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SEOUL, South Korea — North Korea has been using satellite subterfuge to test parts of a so-called “monster” missile, analysts say, as it gears up for a sanctions-shattering launch ahead of a key domestic anniversary.

SHANGHAI, China – A northeastern Chinese city of nine million people was ordered to lock down on Friday, as authorities scramble to halt a fresh Covid-19 outbreak that has pushed nationwide case counts to their highest in two years.

BERLIN, Germany — Germany is sliding into a new “critical” health situation with coronavirus cases soaring to new records, its health minister warned Friday, as he pleaded with vaccine holdouts to get jabbed.

TOKYO, Japan — People in Japan’s northeast offered prayers and carried out searches for the missing on Friday, 11 years after an earthquake and tsunami left 18,500 people dead or unaccounted for and triggered a devastating nuclear meltdown in Fukushima.

WASHINGTON, United States — US President Joe Biden on Friday vowed that Russia would pay a “severe price” if it used chemical weapons in Ukraine, while also pledging to avoid provoking Moscow into “World War III.”

KIEV, Ukraine — The woman who was Ukraine’s first female volunteer to get a full military contract wants the new recruits in her charge to drop all notions about the romance of war.

KHARKIV, Ukraine — A plaster on his eye, eight-year-old Dima Kasyanov lies unconscious on a hospital bed in Ukraine’s second city Kharkiv after a Russian missile blasted through his home.

LONDON, United Kingdom — Queen Elizabeth II’s heralded return to major public duties has been put on hold, as royal officials announced Friday she would not attend next week’s Commonwealth Day service.

SHANGHAI, March 11 (Xinhua) — The eastern Chinese metropolis of Shanghai has carried out stringent measures to curb its latest Covid-19 outbreak after the city registered more than 100 local infections in the last 48 hours, local authorities said on Thursday.

RIYADH, Saudi Arabia – A drone attack on an oil refinery in the Saudi capital caused a small fire but no disruption to supplies, officials said Friday, as crude prices soar after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

HONG KONG, China – Nearly three-quarters of Hong Kong’s refugees are struggling to put food on the table, according to a survey released Friday, as fears over the city’s plans to control its worst-ever coronavirus outbreak spark bouts of panic-buying.

SANTIAGO, Chile – Leftist former student leader Gabriel Boric will be sworn in Friday as Chile’s youngest-ever president, with plans to turn the country that for decades has served as a neoliberal laboratory into a greener, more egalitarian “welfare state.”

KUALA LUMPUR, Malaysia – Four people were killed after a massive landslide triggered by “unusual” heavy rains buried their homes in a township outside the Malaysian capital, a senior rescue official said Friday.

WASHINGTON, United States – Two recent missile tests conducted by North Korea were of a new intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) system, the Pentagon said Thursday, marking what one US official called a “serious escalation” that will be punished with fresh sanctions.

JERUSALEM, Undefined – Israeli lawmakers passed a law Thursday reinstating a ban on Palestinian spouses from the West Bank and Gaza Strip from obtaining citizenship via marriage to Israeli nationals.

ANKARA, Turkey – Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan on Thursday told US counterpart Joe Biden that mediating the Ukraine-Russia war was important to Ankara, after the two sides’ top diplomats held talks in Turkey.

TRIPOLI, Libya – The UN on Thursday warned against “provocation” in Libya that could lead to clashes, citing reports of armed elements mobilising around the capital Tripoli, as rival governments vie for power.

BRUSSELS, Belgium – A top European Union official warned Thursday the Ukraine refugee crisis was a “big challenge” for the bloc and set to get worse, but insisted the 27 nations were showing “unprecedented” unity.