Russian air strikes killed at least 13 people in rebel-held northwest Syria yesterday, the deadliest attack on the war-torn country this year, a war monitor said.

Wagner mercenaries were headed back to base yesterday after Russia’s President Vladimir Putin agreed to allow their leader to avoid treason charges and accept exile in Belarus.

Mutinous Russian mercenaries who surged most of the way to Moscow have agreed to turn back to avoid bloodshed, their leader said yesterday, in a de-escalation of what had become a major challenge to President Vladimir Putin's grip on power

Canadian safety officials on Friday opened an investigation into the undersea implosion of a tourist submersible that killed all five people aboard while diving to the century-old wreck of the Titanic, raising questions about the unregulated nature of such expeditions.

Members of a multinational group on Antarctic conservation failed to agree Friday on a roadmap for the creation of three new marine protected areas -- a goal that has proven elusive for years.

More than 40 people are missing after a migrant boat capsized off the Italian island of Lampedusa, the UN said. The shipwreck took place on Thursday and at least one newborn baby is among those missing, said UNHCR representative to Italy Chiara Cardoletti.

Countries around the world were closely watching events unfolding in Russia yesterday, where a mutiny by the Wagner mercenary group posed the most serious challenge to President Vladimir Putin’s long rule.

Ukraine said yesterday it had downed an entire barrage of 13 cruise missiles fired by Russian forces overnight targeting an airfield in the west of the country. “Thirteen of the occupiers’ cruise missiles were destroyed on June 23....

Multilateral development banks like the World Bank are expected to find $200 billion in extra firepower for low-income economies by taking on more risk, a move that may require wealthy nations to inject more cash, world leaders said yesterday.

The European Union yesterday held crisis talks with the leaders of Serbia and Kosovo, as the bloc seeks to ease the latest spike in tensions.

The World Bank chief announced a raft of measures yesterday to aid countries hit by natural disasters, including a pause in debt repayments to the lender, at a gathering of world leaders in Paris to give impetus to a new global finance agenda.

Archaeologists have discovered a 4,000-year-old sanctuary made up of ditches and burial mounds in the central Netherlands that they believe may have served a similar purpose to Stonehenge.

Europe should brace for more deadly heatwaves driven by climate change, said a sweeping report yesterday, noting the world’s fastest-warming continent was some 2.3 degrees Celsius hotter last year than in pre-industrial times.

Ukraine confirmed yesterday it had driven Russian forces from an eighth village in its two-week-old counteroffensive in a heavily fortified part of the front line on the most direct route to the country’s Azov Sea coast.

The number of people arriving in the UK in small boats has reached over 10,000 since the start of the year, UK government figures showed yesterday.

Spanish charity Open Arms said it rescued 117 migrants yesterday crowded onto a precarious wooden boat from Libya in the latest such perilous crossing over the Mediterranean sea.

President Vladimir Putin hailed Russia’s ties with the United Arab Emirates yesterday as he met the leader of the oil-rich nation, Sheikh Mohamed bin Zayed Al-Nahyan, in Saint Petersburg.

Average global temperatures at the start of June were the warmest the European Union’s climate monitoring unit has ever recorded for the period, trouncing previous records by a “substantial margin”, it said yesterday.

Russian missile attacks killed three people in the Black Sea city of Odesa and three in the Donetsk region of eastern Ukraine yesterday,

Extreme weather conditions in Europe have killed almost 195,000 people and caused economic losses of more than 560 billion euros since 1980, the European Environment Agency said Wednesday.