Brazil's former leftist President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva increased his lead to 17 percentage points over far-right President Jair Bolsonaro in a new survey of voter preferences ahead of an October election.

U.S. retail sales dropped by the most in 10 months in December, weighed down by shortages and spiraling COVID-19 infections, which could temper expectations that economic growth accelerated sharply in the fourth quarter.

KYIV/MOSCOW (Reuters) -Ukraine was hit by a cyberattack splashing a warning across government websites to "be afraid and expect the worst", while Russia, which has massed 100,000 troops on its neighbour's frontier, released pictures of more of its forces on the move.

Former Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi is galvanising his media empire behind his campaign to become Italy's president this month, a move reviving dormant but unresolved concerns about conflict of interest.

RIO DE JANEIRO/SAO PAULO (Reuters) -Brazil is suffering a sharp rise in COVID-19 cases as the Omicron variant spreads through the country, putting pressure on health services and weighing on an already sputtering economy.

Italy will use the nation's sewage to predict future coronavirus spreads and to alert authorities to rising cases and new variants before they appear in testing and hospitals, a senior official said, announcing a project to be launched in coming months.

AMSTERDAM (Reuters) -Restaurants in one Dutch city reopened on Friday and others said they would open on Saturday regardless of whether they are included in plans by the government to ease the country's COVID-19 lockdown.

MOSCOW (Reuters) -Russia has conducted a special operation against ransomware crime group REvil at the request of the United States and has detained and charged the group's members, the FSB domestic intelligence service said on Friday.

U.S. President Joe Biden on Friday nominated former Federal Reserve Governor Sarah Bloom Raskin for the Fed's key regulatory post and two Black economists - Lisa Cook and Philip Jefferson - to serve on its board in what would represent a landmark demographic overhaul of the world's most powerful central bank.

SYDNEY/ABU DHABI (Reuters) -Before the Omicron variant of coronavirus burst onto the scene in November, retired Australian Glenn Turnley was looking forward to a three-week trip to Japan, Britain and France in March - his first overseas jaunt since the pandemic began.