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SHANGHAI, China — Shanghai authorities on Wednesday called for calm as worried citizens swamped online grocery platforms to stock up on food over fears of impending lockdowns in a city struggling to halt a Covid spike.

KABUL, Afghanistan — The Taliban ordered girls’ secondary schools in Afghanistan to shut Wednesday just hours after they reopened, an official confirmed, sparking confusion and heartbreak over the policy reversal by the hardline Islamist group.

WELLINGTON, New Zealand — New Zealand will relax its strict Covid-19 rules this week because case numbers have peaked and the population has high levels of immunity, Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern said Wednesday.

BOGOTA, Colombia — Six children died and over a dozen were injured on Tuesday after their school bus rolled down a cliff in northeastern Colombia, a regional official said.

SHANGHAI, China – Li Meng is a devoted mother trying to support her two-year-old daughter, but in the eyes of Chinese society and the state, she is almost a second-class citizen.

WASHINGTON, United States — US optimism that a deal to restore the 2015 agreement to limit Iran’s nuclear developed has soured, with the State Department warning Tuesday it was headed toward “Plan B” if Tehran doesn’t budge.

CHISINAU, Moldova — Several European countries, including Germany, France, Italy and Britain, lifted their Covid curbs too “brutally” and are now seeing a rise in cases likely due to the more transmissible BA2 variant, the World Health Organization said Tuesday.

UNITED NATIONS, United States — UN chief Antonio Guterres said Tuesday that it was time for Russia to end their “absurd war” in Ukraine, declaring the conflict “unwinnable.”

WUZHOU, China — Crash investigators on Tuesday said they do not yet know why a China Eastern jet carrying 132 people plunged from the sky, with recovery teams still scouring a forested mountainside for flight recorders from the pulverised Boeing aircraft.

HONG KONG, China –Hong Kong’s top scientists urged the government on Tuesday to transition from China’s zero-Covid strategy before the next outbreak unless the financial hub wants to be a “closed port forever”.

JOHANNESBURG, South Africa — South Africa, the country in Africa worst affected by coronavirus, on Tuesday relaxed some of the remaining Covid-19 curbs, dropping mandatory negative results for inbound fully-vaccinated travellers, a move expected to boost tourists numbers.

TAIPEI, Taiwan — A magnitude 6.7 earthquake struck off the coast of Taiwan early Wednesday, rattling buildings and rousing people from their sleep but with no immediate reports of injuries or major damage.

KABUL, Afghanistan — Tens of thousands of girls were due to return to secondary school across Afghanistan Wednesday, more than seven months after the Taliban seized power and imposed harsh restrictions on the rights of women to be educated.

SYDNEY, Australia — The United Nations began a monitoring mission on the Great Barrier Reef Monday, assessing whether the World Heritage site is being protected from climate change as it suffers further widespread bleaching.

PARIS, France — Covid-19 is again surging in Western Europe due to a “perfect storm” of governments lifting restrictions, waning immunity and the more contagious BA.2 Omicron subvariant, experts said Monday.

MEXICO CITY, Mexico — Mexico on Monday opened a new international airport serving the capital — a flagship project of President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador — but so far many airlines are hesitant to use it.

KYIV, Ukraine –President Volodymyr Zelensky on Monday insisted that a meeting with his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin “in any format” is needed to end the war in Ukraine.

GENEVA, Switzerland — The world is spending nowhere near enough to revive the fight against tuberculosis after the Covid-19 crisis set back years of progress, the WHO said Monday.