Thousands of people fled their homes on the outskirts of Athens on Friday as emergency crews struggled to stop wildfires from spreading to more towns while scorching winds fuelled blazes across Greece for the fourth day.

South Africa's jailed former president, Jacob Zuma, was admitted to hospital for medical observation on Friday, the government's Correctional Services department said.

The Prime Minister of the Caribbean country St Vincent and the Grenadines was struck by an object on Thursday during protests and later received medical treatment for injuries, according to local media reports and images circulating online.

President Joe Biden on Thursday offered temporary "safe haven" to Hong Kong residents in the United States, allowing what could be thousands of people to extend their stay in response to Beijing's crackdown on democracy in the Chinese territory.

Australia will provide one-off cash payments of US$60,000 to many Indigenous Australians who were forcibly removed from their families as children, Prime Minister Scott Morrison announced yesterday, to redress what he described as a “shameful” period in the nation’s history.

Iran’s new President Ebrahim Raisi yesterday said he will support “any diplomatic plans” to lift US sanctions but that foreign pressure will not make Tehran back down from its “rights”. 

Bosnia’s new top international envoy Christian Schmidt said Wednesday he would use the tools at his disposal to make the ethnically-divided country more functional, even as Bosnian Serb leaders rejected his legitimacy.

The European Union yesterday condemned the Taliban’s latest deadly attacks in Afghanistan and demanded “an urgent, comprehensive and permanent ceasefire”. 

1914 - Austria-Hungary declared war on Russia, and Serbia declared war on Germany in WWI.

Mexico said it filed a lawsuit against major US gunmakers in a Boston court on Wednesday over illegal cross-border arms flows that it blamed for fueling rampant drug-related violence.

With nearly 200 million people known to have had Covid-19, the WHO said it was deeply concerned by the unknown numbers who may still be suffering with Long Covid. 

Lauded nationwide last year for his no-nonsense coronavirus briefings, New York Governor Andrew Cuomo was clinging to his political life Wednesday as prosecutors opened criminal inquiries into sexual harassment allegations against the powerful Democrat.  

A Supreme Court justice ruled Wednesday President Jair Bolsonaro should be investigated for unproven claims Brazil’s voting system is riddled with fraud, adding the far-right leader to an ongoing probe on the spread of fake news by his government.

Olympic sprinter Krystsina Tsimanouskaya decided to defect as she was being driven to a Tokyo airport because her grandmother told her that it was not safe to return home to Belarus.

Hardline cleric Ebrahim Raisi will be sworn in as Iran's president on Thursday, with the Islamic Republic's clerical rulers face growing crises at home and abroad.

The Israeli air force said it carried out its first air strikes on neighbouring Lebanon in seven years Thursday following a second day of rocket fire across the border.

The Biden administration is developing a plan to require nearly all foreign visitors to the United States to be fully vaccinated against Covid-19 as part of eventually lifting travel restrictions that bar much of the world from entering the United States, a White House official told Reuters on Wednesday.

Ten people were killed and 12 injured on Wednesday when a van carrying 25 migrants crashed in southern Texas, about 90 miles (150 km) from the United States-Mexico border, local media reported.

President Jair Bolsonaro lashed out Tuesday at electoral authorities for ordering an investigation of his campaign against Brazil’s electronic voting system, saying he refused to be “intimidated” and that the country “is under attack.”

US President Joe Biden joined leading Democrats Tuesday in calling on powerful New York Governor Andrew Cuomo to resign after an independent investigation concluded that he sexually harassed multiple women.