World

At least five senior government officials have been detained by military forces, according to reports. The country’s main pro-democracy political group, the Sudanese Professionals Association (SPA), has called on people to take to the streets in response to any apparent coup attempt. Internet and mobile phone signal outages have been reported, say SPA officials who

Britain is “fully cooperating” with an investigation into the murder of a Kenyan woman whose body was found in a septic tank close to a UK army camp, a top diplomat has said. High Commissioner to Kenya Jane Marriott said the UK will support the inquiry into the “tragic death” of Agnes Wanjiru in 2012

A notorious Colombian drug kingpin has been arrested in what has been described as the biggest blow to the country’s trafficking network since the death of Pablo Escobar. Dairo Antonio Usuga, known as Otoniel, was captured by the armed forces during an operation in a rural area of the South American nation’s Uraba region. Both

The crown prince of Saudi Arabia, Mohammed bin Salman, has pledged to make his country carbon neutral by 2060 at a landmark conference in Riyadh. Speaking in pre-recorded comments at the opening of the three-day event, bin Salman said Saudi Arabia had an ambition to become a “global centre for sustainable tourism”. He said: “We

A United Nations humanitarian flight was forced to abandon its landing in the capital of the country’s Tigray region due to Ethiopian military airstrikes, according to aid workers. Ethiopian authorities appear to be escalating the intimidation tactics against aid workers amid the intensifying, year-long Tigray war. A deadly conflict erupted between Tigrayan and Ethiopian government

The emissions from an overseas fossil fuel project the UK is funding to the tune of $1.15bn was assessed against 2°C of warming, not the 1.5°C limit broadly accepted as a safer threshold to avoid the worst effects of climate change, Sky News can reveal. The revelation about the gas project in Mozambique comes the

A Haitian gang leader has threatened to kill 17 kidnapped American and Canadian missionaries if he is not given millions in ransom money. In a video posted on YouTube, the leader of the 400 Mawozo gang that abducted the group said: “I swear by thunder that if I don’t get what I’m asking for, I

We could see a seemingly endless line of trucks as we headed down the highway in northern Ethiopia. As their contents drew closer we knew the battle ground was shifting in this country’s increasingly nasty civil conflict. There were thousands of troops perched on the back, clutching automatic weapons while fighting to stay upright. They

“Afghanistan was a silent country, a silenced nation,” says Ahmad Sarmast, founder and director of the country’s National Institute of Music. “And the same is happening again today.” Having spent more than a decade encouraging and nurturing the talents of hundreds of children and young people during a period when the country’s music scene was

Brazil’s president should face homicide charges over errors that led to an estimated 95,000 COVID-19 deaths, a draft of a major inquiry report has found. With more than 600,000 deaths, only the US has lost more people to coronavirus than Brazil and the president has been widely criticised for openly objecting to lockdowns, regularly refusing

At least 13 people have been killed after an explosion destroyed a bus in the Syrian capital of Damascus. A local television station said two explosive devices went off as the bus was on the Hafez al Assad bridge – and a third device was being defused by an army engineering unit. Pictures on the

North Korea has fired a submarine-launched ballistic missile from its east coast into the Sea of Japan, South Korea’s military has said. The launch, which has been reported by officials in South Korea and Japan, is the latest in a recent series of weapon tests by the country. It caused Japan’s new prime minister to

US President Joe Biden has paid tribute to former US secretary of state Colin Powell following his death, saying he “could drive his Corvette Stingray like nobody’s business”. The 84-year-old died following complications from COVID-19, his family said in a statement today. Figures from across the political spectrum have paid their tributes to the first

Hamas has warned Israel that another war is inevitable unless its occupation of Palestine ends and the dire humanitarian crisis in Gaza is resolved. Speaking exclusively to Sky News, in the first interview since mediation talks in Egypt ended, a senior Hamas official said that the fight will continue “with all means”, until an independent

A notorious gang with a history of kidnappings has been blamed by police for the abduction of 17 missionaries in Haiti. The 400 Mowozo gang was said to have kidnapped the religious group on Saturday, which included children, who were on their way home from an orphanage in the capital Port-au-Prince. Christian Aid Ministries, the

Russia has reported a record number of new coronavirus infections in the last 24 hours with cases hitting 34,303 – the highest since the pandemic began. It represents a hike of more than 70% when compared with last month’s figure of 20,174. Meanwhile, the number of daily COVID deaths in Russia stood at 997 –

The backlog of cargo ships at the busiest port complex in the US – images of which have come to define the global supply chain crisis – is unlikely to return to normal before next summer. The executive director of the Port of Long Beach in California says plans to switch to 24/7 operations, pushed

Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe has lost her latest appeal against her sentence in Iran, meaning she could be sent back to prison “at any time”, her MP has said. Labour’s Tulip Siddiq said the British-Iranian dual national’s sentence of one year plus a one-year travel ban has been “upheld with no court hearing”. The Hampstead and Kilburn

At least 15 people have been killed in an explosion at a mosque in southern Afghanistan. The blast happened in the Kandahar region during Friday prayers at a Shia mosque, with 31 believed to be wounded, officials say. The interior minister’s spokesman, Qari Saeed Khosti, said authorities were collecting details of the explosion, which occurred

COVID-19 health passes – or “green passes” – are now compulsory for all workers in Italy. The rule was approved by Prime Minister Mario Draghi’s cabinet in mid-September, forcing all workers to show either proof of vaccination, a negative test within the previous 48 hours, or recent recovery from infection. Italy is one of a