When the world’s leading conservation congress kicks off Friday in the French port city of Marseille it will aim to deliver one key message: protecting wildlife must not be seen as a noble gesture but an absolute necessity -- for people and the planet.

Russian cosmonauts have discovered new cracks in a segment of the International Space Station that could widen, a senior space official said yesterday, the latest in a series of setbacks.

Teachers and school staff should be among the groups prioritised for Covid-19 vaccinations so that schools in Europe and Central Asia can stay open, the World Health Organization (WHO) and Unicef said yesterday.

Russia yesterday called on the United States to release Afghan central bank reserves that Washington blocked after the Taliban’s takeover of Kabul earlier this month.

1907 - The Anglo-Russian Convention was signed in St Petersburg, settling differences between Britain and Russia over Persia, Afghanistan and Tibet.

Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s Liberal Party appears to be ceding popularity to its Conservative rivals, according to polls published Saturday, with early elections only weeks away.

The Delta variant of the coronavirus that causes Covid-19 doubles the risk of hospitalisation compared with the Alpha variant it has supplanted as the dominant strain worldwide, researchers reported in The Lancet on Saturday.

The risk now, as we have seen in Afghanistan, is that the impression is given that the west has conditional allies that they are abandoning when their agenda changes. This is not our case. France does not abandon those who fought alongside it.

Prime Minister Boris Johnson defended Britain’s airlift from Kabul yesterday following growing criticism that ministers had been “asleep on watch”, potentially leaving thousands of eligible Afghans behind in the country.

France and Britain will submit a resolution to an emergency United Nations meeting due today proposing a safe zone in Kabul to try and protect people trying to leave Afghanistan, French President Emmanuel Macron said yesterday.

The United Nations yesterday issued an urgent appeal for aid for some seven million Afghan farmers in the war-ravaged nation facing the threat of severe drought.

Police tussled with protesters as thousands of people marched through Berlin yesterday chanting slogans and waving banners against COVID-19 restrictions.

Scientists have discovered what is believed to be the world’s northernmost landmass -- a yet-to-be-named island north of Greenland that could soon be swallowed up by seawaters.

Fatigue and shortness of breath still afflict many patients a year after their hospitalisation for Covid-19, according to a new Chinese study calling for a better understanding of the pandemic’s long-term health effects.

The search for the origins of the Covid pandemic that has killed millions and crippled economies is at a standstill even as time is running out, scientists charged with the task by the UN warned.

53 Civil society and journalists’ organisations, including ARTICLE 19, have called on the member states of G7 to protect Afghan journalists, media workers and their families.

She was called "the leader of the free world" as authoritarian populists were on the march in Europe and the United States but Angela Merkel is wrapping up a historic 16 years in power with an uncertain legacy at home and abroad.

Survivors from a migrant boat who were rescued off the Canary Islands yesterday said 11 people who had embarked with them went missing in the attempted crossing, Spain’s coastguard said.

Chinese and Russian leaders discussed Afghanistan yesterday, Chinese state media said, but did not echo the G7’s call for the Taliban to allow people to flee the country after Aug 31, as desperate crowds left behind by the withdrawal of US troops continue to fear for their safety.

1944 - Paris was liberated when the local German commander surrendered to the allies