North Korean leader Kim Jong Un and his wife attended a Lunar New Year's Day concert in Pyongyang where he received thunderous cheers from audience members and artists who praised him for heralding a "new era" of national power, state media reported.

The North's official media has been highlighting Kim's authoritarian leadership following a spree of missile tests in January, which some experts see as an attempt to pressure Washington over deadlocked nuclear negotiations after two years of pandemic border closures and economic decay.

Israel's prime minister has acknowledged that its Iron Dome defense system is too expensive and the country is speeding the rollout of laser technology to help protect it from rocket attacks.

Naftali Bennett told a security conference that the new generation of technology -- a "laser wall" -- will be unveiled within a year in southern Israel. Little is known about the system's effectiveness, but the system eventually is expected to be deployed on land, in the air and at sea and send a deterrent message to archenemy Iran and its proxies.

An Iran-flagged supertanker carrying more than 2 million barrels of condensate has docked at a Venezuelan port, with both countries facing U.S. sanctions, according to analysts and satellite images analyzed by The Associated Press.

The arrival of the oil tanker Starla comes as negotiations continue in Vienna over the Islamic Republic's tattered nuclear deal with world powers, which allowed for oil sales. In 2018, the U.S. unilaterally withdrew from the accord under then President Donald Trump, sparking years of tensions across the wider Mideast that continue today.

Wall Street premarket trading pointed to a modestly lower open Tuesday on the heels of the market's worst trading month since early in the pandemic.

As traders prepare for another busy day of corporate earnings releases, futures for the benchmark S&P 500 index and the Dow Jones Industrial Average each fell about 0.1% less than two hours before the opening bell. ExxonMobil, Alphabet, General Motors and Starbucks are among those reporting quarterly financial results on Tuesday.

Natural gas will remain an important energy source through 2050 and quantities of the hydrocarbon found off the east Mediterranean island nation of Cyprus could reach markets through a pipeline or by liquefying it for transport by ship, the head of ExxonMobil's Cyprus arm said Tuesday.

ExxonMobil Cyprus lead country manager Varnavas Theodossiou said "all energy sources remain important" for the next three decades "across a range" of scenarios set out under the Paris Agreement on climate change as the globe shifts to cleaner fuels toward achieving a zero-emissions goal.

Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi's government included hefty spending on roads, airports and other infrastructure in an annual budget presented to Parliament on Tuesday, looking to spur growth and improve its popularity just ahead of key state elections.

The budget for the coming fiscal year, which starts on April 1, calls for $533 billion in spending, up from $477 billion in the current year, Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman said in presenting it to lawmakers.

German beer sales dropped another 2.2% last year, with the coronavirus pandemic again weighing on brewers after sales tumbled 5.5% in 2020, official figures showed Tuesday.

Lockdowns that shut restaurants and bars for parts of the past two years have added to a long-term downward trend fueled by health concerns and other factors.

Uganda and a group of investors on Tuesday announced their decision to finally proceed with oil production following years of setbacks that threatened the East African country's efforts to become an oil exporter.

The China National Offshore Oil Corporation and the French energy conglomerate TotalEnergies said Tuesday that the investment in Uganda would be more than $10 billion.

The actress Whoopi Goldberg has apologized for saying the Holocaust was not about race, comments that caused a backlash.

She made the initial comments on ABC's ''The View"' program on Monday morning. Her apology came in a tweet hours later.

Chinese people rang in the Lunar New Year on Tuesday despite pandemic restrictions, as small crowds gathered at temples to offer traditional prayers for the Year of the Tiger.

At the Lama Temple in Beijing, dozens of people bowed in prayer before the ornate west gate of the Tibetan Buddhist site that was shut because of pandemic restrictions.