indefinite strike on Saturday in the lowland city of Santa Cruz, a major agriculture export hub, to protest the postponement of a population and housing census which delays access to more economic resources.