Belarus opposition challenger Svetlana Tikhanouskaya is in Lithuania and is safe, the Baltic country's foreign minister Linas Linkevicius told AFP on Tuesday, after a second night of clashes in Minsk. The whereabouts of Tikhanouskaya, a political novice who has claimed victory in Sunday’s poll in Belarus against President Alexander Lukashenko, had been unknown as of late Monday.

Russia has become the first country to approve a vaccine offering "sustainable immunity" against the coronavirus, President Vladimir Putin said on Tuesday, adding that one of his daughters has been inoculated. The announcement came after scientists in the West raised concerns about the speed of development of Russian vaccines, suggesting that researchers might be cutting corners after coming under pressure from authorities to deliver.

Lebanon’s prime minister announced his government’s resignation on Monday, saying a huge explosion that devastated Beirut and triggered public outrage was the result of endemic corruption.

China on Monday sanctioned 11 US politicians and heads of organisations in retaliation for the sanctions imposed by Washington on Hong Kong officials last week, news wires reported.

There is a “vast global gap” between funds needed to fight the coronavirus pandemic and funds committed, World Health Organization chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said on Monday. He noted the WHO was only “10% of the way” to funding the billions of dollars required.

Protests erupted across Belarus late Sunday after preliminary results showed a landslide election victory for longtime President Alexander Lukashenko, news wires reported.  Official exit polls published by state-run news agency Belta put Lukashenko ahead with about 80% of the vote, and his main rival opposition candidate Svetlana Tikhanovskaya at about 7%.

French President Emmanuel Macron and the UN are co-hosting a virtual donors' conference on Sunday to solicit international aid for Lebanon, whose capital Beirut was devastated by explosions on Tuesday that left more than 150 people dead and a quarter of a million homeless.  "We must act quickly and efficiently so that this aid goes directly to where it is needed," Macron said in his opening remarks for the conference, held by video link from his summer residence on the Mediterranean.

The US President Donald Trump signed executive orders on Saturday partly restoring enhanced unemployment payments to the tens of millions of Americans who lost jobs in the coronavirus pandemic, as polls showed a large majority of voters unhappy with his handling of the crisis.

New Zealand has reached 100 days with no known community transmission of Covid-19, Director general of health Ashley Bloomfield said on Sunday. While there are currently 23 active cases of Covid-19 in the country, all were detected at the border and are in managed isolation facilities.

Polling stations opened on Sunday in Belarus for a key election pitting President Alexander Lukashenko against a former teacher who emerged from obscurity to lead the biggest challenge in years against the man once dubbed “Europe’s last dictator” by the West, news wires reported.