World

Tonight, Lebanon has been knocked into darkness. Again. The two state power stations are without fuel, and so the entire country is without electricity. Small mercy it’s no longer the height of summer, when air conditioning units and fans are literally life-saving for many. Lebanese are used to power shortages: for some time now, the

Lebanon’s electricity grid has shut down entirely after the country’s two main power stations ran out of fuel, according to reports. The al Zahrani and the Deir Ammar power stations stopped working after supplies of diesel were apparently exhausted, and energy production dropped to below 200 megawatts. The outage will continue for a few days,

We met an elderly man amongst the long stalks of sorghum in a valley – and a village – that local people called Alatti. He wore a sun-bleached jacket with a ‘Coca-Cola’ patch on the front and the back. I asked him his name and he said: “Ahmed. My name is Ahmed Seid.” He took

At least 46 people have been killed and more than 140 wounded after a suicide bomber attacked a mosque in Afghanistan’s northeastern Kunduz province, a state-run news agency has reported. Photos from the scene show bodies and bloodstains surrounded by rubble inside the mosque. Rescuers could be seen carrying bodies wrapped in blankets from the

Governments are being urged to do what is “morally right” to ensure all countries have enough jabs – as the World Health Organisation set a target of vaccinating 70% of the world by the middle of next year. The agency also said countries need to help meet its fresh target of vaccinating 40% of the

In Thailand’s fields, convicted criminals tend to a precious crop. In the blazing sun, in neon orange tops, they bend and scrape, painstakingly weeding the ground around neat lines of dark green plants. They’re growing green chiretta (Andrographis paniculate) – or Fah talai jone, as it’s called in Thailand. It’s a traditional herbal medicine commonly

More than 29 inches of rain – nearly two-and-a-half feet – fell in 12 hours in Italy this week, breaking a European record, as parts of the country were hit by extreme weather. The commune of Rossiglione in Genoa, Liguria, was among the worst affected with the record deluge of 29.2in of rain on Monday

The first vaccine against malaria could be rolled out to billions of people after key advisers to the World Health Organisation (WHO) gave it the green light. Experts on the WHO’s advisory bodies for immunisation and malaria concluded the vaccine Mosquirix could save tens of thousands of lives every year. The vaccine is now expected

Taiwan’s defence minister has warned that China will be capable of mounting a “full-scale” invasion of the island by 2025. Chiu Kuo-cheng said on Wednesday that the relationship between the two countries is the worst it has been in more than four decades. Mr Chiu said there was the risk of a “misfire” across the

A French actor has said he was raped by a priest when he was eight years old. Laurent Martinez spoke out on the day a damning report into the Catholic Church in France found an estimated 330,000 children were victims of abuse between 1950 and 2020. A commission concluded that the church showed complete and

The Catholic Church in France showed complete and sometimes cruel indifference to people who suffered sexual abuse at the hands of clergy for decades, a commission investigating the abuse has found. The investigation found that an estimated 330,000 children were victims of abuse between 1950 and 2020. The report said an estimated 3,000 child abusers

Two more earthquakes have rattled the Spanish island of La Palma amid a fresh surge of lava from an erupting volcano. Part of the volcano’s crater has also collapsed – two weeks after the eruption on what is one of the Canary Islands situated off northwest Africa. Spain’s National Geographical Institute said it recorded two

Algeria has closed its airspace to French military flights and recalled its ambassador to France as a row between the two countries intensifies. The moves were prompted by what Algerian officials said were “inadmissible” comments attributed to French President Emmanuel Macron, first reported on Saturday. Analysts say a ban on French forces using Algeria’s airspace

A bomb has exploded in the entrance of a mosque in the Afghan capital Kabul, leaving a “number of civilians dead”, according to the Taliban. The blast happened as a memorial service was being held for the mother of deputy information minister Zabihullah Mujahid, who later tweeted the attack had claimed civilian lives. Those killed

An erupting volcano in the Canary Islands has turned “much more aggressive”, officials have warned, after two further cracks blew open, spewing lava. Amid reports of “intense” activity on La Palma, the fresh fissures, some 25m (50ft) apart, sent scorching rivers of molten rock down towards the sea, parallel to an earlier flow that reached

French investigators have returned to where three members of a British family were shot dead in the Alps nine years ago. Saad al-Hilli, 50, who lived in Surrey, was gunned down with his wife Iqbal, 47, and mother-in-law Suhaila al-Allaf, 74, as they tried to leave the village of Chevaline in a BMW on 5

A serial killer who carried out a spate of murders and rapes in and around Paris in the 1980s and 1990s has been revealed as a retired police officer, according to reports in France. Francois Verove, 59, is said to have used his police identity card and handcuffs to abduct and restrain his victims. The

An erupting volcano in the Canary Islands has blown open a third fissure – sending a fresh river of lava down the mountainside. It came as authorities recorded eight new earthquakes up to magnitude 3.5 on the island of La Palma on Friday. They are now waiting to see whether lava from the new fissure

The 35-year hunt for a serial killer in France may finally have come to an end after a former police officer left a posthumous confession saying he was “the pockmarked killer”. The corpse of a 59-year-old man identified only as Francois V was found in the southern town of Grau-du-Roi near Montpellier on Wednesday, French

On a recent Sunday evening in Beijing, a few minutes before 8pm, Huang Chong opened a Harry Potter video game on her smartphone and tried to play. She couldn’t – by government decree. A pop up appeared on her screen: “Dear players… Minors can only play online games between 8-9pm on Fridays, weekends and national