A Russian actress and director yesterday arrived at the International Space Station (ISS) in a bid to best the United States and film the first movie in orbit.

1908 - Bosnia and Herzegovina were annexed by Austria.

President Emmanuel Macron yesterday held talks with US Secretary of State Antony Blinken in his first meeting with an American official since the scrapping of a submarine contract with Australia plunged relations into crisis.

US scientists David Julius and Ardem Patapoutian yesterday won the Nobel Medicine Prize for discoveries on receptors for temperature and touch.

Ethiopian Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed was sworn in for a new five-year term yesterday, but the milestone risked being undermined by growing alarm over the war in the north.

The people of Rome began voting yesterday to elect a new mayor who will have the daunting task of tackling poor public transport and disastrous rubbish management in the Italian capital, dubbed one of the dirtiest cities in the world.

Outgoing German Chancellor Angela Merkel dropped a hint for political leaders to overcome their differences, as talks between the parties to choose her successor got under way yesterday, following last week’s election.

The world’s major economies must “stretch to do more” at next month’s UN climate talks to show they are serious about wanting to tackle global warming, US Climate Envoy John Kerry said yesterday. 

British gasoline stations running dry, surging power costs in the European Union ahead of winter, forced restrictions on energy use in China and rising oil, natural gas and coal prices.

The Nobel Peace Prize will be announced just three weeks before world leaders gather for a climate summit that scientists say could determine the future of the planet, one reason why prize watchers say this could be the year of Greta Thunberg.

Belarus has detained dozens of people for commenting online about a shooting incident that resulted in the deaths of an IT worker and a KGB officer, the Viasna rights group said yesterday.

Amid surging infections, Russia yesterday reported a high for coronavirus deaths for a fourth day running as Australia said it will begin to reopen its borders next month.

The investigative work of several panels of experts tasked with monitoring compliance with UN arms embargoes and economic sanctions in conflict zones including Mali is being blocked, sometimes for months, by Russia, diplomats said Wednesday.

Norway will in 2023 shut its last coal mine in Svalbard, its operator said yesterday, drawing to a close more than a century of prospecting by Oslo in this Arctic archipelago.

A 96-year-old former Nazi concentration camp secretary who fled hours before the opening of her trial in Germany has been found, a court said yesterday in a dramatic start to the proceedings.

Poland has sent tens of thousands of text messages to foreign mobile phones along the country’s border with Belarus in a bid to target migrants and dissuade them from crossing.

Former French President Nicolas Sarkozy was handed a one-year prison sentence by a Paris court yesterday after being found guilty of illegal campaign financing over his failed 2012 re-election bid.

A British police officer who falsely arrested a woman for breaking coronavirus restrictions, then kidnapped, raped and murdered her, was given a rare whole-life jail term yesterday.

France has accused Australia of lying shortly before Canberra cancelled a major submarine contract, with the French foreign minister declaring “someone lied”.

The forthcoming COP26 summit -- which could determine the viability of the Paris Agreement -- will “not be easy” but an outcome matching the urgency of the crisis is an “absolute necessity”, the UN’s climate chief said yesterday.