Massive wildfires in Canada have already spewed out twice the smoke emissions than the previous whole-year record, the EU’s climate monitor said yesterday, with the blazes expected to continue to scorch their way through forests for weeks or even months.

Six mountaineers have plunged to their deaths or been killed by rockslides in the  southern Swiss Alps in a matter of days, police said yesterday.

Germany’s armed forces are facing major problems in attracting new recruits, the defence minister said yesterday, as Berlin seeks to overhaul its creaking military following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. The Bundeswehr has long suffered from a lack of

France and Italy yesterday prepared to fly out their citizens and other Europeans from Niger, six days after a coup that toppled one of the last pro-Western leaders in the jihadist-plagued Sahel and stoked anti-French demonstrations.

Russia said yesterday it had downed another wave of Ukrainian drones aimed at vessels in the Black Sea and Moscow, as an office block in the capital’s main business district was struck for the second time in a few days.

The UN’s cultural agency Unesco said yesterday its experts recommended giving Australia more time to boost protection of the Great Barrier Reef which the organisation’s World Heritage Committee has threatened to declare “in danger”.

The United States will rely on allies rather than a major expansion of its own forces to counter any Chinese military risk in the Pacific, a US general has told AFP.

Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau made massive changes to his cabinet last week in a move political analysts say is more theater than substance, but the Liberal leader’s close advisers say it shows his determination to seek a fourth election victory.

Eight people including three small children died in Russia when trees crashed into a lakeside campsite during a storm described as a “hurricane”, authorities said yesterday.

Russia’s Defence Ministry said it had brought down three Ukrainian drones early yesterday that had been trying to attack Moscow.

The wreck of an ancient Roman cargo ship from more than 2,000 years ago has been found off the coast near Rome, the arts squad of Italy’s Carabinieri police said yesterday.

A tearful Kevin Spacey was found not guilty yesterday by a jury at a London court of committing historical sex offences against four men

A fire blazed on a ship off the Dutch coast with nearly 3,000 vehicles on board yesterday, killing one member of the crew and injuring several others, the coastguard said.

Raging wildfires in Greece turned deadly yesterday when a firefighting plane crashed, killing two pilots, and a third person was found dead as relentless heatwaves fuelled flames.

Iranian authorities have in the last months launched an intensified crackdown against women deemed to have violated the Islamic republic’s strict dress rules, Amnesty International said yesterday.

A three-day United Nations summit yesterday opened in Rome aimed at tackling a “broken” global food system where millions are starving, two billion are overweight or obese and the planet is suffering.

Nearly five billion people, or slightly more than 60 percent of the world’s population, are active on social media, according to a recent study.

Germany and Mali agreed yesterday to pursue a “smooth withdrawal” of German troops from the troubled African nation after the UN decided to end its decade-old peacekeeping mission there, Berlin said.

Britain’s controversial plan to deter migrants without papers from landing on British shores was yesterday poised to become law, prompting criticism from the United Nations.

Russia yesterday halted participation in the year-old UN-brokered deal that lets Ukraine export grain through the Black Sea, spreading a sense of dread in poorer countries where people fear price rises will put food out of reach.