Snow, lengthy de-icing procedures and missing crews created havoc at Canada's main airports on Monday, with hundreds of flights cancelled or delayed out of the country's biggest city Toronto.

Italy's President Sergio Mattarella dissolved parliament on Thursday as the country prepares for knife-edge general elections in March.

The toughest security presence in years will safeguard New Year's Eve festivities in New York's Times Square, where around two million people are expected to congregate in the area, police said Thursday.

A fire tore through a multi-storey building in India's financial capital Mumbai Friday, killing at least 15 people and leaving many injured, a senior police officer said.

Former star footballer George Weah was named winner of Liberia's presidential election on Thursday, easily beating his challenger in the country's first democratic transfer of power in seven decades scarred by civil wars, political assassinations and an Ebola crisis.

The UN Security Council on Thursday denied international port access to four North Korean ships suspected of carrying or having transported goods banned by international sanctions targeting Pyongyang, diplomats said.

Rio de Janeiro expects three million people to attend New Year's festivities at the famed Copacabana beach, the Brazilian city said on Wednesday.

Atleast 40 people were killed and many others were wounded in multiple blasts near a media outlet and mosque in Kabul on Thursday, officials said, in the latest violence to hit the Afghan capital.

French President Emmanuel Macron came under fire Wednesday over his policy on jobless benefits after a press leak pointed to plans to tighten monitoring of people on the dole.