Firefighters battled wildfires in Spain and Portugal Tuesday as Western Europe faced its second heatwave in less than a month which threatened glaciers in the Alps and worsened drought conditions.. In Spain, some 300 firefighters backed by 17 planes and helicopters were battling a wildfire in the eastern region of Extremadura which has ravaged 2,500 hectares of land, local officials said.
Kyiv said Tuesday it had launched a barrage of rockets and missiles on Russian military targets in southern Ukraine and destroyed an arms depot, in attacks that Moscow-backed authorities said had damaged homes.. Russian forces early Tuesday launched "massive" strikes on the southern Ukrainian city of Mykolaiv, with missiles hitting two medical facilities and residential buildings, the city's mayor Oleksandr Sienkevych said.
It was 10:30 pm on a Friday when Arthur Brand got the delivery he was nervously expecting. . The ornate container, about 30 centimetres (11 inches) high, has two metal bulbs inside and is said to hold drops of Jesus' blood collected in the Holy Grail during the crucifixion.
The sole surviving member of an Islamic State group cell that killed 130 people in Paris in 2015 has not appealed his whole-life sentence for the killings, the Paris chief prosecutor said Tuesday.. The 19 others sentenced for their role leading up to and following the attacks also declined to appeal, prosecutor Remy Heitz told AFP. They had 10 days to lodge any appeal after their sentencing, a deadline that expired at midnight Monday.
Sri Lanka's embattled president was stuck in his own country Tuesday in a humiliating standoff with airport immigration staff blocking his exit to safety abroad, official sources said Tuesday.. Rajapaksa's youngest brother Basil, who resigned in April as finance minister, missed his own Emirates flight to Dubai early Tuesday after a similar standoff with airport staff.
Tashi Choden will not only be the first contestant to represent Bhutan at the Miss Universe competition -- she is also the Himalayan country's only openly gay public figure. . And now, with Choden representing Bhutan on the Miss Universe stage -- watched by millions worldwide -- many are hopeful about the future of the country's queer youth.
British composer Monty Norman, best known for writing the iconic theme music for the James Bond films, died on Monday at the age of 94, his official website announced.. The theme became an integral part of the Bond brand, featuring in 24 subsequent films. jwp/phz/jm
Britain on Monday issued an extreme heat warning, with temperatures predicted to hit more than 30 degrees Celsius (86 Fahrenheit) across large parts of England and Wales.. The extreme heat warning was classified as "amber", the second-highest of three, indicating a "high impact" on daily life and people.
US President Joe Biden will Monday release one of the first images taken by the James Webb Space Telescope, the most powerful observatory ever sent into orbit and a leap forward in uncovering the secrets of the distant universe.. The very first image, released by the US president, will be of the "deep field" -- an image taken with very long exposure time, to detect the faintest of objects in the distance -- according to a person familiar with the matter.
Ukraine said Monday Russian forces were preparing to scale up an offensive on key cities in the eastern Donbas region as three people died in rocket strikes on Kharkiv, the country's second-largest city.. In eastern Ukraine -- the focal point for a grinding Russian offensive -- 20 people died over the weekend in strikes on the town of Chasiv Yar in the Donetsk region, Ukrainian officials said.
