Russian forces have taken control of two more settlements in Ukraine’s north-east Kharkiv region and one in the southern Zaporizhzhia region, the defence ministry said yesterday, building on a run of incremental gains that have alarmed Kyiv.

Russian President Vladimir Putin will visit China on May 16-17, the Kremlin said yesterday, using the first foreign trip of his new six-year term to underscore the deepening partnership with China’s Xi Jinping.

UK police said yesterday that they had charged three men for allegedly assisting Hong Kong intelligence services, with the suspects due to appear in court later in the day.

A fourth Indian national was charged by Canadian authorities Saturday in the 2023 killing of a separatist Sikh leader in Vancouver. 

At least seven people were killed and 17 injured when a whole section of a Russian apartment block collapsed after it was struck by a Soviet-era missile launched by Ukraine and shot down by Russia, Russian officials said. 

Russia yesterday said it had captured six villages in Ukraine’s east during a surprise ground offensive that prompted mass evacuations. 

Russian President Vladimir Putin proposed the reappointment on Friday of Prime Minister Mikhail Mishustin, a technocrat who has helped him through the war in Ukraine and the economic challenges wrought by Western sanctions over Moscow's invasion

A man shot and wounded two police officers in Paris after he got hold of one of the officer's weapons while he was being held at a police station, said Paris police chief Laurent Nunez on Friday, confirming earlier media reports

Russian President Vladimir Putin yesterday accused the West of risking a global conflict and said no one would be allowed to threaten the world’s biggest nuclear power as Russia marked the Soviet Union’s victory over Nazi Germany in World War Two.

Russia has agreed to remove some of its troops and border guards from Armenia, the Kremlin said yesterday, after months of spiralling tensions between the two ex-Soviet allies.

French police detained 86 people following an operation to remove students staging a pro-Palestinian occupation at the Sorbonne university in Paris, prosecutors said yesterday.

Australia said yesterday it would raise the amount of savings international students will need to get a visa and warned several colleges of fraudulent student recruitment practices, as part of efforts to rein in migration.

Britain’s ruling Conservatives yesterday suffered their second defection to the main opposition Labour party in as many weeks, piling pressure on Prime Minister Rishi Sunak.

Protests by students demanding universities sever ties with Israel over the Gaza war spread across western Europe on Tuesday, sparking clashes and dozens of fresh arrests

The Maldives has said India withdrew more than half of its troops deployed in its territory ahead of a Friday deadline, as the strategically located archipelago strengthens ties with China.

Russian President Vladimir Putin was sworn in for a new six-year term yesterday at a Kremlin ceremony that was boycotted by the US and other Western countries at which he said he was open to nuclear talks with West.

Israel’s offensive on Rafah will likely kill more civilians and is being carried out despite explicit warnings against it from European Union member states and the United States, the EU’s top diplomat said yesterday.

French bakers cooked the world’s longest baguette on Sunday at 140.53 metres (461 ft), reclaiming a record for one of the nation’s best-known emblems taken by Italy for five years.

Russian President Vladimir Putin has ordered nuclear weapons drills near Ukraine, Moscow said yesterday, in response to “threats” from Western officials to deploy Nato troops to Ukraine.

French President Emmanuel Macron and EU Commission president Ursula von der Leyen pressed Xi Jinping at a summit in Paris yesterday to use Beijing’s influence to halt the Russian war against Ukraine, also telling the Chinese leader to accept fair global trade rules.