Emerging from a meeting in the Kremlin that lasted more than five hours, the two leaders voiced hope that a solution could be found to the worst crisis between Russia and the West since the end of the Cold War.

“Indonesia calls upon all parties to exercise utmost restraint and to give maximum chance for dialogue and diplomacy to succeed. Conflict benefits no one,” the Foreign Ministry said in a statement.

"The situation is too complex to expect decisive breakthroughs in one meeting," Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters ahead of talks between Russian President Vladimir Putin and French counterpart Emmanuel Macron.

President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said a week ago Ukraine was not a sinking Titanic and accused Washington and media of fuelling panic that weighed on the economy when there were "no tanks in the streets".

"We are in the window. Any day now, Russia could take military action against Ukraine, or it could be a couple of weeks from now, or Russia could choose to take the diplomatic path instead," Sullivan told the "Fox News Sunday" program.

The two leaders "discussed ongoing diplomatic and deterrence efforts in response to Russia's continued military build-up on Ukraine's borders, and affirmed their support for Ukraine's sovereignty and territorial integrity," the White House said in a statement.

Johnson has been engulfed in a state of crisis for around three months, with some lawmakers in his own party saying he should quit following lockdown parties held at his residence during the pandemic, and other issues.

In a letter written to mark the 70th anniversary of her accession to the throne, Elizabeth said the occasion had given her pause to reflect upon the loyalty and affection shown to her by the British public.

About 100,000 Russian troops have been stationed at the border of Ukraine, prompting the Indonesian mission in Kyiv to step up citizen protection protocols in case tensions in the region escalate into violence.

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.