Seoul Gazette - News from Seoul, the Dongan District, Manan District, Buk District, Busanjin District, South Korea and the world

India expects to lead the world in economic growth this year in a post-pandemic bounceback, government forecasts showed Monday, but with expansion slowing despite widespread vaccine coverage and recovering exports.

Mohamed Salah-captained Egypt face a "third final before the final" this week when they confront hosts Cameroon in an Africa Cup of Nations semi-final in Yaounde.

France's leftist presidential hopefuls traded barbs on Monday after a prominent former minister won a grass roots "people's primary" that failed to end the squabbling between left-wing forces ahead of the April vote.

The African Union on Monday suspended Burkina Faso a week after the volatile country suffered its latest coup, as envoys from West Africa and the UN headed for talks with the new junta.

Portugal's Prime Minister Antonio Costa prepared Monday to govern solo after his Socialist party scored a surprise landslide win, with economic recovery from the pandemic among his top priorities.

Europe's main stock markets recovered Monday following gains in Asia and a pre-weekend rally on Wall Street, as traders look ahead to key policy decisions by OPEC and central banks as well as US jobs data.

Hong Kong's courts jailed two people for publishing seditious content on Monday, the first time the colonial-era law has been used to secure a conviction for printed content since the city's 1997 handover to China.

The leader of the Cyprus Orthodox Church has warned he would suspend a dozen unvaccinated priests from Tuesday if they continue to defy church rules on Covid-19.

US President Joe Biden will build on attempts to ensure energy back-up for European allies when he hosts Qatar's emir Monday in a White House meeting overshadowed by fears that Russia could cut exports over the Ukraine crisis.

The pandemic, which left London's transport system deserted for months on end, has decimated revenues and sparked an ongoing feud between the city's mayor and the UK government over funding current shortfalls.

Four major Japanese manga publishers said Monday they will sue a US company accused of hosting servers for a piracy site, in the latest offensive against illegal copies of their graphic novels.

Christian Eriksen has completed a remarkable return to the Premier League, signing for Brentford just seven months after suffering a cardiac arrest while playing for Denmark at last year's European Championship.

Myanmar's junta has charged Aung San Suu Kyi with influencing election officials during 2020 polls, a source said on Monday, a year after it staged a coup alleging massive voter fraud.

Gay dating app Grindr has disappeared from multiple app stores in China as authorities tighten control of the country's already heavily policed internet and purge online behaviour the ruling Communist Party dislikes.

Ryanair slashed losses in the final quarter of 2021 but the emergence of the Omicron variant cut into the normally busy winter holiday travel season, the no-frills airline said Monday.

Nursed back from near death, a skittish vulture flaps its wings and returns to the grey skies above India's capital after weeks of tender care from two devoted brothers.

Rafael Nadal says he "doesn't care much" if his record 21st Grand Slam title makes him the best men's tennis player in history, after edging ahead of great rivals Roger Federer and Novak Djokovic with his thrilling Australian Open win.

The nightly armada of bobbing green lights from squid boats has all but disappeared near the site of an oil spill in the Gulf of Thailand, as devastated local crews brace for lost income and damaged fish stocks.

Before conflict broke out, visiting her brother and sister was easy for Alla Lavrova, who could drive from her home in Russia and across the border to Ukraine in just one hour.

Soaring inflation will be in focus when European Central Bank governors meet on Thursday, as the threat of war in Ukraine risked further fuelling already sky-high energy prices in the region.

In a forest on the outskirts of Kyiv, a group of Ukrainian civilians build shelters from snow and tree branches as part of a crash course in survival techniques.

The United Arab Emirates said Monday it shot down a ballistic missile fired by Yemen's Huthi rebels, in the third such incident this month, as Israel's president visited the country.

The UN Security Council meets Monday to discuss the Ukraine crisis, with Washington vowing to hold Moscow to account as it works with NATO allies to beef up sanctions should Russia invade its neighbor.

A Hong Kong cabinet minister resigned on Monday for attending a birthday party alongside dozens of officials and lawmakers just days after the city's government had called on people to avoid large gatherings to fight a coronavirus outbreak.

Music streaming giant Spotify announced Sunday it would start guiding listeners of podcasts discussing Covid-19 to facts about the pandemic, after artists including Neil Young pulled their songs from the platform in anger at misinformation.

Rising tensions with Moscow over Ukraine have exposed Germany's problematic dependence on Russian gas, inflaming an already heated debate over soaring energy prices.

The world's top oil-producing countries will meet on Wednesday to discuss a further increase in output, while crude prices have reached seven-year highs rattled by geopolitical tensions.

The Australian Open ended in the early hours of Monday morning with one of the all-time great men's finals.

An Australian Open like no other began in controversy with the deportation of Novak Djokovic but culminated in one of the greatest comebacks in tennis history by Rafael Nadal on Sunday.

Emmanuel Macron's uncompromising stance against the unvaccinated has drawn praise from supporters, but his combative Covid strategy could backfire in a French presidential election that is far from a foregone conclusion.

Despite vaccination against Covid-19 becoming mandatory in Austria on Friday, musician Katharina Teufel-Lieli insists she won't bow to pressure to get the jab.

North Korea confirmed Monday it had fired its most powerful missile since 2017, capping a month-long blitz of launches that has raised the spectre of leader Kim Jong Un restarting nuclear tests.