World

The family of a 21-year-old Kenyan woman said to have been murdered by a British soldier are taking legal action against the Ministry of Defence. Relatives of Agnes Wanjiru, a single mother to a young baby, have instructed British legal firm Leigh Day to represent them in a bid to find answers to her death

Iraq’s prime minister has survived an attempted assassination by a drone armed with explosives. The government said the drone targeted Iraqi Prime Minister Mustafa al Kadhimi’s home in Baghdad’s Green Zone early on Sunday. Baghdad residents heard the sound of an explosion followed by gunfire from the heavily-fortified area, which houses government offices and foreign

Scores of people have been killed after an oil tanker exploded near Sierra Leone’s capital, with the country’s president mourning the “horrendous loss of life”. Local authorities and morgue officials told the Reuters news agency that 91 people had been killed in the incident near Freetown. The government has yet to confirm the number of

Nine armed Ethiopian factions have joined forces in a bid to remove Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed from power. The newly-formed United Front of Ethiopian Federalist and Confederalist Forces aims to form a transitional government “by force or by negotiation”. “There is no limit for us… Time is running out”, said Tigray official and former foreign

Tourists at a beach resort in Mexico were left scrambling for cover after a gang of men shot dead two suspected drug dealers in front of several luxury hotels. Gunmen stormed a beach in front of the high-end resort of Puerto Morelos, just south of Cancun on Thursday. They then shot dead two men, who

China is expected to have at least 1,000 nuclear warheads by 2030, according to a new projection by the US military – a significant acceleration of its nuclear weapons programme. The Pentagon’s analysis sharply increased its estimate of China‘s upcoming nuclear weapon capability over the coming years, in its latest report. It projected Beijing could

More than 28 million “extra years of life” have been lost during the coronavirus pandemic, a new study has found. By comparing the lives cut short by COVID-19 and the estimated normal life spans of those who died, researchers, led by a team at Oxford University, calculated that millions of years of life have been

Police who found missing Cleo Smith in a locked house in Australia say they were “shocked” and then “elated” when the four-year-old confirmed: “My name is Cleo.” Detective Sergeant Cameron Blaine told reporters they were not prepared for such a happy outcome despite “always” hoping for it. “It was absolutely fantastic. To see her sitting

Former FIFA president Sepp Blatter and his ex-UEFA counterpart Michel Platini have been charged with fraud in Switzerland. It follows a six-year investigation into a payment of two million Swiss francs (£1.6m) from FIFA to Platini. Blatter, 85, and French football legend Platini, 65, could now face a trial within months. “This payment damaged FIFA’s

2070. It’s the most distant net-zero target of any G20 nation, but, as one climate activist in Kolkata, India, told Sky News: “At least it’s a start, although I’ll be dead by then.” Coming into Glasgow’s COP26 climate summit, India hadn’t updated its previous carbon reduction commitments (or NDCs, Nationally Determined Contributions) pledged during the 2015

India is kicking the can down the road on sulphur dioxide emissions despite being the world’s biggest emitter of the pollutant, according to an expert. Despite this week Boris Johnson declaring the world was at “one minute to midnight” on climate change, power plants in India are repeatedly being given extensions after failing to install

Drive through the swamplands of Western Siberia, and you’ll pass one oil installation after the next. This is the largest petroleum basin on Earth and the heartland of Russia’s vast oil and gas reserves.  Pipelines cut through the swampy ground. Fuel tankers thunder past, carrying hydrocarbons for global delivery. There is not much sense of

The Maldives is fighting for its very survival. As an archipelago of low-lying islands in the Indian Ocean, it faces not one but three existential dangers, all driven by climate change. The rising sea levels threaten to submerge some of the islands with some scientists warning this disaster could happen within the next decade. The

A man brandishing a “long knife” while dressed as the Joker from Batman stabbed several passengers on a Tokyo commuter train before starting a fire in one of the carriages, local media reported. At least 17 people were injured in the attack, including three seriously, though not all the wounded had been stabbed. The incident

At least three people have died and several more are injured after security forces opened fire during Sudan’s largest pro-democracy protest since the military seized control earlier this week. Last Monday, Sudan’s top general Abdel Fattah al Burhan, head of the Sovereign Council, declared a state of emergency and dissolved the country’s transitional government. Sudan’s

More than 160 buildings in a Myanmar town have been destroyed in fires caused by shelling from government troops, according to local media. Tensions between Myanmar’s military junta and opposing militia forces have continued to grow since the army seized power from the elected government of Aung San Suu Kyi in February. Now footage has

Failure to tackle global vaccine inequality at this weekend’s G20 summit could prolong the pandemic, civil society groups have warned. Campaigners have claimed previous calls to tackle structural problems with vaccine supply have so far been ignored, allowing doses to be “hoarded” by rich nations. The People’s Vaccine Alliance, a coalition of more than 75

Two weeks of global leaders meeting to save the world begin with a one-on-one between the leader of the planet’s biggest religious denomination and its most powerful superpower. US President Joe Biden flies into Rome for an audience with the Pope ahead of the G20 summit of world leaders and after that the COP26 climate

France has detained a British scallop trawler owned by Macduff Shellfish and given a verbal warning to another fishing boat in waters off its coast. French maritime minister Annick Girardin said it is “not war but this is a combat”, amid a warning the country could ban allowing British fishing boats to disembark at French

The president of the COP26 UN climate summit has told Sky News it is unclear if the crucial meeting will be a success and it is currently hanging “in the balance”. Just days from the summit, Alok Sharma said: “This is going to be difficult. “This is going to be a big challenge. “This is