Non-communicable diseases like heart disease, cancer and diabetes are responsible for 74 percent of deaths globally and cracking down on risk factors could save millions of lives, the WHO said yesterday.

Apple farmers in the north of Italy are using natural refrigerators carved under a hillside to store their harvest in a controlled environment that remains at a constant temperature in all seasons.

President Vladimir Putin on Wednesday ordered Russia's first mobilisation since World War Two and backed a plan to annex swathes of Ukraine, warning the West he was not bluffing when he said he'd be ready to use nuclear weapons to defend Russia.

France said on Monday that there would not be a better offer for Iran to revive a nuclear deal with world powers and it was up to Tehran to decide now with the EU coordinator for the talks saying he saw little chance of progress this week.

A lack of international collaboration risks undermining efforts to decarbonise polluting sectors and could lead to decades of delay on the road towards net zero emissions, the International Energy Agency (IEA) said yesterday.

The United Nations’ massive global summit returned yesterday with a stark warning from the world body’s chief of an upcoming “winter of global discontent” from rising prices, a warming planet and deadly conflicts.

An ally of Russian President Vladimir Putin and Russia's top lawmaker on Tuesday backed plans by Moscow-backed separatists in Ukraine to hold referendums paving the way for the annexation of swathes of additional territory in its former Soviet neighbour.

The laying to rest of Queen Elizabeth II, whose 70-year reign witnessed the aftermath of World War II, the Cold War and dizzying technological change, marks a further step in a leave-taking with the 20th century.

Britain’s Queen Elizabeth, who died on September 8 aged 96 and whose funeral was taken place yesterday, never gave an interview during her 70-year reign, but her regular public speeches sometimes gave an insight into her private thoughts.  Here is a selection of extracts from speeches, addresses and contributions to documentaries given by the queen:

The state funeral for Queen Elizabeth will be held at London's Westminster Abbey on Monday when world leaders will join King Charles and the British royal family to bid farewell to Britain's longest-reigning monarch.

The European Union’s executive branch recommended Sunday that the bloc suspend around 7.5 billion euros (dollars) in funding to Hungary over concerns about democratic backsliding and the possible mismanagement of EU money.

Alain Robert, the free climber dubbed the “French Spiderman”, scaled a 48-storey skyscraper in Paris on Saturday, fulfilling a goal he had set for himself once he reached the age of 60.

6:30 am (0530 GMT): The lying-in-state ceremony formally ends at Westminster Hall and the doors close to the public, ready for the transfer of her coffin to nearby Westminster Abbey.

Britain’s new Queen Consort Camilla paid tribute to Queen Elizabeth II yesterday for carving her own role as a “solitary woman” in a world dominated by men.

Russian President Vladimir Putin said Turkey would pay for a quarter of its Russian natural gas imports in rubles under a new set of deals designed to boost trade.

One of the Russian-held Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant’s four main power lines has been repaired and is once again supplying the plant with electricity from the Ukrainian grid two weeks after it went down, the UN nuclear watchdog said yesteraday.

Princes William and Harry stood vigil at either end of the coffin of their grandmother Queen Elizabeth yesterday, heads bowed as a line of mourners streamed past the late monarch’s lying-in-state. 

A young Iranian woman who fell into a coma after being arrested in Tehran by the notorious morality police died on Friday, state media and her family said, with activists urging those responsible for her “suspicious” death be brought to justice.

When she was a child growing up in Nigeria, Timie Ogunmola’s father used to show her black-and-white pictures of his trip to London in 1953 to attend Queen Elizabeth’s coronation as an official in what was then his country’s colonial administration.

Russian President Vladimir Putin and Chinese leader Xi Jinping yesterday called for a shake-up of the world order as they met with Asian leaders for a summit challenging Western influence.