Migrants stuck in Libya while trying to reach Europe are being systematically tortured and forced into sexual slavery -- a crime against humanity, a United Nations investigation said yesterday.

Russia and China are not creating a military alliance and the cooperation between their armed forces is “transparent”, President Vladimir Putin said in comments broadcast yesterday, days after hosting Chinese leader Xi Jinping in the Kremlin.

Russia’s parliament speaker yesterday proposed banning the activities of the International Criminal Court (ICC) after the court issued an arrest warrant for President Vladimir Putin, accusing him of the war crimes.

Britain’s King Charles yesterday cancelled a state visit to France after social unrest over President Emmanuel Macron’s new pension law erupted into some of the worst street violence seen in years across the country.

The son of a senior Russian official arrested in Italy at Washington’s request disappeared the day after a court approved his extradition to the United States, media reports said yesterday.

A planned visit to France from Sunday by King Charles III has been postponed due to ongoing protests over pension reform, the French presidency announced.

Swedish Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson said yesterday he would seek an explanation from Hungary about why it is delaying its parliament’s ratification of Sweden’s Nato bid but not Finland’s.

Belarus yesterday sentenced a journalist who worked for a Russian newspaper to three years in prison for an article that mentioned the reclusive country’s powerful KGB secret police, state-run media reported.

Any attempt to arrest President Vladimir Putin after the International Criminal Court (ICC) issued a warrant for the Kremlin chief would amount to a declaration of war against Russia, his ally Dmitry Medvedev said yesterday. The ICC issued an arrest warrant

Spanish lawmakers yesterday roundly rejected a no-confidence motion against socialist Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez brought by the far-right Vox party and fronted by an 89-year-old former communist.

Sweden’s parliament yesterday voted in favour of joining Nato despite delays by Hungary and Turkey to ratify its membership bid, which will likely lead to Sweden joining after neighbouring Finland.

The UK yesterday launched an independent judge-led inquiry into alleged unlawful killings by members of the armed forces in Afghanistan between 2010 and 2013.

The EU’s executive arm yesterday proposed new rules that would force manufacturers to allow customers to have broken products repaired, in a bid to cut the number thrown out. The EU estimates that the number of viable products, such as dishwashers,

London’s Metropolitan Police is institutionally racist, sexist and homophobic and could still be employing rapists and murderers, a scathing independent review of Britain’s largest force concluded yesterday.

Prime Minister Rishi Sunak and bereaved families yesterday led calls for  “top to bottom” reform of London’s Metropolitan Police, after a review found the UK’s largest crime-fighting force to be institutionally racist, sexist, and homophobic.

Russia said yesterday that it had opened a criminal investigation into International Criminal Court prosecutor Karim Khan after the court based in The Hague issued an arrest warrant for President Vladimir Putin.

At least 14 people were killed in a strong earthquake that shook a coastal region of Ecuador and northern Peru on Saturday, causing structural damage to multiple homes, schools and medical centers.

Millions of dead and rotting fish have clogged a vast stretch of river near a remote town in the Australian outback as a searing heatwave sweeps through the region.

Former UK prime minister Tony Blair is by turns pensive and defiant as he reflects on the upcoming anniversaries of two events that arguably defined the best and worst of his decade in power.

French President Emmanuel Macron yesterday faced the gravest challenge to his authority since the so-called Yellow Vest protests after his decision to push through a contested pension overhaul without a vote prompted violent unrest overnight.