International news

Russia pressed on with its offensive in eastern Ukraine on Thursday after NATO branded Moscow the biggest "direct threat" to Western security and agreed to plans to modernise Kyiv's beleaguered armed forces.

Piles of luggage beside baggage belts in airports from Canada to Europe are driving further demand for ground handlers, and adding to summer travel chaos as airlines scramble to bring back workers lost during COVID-19.

The son and namesake of late dictator Ferdinand Marcos was sworn in as president of the Philippines on Thursday, completing a stunning comeback for one of Asia's most famous political dynasties, 36 years after it was ousted in a popular uprising.

A French court has handed a life sentence to the only surviving member of a group that killed 130 people in a night of carnage across Paris.

The chief minister of India's western state of Maharashtra, the richest state in the country, resigned late on Wednesday, after a group in his ruling party defected to the opposition.

The World Health Organization says "sustained transmission" of monkeypox worldwide could see the virus begin to move into high-risk groups, such as pregnant women, immunocompromised people and children.

Dozens of people were still missing on Wednesday after a Russian missile strike on a shopping mall in central Ukraine two days ago that killed at least 18.

South Korea approved its first domestically developed COVID-19 vaccine, manufactured by SK bioscience, for general public use following positive clinical data, authorities said on Wednesday.

NATO ally Turkey lifted its veto over Finland and Sweden's bid to join the Western alliance on Tuesday after the three nations agreed to protect each other's security, ending a weeks-long drama that tested allied unity against Russia's invasion of Ukraine.

At least 51 migrants have died after being trapped inside a sweltering tractor-trailer truck found abandoned in Texas, authorities said on Tuesday, as two Mexicans tied to the unprecedented smuggling tragedy were charged in US federal court.

Ghislaine Maxwell has been sentenced to 20 years in prison for helping Jeffrey Epstein abuse teenage girls, in what a judge called a "horrific scheme" that inflicted "incalculable" harm on victims.

Donald Trump tried to grab the steering wheel of his presidential limousine on January 6, 2021, when his security detail declined to take him to the U.S. Capitol where his supporters were rioting, a former aide testified on Tuesday.

Canadian police shot dead two men and six officers were wounded during a gunfight at a bank in British Columbia on Tuesday, while nearby homes were evacuated after the discovery of a possible explosive device, police said.

Firefighters and soldiers searched on Tuesday for survivors in the rubble of a shopping mall in central Ukraine after a Russian missile strike killed at least 18 people in an attack condemned by the United Nations and the West.

Authorities found 46 migrants dead inside a tractor-trailer on Monday in San Antonio, Texas, the city's fire department said, in what appears to be one of the most deadly recent incidents of human smuggling along the U.S.- Mexico border.

Three people were killed and at least 50 others injured when an Amtrak train heading from Los Angeles to Chicago crashed into a dump truck Monday afternoon in Missouri.

At least ten people died and 251 were injured in a toxic gas leak from a storage tank at Jordan's Aqaba port, state television reported on Monday.

Pakistan's aviation regulator has made masks mandatory on domestic flights given a gradual rise in the number of COVID-19 cases across the country.

Russian forces were fighting on Monday to capture Lysychansk, the last major city still held by Ukrainian troops in eastern Luhansk province, after Moscow-backed separatists said they were advancing on multiple fronts.

At least four people were killed and about 70 injured on Sunday when part of a stand collapsed at a bullring in the town of El Espinal, Colombia, provincial officials said.

Japan braced for a possible power crunch on Monday as temperatures climbed across the country and the rainy season ended in the Tokyo area at its earliest point since 1951, raising fears of a long, hot summer amid fuel price rises.

Since the start of Russia's war on Ukraine, the first in-person gathering of the world's seven leading economies kicked off in Germany on Sunday with leaders discussing the war-driven food and energy crises.

A ferry with 165 passengers and crew on board caught fire in the central Philippines on Sunday with the coastguard saying all but two have been rescued.

South African authorities are investigating the deaths of at least 22 people found inside a popular township tavern close to East London city, provincial health officials said on Sunday.

Russia shelled the Ukrainian capital Kyiv on Sunday, as world leaders gathered in Europe to discuss further sanctions against Moscow.

Russian forces fully occupied the eastern Ukrainian city of Severodonetsk on Saturday, both sides said, confirming Kyiv's biggest battlefield setback for more than a month following weeks of some of the war's heaviest fighting.

The World Health Organisation, on Saturday, said the rapid spread of monkeypox across dozens of nations does not represent a global health emergency at this time.

US President Joe Biden said the Supreme Court's decision to overturn the constitutional right to abortion will deny American women control of their own lives.

Ukrainian forces have been ordered to withdraw from the key battleground city of Sievierodonetsk after weeks of fierce street fighting, in order to limit more casualties and regroup, but the move will be seen by Russia as a significant victory.

Afghanistan lacks the medical supplies to treat those injured in an earthquake that killed more than 1,000 people this week, a senior official said, as an aftershock on Friday killed five more.

Two people were killed and 14 wounded in a shooting at a nightclub and in nearby streets in Norway's capital Oslo on Saturday.

The US Supreme Court on Friday took the dramatic step of overturning the landmark 1973 Roe v. Wade ruling that recognised a woman's constitutional right to an abortion and legalised it nationwide.

Authorities in Afghanistan have ended the search for survivors of an earthquake that killed 1,000 people, a senior official said on Friday, adding that supplies of medicine and other critical aid were inadequate.

Ukraine signalled on Friday its troops were withdrawing from the city of Sievierodonetsk, the scene of weeks of intense bombardments and street fighting, in a move that would be a significant setback in its struggle to defeat Russian forces.

Firefighters sought to contain a wildfire in southwestern Turkey from land and air on Friday as the blaze raged on for a third day, with windy conditions fanning the flames and spreading them through a forested area.

A bipartisan package of modest gun safety measures passed the U.S. Senate late on Thursday even as the Supreme Court broadly expanded gun rights by ruling Americans have a constitutional right to carry handguns in public for self-defence.

Sir Richard Branson, the founder of the Virgin Group, will be boarding Virgin Galactic's VSS Unity and blasting off to space on Sunday.

Singapore is reviewing penalties for violent offences following an outcry over a 12-day prison sentence for a student who strangled his girlfriend until she blacked out.