Gunmen have abducted four Catholic nuns in southeast Nigeria’s Imo state, police said yesterday, in the latest violence in a region where separatist tensions are on the rise.

Nearly 9,000 Ukrainian soldiers have been killed since Russia invaded, the country’s top military officer said yesterday, as Moscow accused Kyiv over the assassination of the daughter of a leading hardliner.

Swiss glaciers have shed half their volume since 1931, Swiss researchers said yesterday, following the first reconstruction of the country’s ice loss in the 20th century.

Iran yesterday accused the United States of “procrastinating” in indirect talks aimed at reinstating Tehran’s 2015 nuclear deal, and said a prisoner swap with Washington was not linked to the negotiations.

Dr. Anthony Fauci, the nation’s top infectious disease expert who became a household name — and the subject of partisan attacks — during the COVID-19 pandemic, announced Monday he will depart the federal government in December after more than five decades of service.

US President’ Joe Biden's administration will press ahead with talks on releasing billions of dollars in Afghanistan's foreign-held assets despite late al Qaeda leader Ayman al-Zawahiri's presence in Kabul and foot-dragging by the Taliban and Afghan central bank, according to three sources with knowledge of the situation.

The death toll from a devastating 30-hour siege by Al-Shabaab jihadists at a hotel in Somalia’s capital Mogadishu has climbed to 21, Health Minister Ali Haji Adan said Sunday, as anxious citizens awaited news.

President Volodymyr Zelensky urged vigilance ahead of Wednesday’s celebrations of 31 years of Ukraine’s independence from Soviet rule, as shells rained down near Europe’s biggest nuclear plant and Russian forces struck in the south and east.

In a leaked video, Finland’s Prime Minister Sanna Marin is seen dancing and singing with friends at a private party. The 36-year-old leader poses for the camera. She sits on her knees, hands behind her head. She is entangled in a group hug. She is having a good time.

Indiana overnor Eric Holcomb arrived in Taipei yesterday, becoming the latest US official to visit Taiwan and defying pressure from China for such trips not to happen. China, which claims democratically-governed Taiwan as its own territory despite the Taipei government’s strong objections, has been carrying out war games and drills near Taiwan since US House Speaker Nancy Pelosi made a two-day visit to Taipei earlier this month.

At least 32 people were killed in southeast Turkey on Saturday when vehicles crashed into first respondents who were attending earlier accidents, authorities said.

New Zealand retained a state of emergency in parts of its flood-battered South Island on Sunday as authorities weighed damage in the region hardest hit by four days of torrential rain.

At least 13 civilians have been killed and dozens wounded in an Islamist militant attack on a hotel in the Somali capital, officials said yesterday, as security forces battled gunmen barricaded inside many hours after the siege began.

Russia yesterday said it has shot down a drone over the headquarters of Russia’s Black Sea fleet in annexed Crimea, as President Vladimir Putin agreed to allow independent inspectors to travel to the Moscow-occupied Zaporizhzhia nuclear plant.

Russian fertilisers and agricultural products must be able to reach world markets “unimpeded” or a global food crisis could strike as early as next year, UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres said Saturday.

The leaders of Serbia and Kosovo failed to resolve differences fuelling tension between the estranged Balkan neighbours during talks yesterday, but they agreed to resume discussions ahead of a Sept. 1 deadline that could stoke further unrest.

Prominent literary figures including Paul Auster and Gay Talese gathered Friday in Manhattan for a reading of Salman Rushdie’s works, in solidarity with the author seriously injured in a stabbing attack.

The ongoing drought in Europe has re-exposed the so-called “hunger stones” along certain Czech and German rivers.

A European proposal to revive the nuclear agreement between Western countries and Iran is imminent and includes the release of billions of dollars in frozen Iranian funds and oil exports in return for the scaling back of its nuclear programme.

Weeks of baking drought across Europe have seen water levels in rivers and lakes fall to levels few can remember, exposing long-submerged treasures - and some unwanted hazards.