President Vladimir Putin on Wednesday ordered Russia's first mobilisation since World War Two and backed a plan to annex swathes of Ukraine, warning the West he was not bluffing when he said he'd be ready to use nuclear weapons to defend Russia.

Russian-installed leaders in occupied areas of four Ukrainian regions set out plans for referendums on joining Russia this week, a step an ally of President Vladimir Putin said would alter the geopolitical landscape forever.

France said on Monday that there would not be a better offer for Iran to revive a nuclear deal with world powers and it was up to Tehran to decide now with the EU coordinator for the talks saying he saw little chance of progress this week.

The number of forest fires in the Brazilian Amazon so far this year has already surpassed that recorded for all of 2021, according to official figures released Monday that triggered new alarm for the world’s biggest rainforest.

A lack of international collaboration risks undermining efforts to decarbonise polluting sectors and could lead to decades of delay on the road towards net zero emissions, the International Energy Agency (IEA) said yesterday.

The United Nations’ massive global summit returned yesterday with a stark warning from the world body’s chief of an upcoming “winter of global discontent” from rising prices, a warming planet and deadly conflicts.

One person is estimated to be dying of hunger every four seconds, over 200 NGOs warned yesterday, urging decisive international action to “end the spiralling global hunger crisis”.

A top United Nations official on Tuesday demanded an independent investigation into the death of an Iranian woman held by the country’s morality police as authorities acknowledged making arrests at protests over the incident.

A gunman shot three people, including two first responders, at the Tri-State Fair & Rodeo in Texas before he was shot and wounded by sheriff’s deputies, authorities said.

The United Arab Emirates will launch its first lunar rover in November, the mission manager said Monday.

An ally of Russian President Vladimir Putin and Russia's top lawmaker on Tuesday backed plans by Moscow-backed separatists in Ukraine to hold referendums paving the way for the annexation of swathes of additional territory in its former Soviet neighbour.

Queen Elizabeth was laid to rest alongside her beloved husband on Monday after a day which saw Britain and the world pay a final farewell to the nation's longest-reigning monarch, in a dazzling show of pomp and ceremony.

Israeli archaeologists have announced the “once-in-a-lifetime” discovery of a burial cave from the time of ancient Egyptian Pharaoh Rameses II, filled with dozens of pottery pieces and bronze artefacts.

Queen Elizabeth’s coffin was lowered into a vault at Windsor Castle yesterday after a day of inimitable pageantry that drew world leaders to her funeral and huge crowds to the streets to say farewell to a revered monarch.

The laying to rest of Queen Elizabeth II, whose 70-year reign witnessed the aftermath of World War II, the Cold War and dizzying technological change, marks a further step in a leave-taking with the 20th century.

President Joe Biden said US forces would defend Taiwan in the event of a Chinese invasion, his most explicit statement on the issue, drawing an angry response from China that said it sent the wrong signal to those seeking an independent Taiwan.

Britain’s Queen Elizabeth, who died on September 8 aged 96 and whose funeral was taken place yesterday, never gave an interview during her 70-year reign, but her regular public speeches sometimes gave an insight into her private thoughts.  Here is a selection of extracts from speeches, addresses and contributions to documentaries given by the queen:

President Volodymyr Zelensky has vowed that there will be no let-up in Ukraine’s fight to regain its territory as Kyiv said its troops had crossed the Oskil River, preparing for an assault on Russia’s occupation forces in the eastern Donbas region.

The state funeral for Queen Elizabeth will be held at London's Westminster Abbey on Monday when world leaders will join King Charles and the British royal family to bid farewell to Britain's longest-reigning monarch.

Joy, trepidation and grief flickered across the face of Nataliia Yelistratova as she sat next to her husband on a special train back to their home town of Balakliia that Ukraine recaptured last week after six months of Russian occupation.