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Italian firefighters said Thursday they had battled more than 500 blazes overnight as another death was reported, taking the total toll linked to wildfires to four over the past week. An anticyclone dubbed Lucifer is sweeping across Italy, sending temperatures soaring and causing what is believed to be a new …

Russia on Thursday reported its highest daily coronavirus death toll since the start of the pandemic, as a third wave persists despite an intensifying vaccination drive. A government tally reported 808 fatalities over the past 24 hours — the first time Russia has crossed the 800-mark for daily virus deaths …

Afghan government negotiators in Qatar have offered the Taliban a power-sharing deal in return for an end to fighting in the country, a government negotiating source told AFP on Thursday. “Yes, the government has submitted a proposal to Qatar as mediator. The proposal allows the Taliban to share power in …

Iran summoned the Russian and British ambassadors on Thursday after a photograph was posted on the Russian embassy’s Twitter account recalling the 1943 Tehran Conference, Iranian state media reported. The picture, which outgoing foreign minister Mohammad Javad Zarif called “extremely inappropriate”, has drawn criticism in Iran, with many saying on …

Post-Brexit trade frictions have “significantly altered” freight traffic between Ireland and Britain and sparked a steep rise in volumes to and from Ireland and other European Union members, an Irish government agency report said on Thursday. The introduction of checks on some goods since neighbouring Britain left the EU’s trading …

A crowd of Turks attacked shops and homes belonging to Syrians in the Turkish capital Ankara overnight in the wake of a street fight that led to a Turkish youth being fatally stabbed, a witness and media reports said. The windows of Syrians’ shops and homes were smashed and a …

Lebanon’s caretaker prime minister said on Thursday the central bank had broken the law by deciding to remove fuel subsidies, and the damage done would outweigh the benefits of preserving the mandatory reserves which the bank is trying to protect. A loss of fuel subsidies would open a new phase …

A helicopter carrying 16 tourists and crew on a volcano sightseeing trip in Russia’s far east crashed into a lake on Thursday, leaving eight people feared dead and two others in serious condition, local officials said. The Mi-8 helicopter crash-landed into Kuril Lake in the mountainous Kamchatka peninsula amid poor …

Taliban captured the city of Ghazni on Thursday, the ninth provincial capital they have seized in a week, as US intelligence said the capital, Kabul, just 150 km to the northeast, could fall to the insurgents within 90 days. The speed of the Taliban advance has sparked widespread recriminations over …

A Panamanian-registered ship ran aground in a northern Japan harbour, then split in two and was leaking oil, but there were no injuries among the 21 crew and the oil leak was being controlled with no signs it had reached shore, the Japan Coast Guard said. The 39,910-tonne vessel, the …

Severe floods and landslides have caused major damages in several provinces of Turkey‘s Black Sea region after heavy rain. Heavy rains triggered severe floods and landslides in northern Turkey, injuring several people and leaving many others missing. Many people are missing after flooding destroyed houses in Kastamonu and Bartin Provinces. …

Canada is working to create a digital vaccine passport that would allow citizens to travel abroad and it should be available in the next few months, government officials said on Wednesday. Before the passport can be created Ottawa needs to agree on a common approach with the 10 provinces and …

Turkey will start face-to-face education as scheduled, Health Minister Fahrettin Koca said on Wednesday, and unvaccinated adults will have to be tested regularly against COVID-19. “It is not possible for us to compromise face-to-face education … We will take necessary measures to protect students and their families,” Koca said in …

Russia and Moldova have agreed to lift trade restrictions and are ready for mutually beneficial ties, senior Kremlin official Dmitry Kozak said on Wednesday, Interfax news agency reported. Russia in 2013 banned imports of Moldovan wines and spirits, one of the ex-Soviet republic’s main export earners, in a move that …

Pakistani Prime Minister Imran Khan accused the United States of seeing his country as useful only in the context of the “mess” it is leaving behind in Afghanistan after 20 years of fighting. Washington has been pressing Pakistan to use its influence over the Taliban to broker an elusive peace …

Tropical storm Fred was passing over the Caribbean island of Hispaniola on Wednesday, made up of the countries of the Dominican Republic and Haiti, the sixth named storm of the Atlantic hurricane season. The National Hurricane Center (NHC)in Miami said at 11 a.m. that Fred was moving west-northwest, at 16 …

An earthquake of magnitude 7.1 struck off the southeast coast of the Philippines early on Thursday, the U.S. Geological Survey said, as various agencies ruled out the risk of it triggering tsunamis. The quake was at a depth of 65.6 km, the USGS said. Broadcaster CNN reported the Philippine Institute …

The death toll in fires ravaging mountain forests and villages in Algeria’s Berber region rose to 65 people on Wednesday, including 28 soldiers, the country’s civil protection authority said, up from 42 people and 25 soldiers on Tuesday. President Abdelmadjid Tebboune said his North African nation would enter a three-day …

Turkey is for now still intent on running and guarding Kabul airport after other foreign troops withdraw from Afghanistan, but is monitoring the situation after rapid advances by Taliban forces, two Turkish officials said. Taliban fighters took control of another city in northern Afghanistan on Wednesday, the eighth provincial capital …

Nigeria will soon lift its ban on Twitter after resolving some of its differences with the social media platform, Information Minister Lai Mohammed said on Wednesday, signaling the end of a policy widely condemned as an affront to freedom of expression. The Nigerian government suspended Twitter on June 4 after …