The African Union is forging ahead with mediation talks in Ethiopia as the US warns of the potential far-reaching consequences of the conflict. But productive negotiations are still far from assured.

President Sebastian Pinera was involved with the controversial sale of a mining company in 2010, as revealed in the Pandora Papers. If impeached, he could have faced five years in prison.

Police have previously denied that the arrests are ethnically motivated. Almost 200 young children have starved to death in Tigray.

U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken called Ethiopian Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed on Tuesday, stressing the need for all parties to commit to an immediate and indefinite ceasefire in the northern Tigray region, the State Department said.

France on Tuesday became the latest country to advise citizens to leave war-torn Ethiopia as Tigrayan rebels claimed to be advancing closer to the capital Addis Ababa.

After 16 years, the post-Merkel era is finally upon us. Social Democratic leader Olaf Scholz is taking the mantle to form Germany's first three-party coalition since the 1950s. How will it work? How compatible are the Greens to his left and the liberal FDP to his right? Berlin's loosening or tightening of the purse strings in these uncertain times is sure to dictate the tone at home and in Brussels.

The neoliberal FDP will be the smallest party in Germany's new government but it has landed key ministries and the all-important finance chief job. How much influence will the Free Democrats really have in the end?

Fighting continues in Ethiopia, where rebel groups are advancing on the capital Addis Ababa. While much has been said about the northern front, where the army is at war with the Tigray Defense Forces (TDF), another armed group – allied to Tigrayans – is fighting from the south and west of the country. The Oromo Liberation Army (OLA) now controls a large swathe of territory. Together, the TDF and OLA plan to topple the government and take over the capital. The government accuses these rebel groups of committing crimes against civilians, including several massacres. Our regional correspondent reports.

Ethiopian authorities have closed all secondary schools so pupils can harvest crops for those on the frontline of the civil war, state-affiliated media says. ... More than 2 million pupils were already out of school due to the war which started in the northern region of Tigray last year, the government says.

The leaders of the Social Democrats, Greens and the Free Democrats met in Berlin to officially sign their three-party coalition deal.

A whistleblower issues a "damning account" of the UK's withdrawal from Afghanistan, saying tens of thousands of Afghans were left behind to die. Meanwhile, there's disappointment in the US after the Justice Department closes an investigation into the 1955 lynching of Emmett Till. Plus: Angela Merkel marks her last day in office, Berlin techno DJs apply for World Heritage status and the French city of Rouen votes on replacing a Napoléon statue with one of a woman.

British Prime Minister Boris Johnson apologised on Wednesday for a video showing his staffers joking about reports of a party in Downing Street during the COVID lockdown, saying he was furious but that he had been assured there was no party.