The city's mayor denied any decision had been made, a day after a municipality spokeswoman told AFP that officials had green-lighted the shipbuilder's request to remove the central section of the iconic Koningshaven Bridge, sparking widespread criticism on social media.

Reuters could not independently verify the images from US-based Maxar Technologies, which it said were taken from Jan. 19 to Feb. 1.

"We reject the practice of 'collective punishment' for acts perpetrated by individual people, which has recently become a frequent occurrence," Putin said in a recent interview with the official China Global Television Network.

"We do have information that the Russians are likely to want to fabricate a pretext for an invasion," said Pentagon spokesperson John Kirby.

A guest curator's opinion article was supposed to promote a Rijksmuseum exhibition called "Revolusi! Indonesia Independent", but it elicited a strong public emotional response from the Dutch instead.

The Turkish official told Reuters that Ankara expects tensions to ease after the meeting in Kyiv. On Wednesday, Ankara and Kyiv said they would sign a free trade agreement and other deals.

Bezos's gigantic, 430-million-euro ($485 million) yacht is too big for the iconic Koningshaven Bridge, which dates from 1878 and was rebuilt after being bombed by the Nazis in 1940 during World War II.

Romania has sought to address its own security concerns after Russia massed tens of thousands of troops near Ukraine's borders. It has prompted fears of a conflict that could spill over into Romania, which has a 600-kilometre (370-mile) border with Ukraine.

Press Secretary Jen Psaki sought to unpick a tangle caused by her word choice in a briefing last week when she said the invasion of Ukraine by Russian troops massed on the borders could be "imminent." 

With Russia refusing to pull back 100,000 troops poised on Ukraine's borders, 1,000 US soldiers in Germany are being sent to Romania, and another 2,000 stationed in the United States are being flown to Germany and Poland.

"The Church is not the way God wants it," the man repeated in English, as he stood in the back of the audience hall holding his mask in his hand and gesticulating. 

The fast-spreading and heavily mutated Omicron variant has rapidly become the dominant variant worldwide since it was first detected in southern Africa 10 weeks ago.

The former mayor of Lisbon took the reins in 2015 following a ballot in which his Socialists finished second behind a centre-right coalition that had overseen a harsh EU-imposed austerity program.

Relieved party chiefs thanked 80-year-old Mattarella for agreeing to remain, but the failed attempts to replace him during seven rounds of balloting have left deep scars, with potentially dangerous repercussions for political stability.

"Secretary Blinken ... conveyed that de-escalation and diplomacy are the responsible way forward," department spokesman Ned Price said in a statement.

The Kremlin's point man on Ukraine was due to meet officials from France, Germany and Ukraine for "Normandy format" talks in Paris against the backdrop of a Russian military buildup near Ukraine that has sparked fears of an invasion.

"Over 21 million new cases were reported, representing the highest number of weekly cases recorded since the beginning of the pandemic," the World Health Organization said in its weekly epidemiological coronavirus update.

Allegations that a string of parties were held at Downing Street while the rest of the country abided by the rules she set have shaken Johnson's government, prompting the worst crisis of his premiership and calls for him to quit.

"The COVID-19 pandemic is now entering its third year and we are at a critical juncture," said Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus at a press conference alongside Germany's development minister Svenja Schulze.

President Joko “Jokowi” Widodo addressed the Davos forum as this year’s host of the Group of 20, with the idea of forming a new multilateral institution to anticipate global crises modeled after the International Monetary Fund.

As backroom negotiations hit fever pitch this week, the brashest campaigner has been billionaire Silvio Berlusconi, whose charm offensive has included bragging about his raunchy "bunga bunga" parties.

"Our minimal presence in Kabul must not in any way be seen as recognition" of the Taliban government there," EU foreign affairs spokesman Peter Stano said in a statement. 

The talks between Secretary of State Antony Blinken and Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov come just 11 days after their deputies met in Geneva and agreed to preserve dialogue amid Russia's build-up of tens of thousands of troops on Ukraine's border.

Some younger lawmakers have spearheaded attempts to unseat Johnson, but it was an attack by one of the party's longest-serving Conservatives that prompted gasps when he told the prime minister in parliament "In the name of God, go."

Biden said he did not believe that President Vladimir Putin wants a war, but said the Russian leader has created a situation that is proving extremely difficult to defuse -- and that could easily "get out of hand" in the region.

Europe's biggest economy recorded 112,323 new infections over the past 24 hours and 239 fatalities, the Robert Koch Institute said.

Blinken, who will meet Wednesday in Kyiv with President Volodymyr Zelensky, will "reinforce the United States' commitment to Ukraine's sovereignty and territorial integrity," State Department spokesman Ned Price said.

"It is deeply regrettable that this took place at a time of national mourning and Number 10 (Downing Street) has apologised to the palace," Johnson's spokesman told reporters.

Kazakh President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev asked for assistance from the Collective Security Treaty Organisation (CSTO) last week as violence gripped half of the country while he dismissed some of his senior security officials who were later charged with treason.

Opposition leader Keir Starmer and even members of his own party have called for him to resign after he admitted to attending the event in Downing Street's garden during Britain's first lockdown in May 2020, and there was little sympathy on the streets of the British capital.