At least 10 people died in a huge fire that ripped through a 14-storey tower block in Valencia, eastern Spain, and at least 14 were reported missing, with officials warning yesterday the death toll could rise.

A rare book gifted to Charles Darwin by Karl Marx in 1873, which may not have been read by its recipient, is returning to the English naturalist’s home for public display after undergoing conservation work.

Moscow sent hitmen who gunned down a Russian deserter in Spain last week, six months after fleeing to Ukraine in his helicopter, El Pais newspaper reported yesterday, citing Spanish intelligence sources.

UK Foreign minister David Cameron said yesterday that London had imposed sanctions on six officials at the head of the Siberian penal colony where Russian opposition figure Alexei Navalny died.

The US ambassador to Moscow visited a makeshift shrine to Alexei Navalny yesterday, as Russian authorities suppressed memorials and tributes to the late opposition leader.

Alexei Navalny’s mother was told yesterday that Russia’s most prominent opposition leader had been struck down by “sudden death syndrome” and that his body would not be handed over to the family until an investigation was completed, his team said.

The recognition of a Palestinian state is no longer a taboo for France, President Emmanuel Macron said on Friday, suggesting Paris could make the decision if efforts for a two-state solution stalled because of Israeli opposition

Alexei Navalny, Russian President Vladimir Putin’s most formidable opponent, collapsed and died yesterday after a walk at the “Polar Wolf” Arctic penal colony where he was serving a three-decade jail term, the Russian prison service said.

Britain, the United States and Canada remain “deeply concerned” about foreign information manipulation and other actions aimed at undermining democracies and human rights globally, the three Western countries said in a joint statement.

Britain’s ruling Conservatives lost two more parliamentary seats to Labour in by-elections yesterday, highlighting the mountain Prime Minister Rishi Sunak must climb to win a general election due this year.

Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny, who died yesterday at the Arctic prison colony where he was serving a 19-year-term, is the latest critic to fall foul of President Vladimir Putin.

A Ukrainian rocket attack on the Russian city of Belgorod killed at least six people and wounded over a dozen others yesterday, officials said.

Humanitarian chiefs said yesterday they had run out of words to describe the horrors unfolding in Gaza, stressing that states and especially Israel could not “offload” responsibility for the carnage onto aid workers.

A large fire broke out at Sweden’s largest amusement park in Gothenburg yesterday, engulfing a newly built water park in flames, authorities said, with a dozen people sustaining minor injuries.

Russia launched drone attacks overnight on Kyiv and southern Ukraine, injuring at least one civilian and damaging a gas pipeline and residential buildings in the river and sea port of Mykolaiv, Ukraine’s military said yesterday.

Russian President Vladimir Putin and Chinese President Xi Jinping spoke by phone yesterday and both rejected what they called US interference in the affairs of other countries, the Kremlin said.

Europe’s CERN laboratory revealed more details Monday about its plans for a huge new particle accelerator that would dwarf the Large Hadron Collider (LHC), ramping up efforts to uncover the underlying secrets of the universe.

Water scarcity could affect three billion more people than previously expected by mid-century, with increased pollution rendering river sources “unsafe” for humans and wildlife, researchers warned yesterday.

Chile began an official two-day mourning period yesterday for the 112 so far killed in the South American country’s deadliest wildfires in recent history, while authorities continued to battle blazes fanned by high temperatures and strong winds.

Britain’s King Charles has been diagnosed with a form of cancer and the 75-year-old will postpone public-facing duties while he undergoes treatment, Buckingham Palace said yesterday.