The Associated Press

Fifteen people were also injured in the surge at the shrine on New Year's Day, officials said. Initial reports suggested an altercation between a group of devotees led to the crush.

New York City said it limited the number of people in Times Square to about 15,000 this year, after forgoing a public event a year ago.

South Africans from all corners of retired Archbishop Desmond Tutu's "rainbow nation" filed past his pine casket in Cape Town. The viewing line at St. George's Cathedral stretched for nearly a mile.

In many places, New Year's Eve celebrations were muted or canceled for the second straight year due to a surge of coronavirus infections, this time driven by the highly contagious omicron variant.

A separate trial will follow to determine what Teva will have to pay in the case, in which New York state and two Long Island counties took on a swath of drug companies.

Many of Afghanistan's growing number of destitute people are making desperate decisions as their nation spirals into a deeper poverty.

New coronavirus infections soared again in Australia on Friday to a record of more than 32,000 driven by the highly contagious omicron variant and a recent relaxation of restrictions in many areas.

Members of the 15-member Regional and Comprehensive Economic Partnership, or RCEP, include China, Japan and South Korea. The new trading bloc does not include the U.S. or India.

Officials pledged steady deliveries of groceries to residents of Xi'an, a city of 13 million that is under the strictest lockdown of a major Chinese city since Wuhan at the start of the pandemic.

Hong Kong police on Thursday formally charged two people from a pro-democracy news outlet with sedition, a day after it said it would cease operations after a police raid and seven arrests.

The massacres and scorched-earth tactics represent the latest escalation in the military's violence against both civilians and the growing opposition to the military's February coup.

A man accused of killing five people this week is believed to have authored online novels that name his real-life victims. The writings are part of a police investigation into the suspect's motive.