World News

Police officers standing by a cordoned off area in Leicester square, London where a woman and an 11-year-old girl were stabbed. Photo: BENJAMIN CREMEL/AFP By Liz Jackson, Harry Low and Frankie McCamley, BBC News A shop security guard has described how he helped save an 11-year-old girl as she was being attacked by a knifeman in London's Leicester Square. In a statement, the Met Police said a 32-year-old man had been arrested and taken into custody after the girl and her 34-year-old mother were stabbed. Abdullah, 29, who works at TWG tea in Leicester Square, said he intervened to stop the attacker and, with help from colleagues, gave first aid to the child. The Met said it was "not looking for anyone else" in connection with the attack and does not believe the victims knew their attacker...

Photo: AFP By Richard Cowan and Andy Sullivan, Reuters Billionaire entrepreneur Elon Musk is due to interview Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump on the X social media network next week in an event that could inject more surprises into the turbulent US presidential election. The interview, scheduled for 8 pm Eastern Time (Midday Tuesday NZT), could provide the former president an opportunity to seize the limelight at a time when his campaign is seen as sagging. His Democratic rival for the 5 November election, Vice President Kamala Harris, has erased Trump's lead in opinion polls and energized Democratic voters with a series of high-energy rallies. The interview on Musk's social media platform could allow Trump to reach a different audience than the conservative faithful who a...

A house is burning in a wildfire in Varnavas, north of Athens. Photo: Dimitris Lampropoulos/NurPhoto By Stelios Misinas and Karolina Tagaris, Reuters Greece's worst wildfire this year spread into the Athens suburbs, forcing hundreds of people to flee as it torched trees, homes and cars overnight and choked busy roads with smoke and ash. The government has called in help from fellow EU members to tackle the fire that is burning out of control for a second day, fanned by gale force winds that pushed it from the wooded hills north of the city. Firefighters said flames, threatening apartment blocks, schools and businesses, had reached the deepest into the capital for over two decades. More than 700 firefighters backed by volunteers, 199 fire engines and 35 waterbombing aircraft have been ba...

By Shola Lee and Yasmin Rufo of the BBC Nadia Parkes plays Ayling in the six-part series released in August. Photo: River Pitctures Model Chloe Ayling was kidnapped after being lured to a fake photo shoot in Milan. She was released six days later, but her ordeal was far from over - seven years on, she is still being called a liar. "Headlines really stick in people's minds, even years later," Ayling tells the BBC, explaining that she still receives online abuse from people questioning her account. Her story is being told in a new six-part BBC series, Kidnapped: The Chloe Ayling Story. The series, which follows Chloe's experience being kidnapped and the media storm that followed, is based on police interviews, court transcripts and personal accounts - with some scenes created for drama...

First published on The diplomatic conference for the revision of the Geneva Conventions held in Switzerland on 12 August 1949. Photo: ICRC Archives/J. Cadoux Analysis - Today marks 75 years since the adoption of the Geneva Conventions on 12 August 1949. In theory, these rules of war are universally agreed by every nation. In practice, they are routinely violated everywhere. With an estimated 120 armed conflicts worldwide, more than 450 armed groups and 195 million people living in areas under their control, the protection of the vulnerable is as vitally important as ever. As the news headlines remind us daily, however, international humanitarian law can seem like too little, too late when faced with military might and political indifference. This year also marks ot...

By Francesca Gillett and Barbara Plett Usher, BBC News The aircraft carrier USS Abraham Lincoln and the Amphibious Assault Ship USS Kearsarge (LHD 3) in the Arabian Sea. Photo: Photo / AFP The US has sent a guided missile submarine to the Middle East, as tensions grow in the region. Defence Secretary Lloyd Austin also said an aircraft carrier which was already heading to the area would sail there more quickly. The move comes in response to fears of a wider regional conflict, after the recent assassination of senior Hezbollah and Hamas leaders. It signals the US's determination to help defend Israel from any attack by Iran - with Austin saying US would "take every possible step" to defend its ally. Iran is being closely watched for any indication of how and when it might respond to th...

The Parthenon temple atop the Acropolis hill in a smoke cloud from a wildfire, in Athens on 12 August, 2024. Photo: ANGELOS TZORTZINIS / AFP Thousands of residents are being evacuated from their homes as a large wildfire is spreading north of Athens, with flames leaping as high as 25m. The historic site of Marathon was among the areas where residents were being moved to safety by the emergency services. Houses and properties in the nearby town of Varnavas were burning, according to the fire brigade. Firefighters also evacuated people trapped by flames in a convoy of 20 to 25 vehicles that had been trying to escape the area. Forty fires have broken out in Greece since Saturday afternoon with firefighters still battling seven. The fire brigade worked throughout the night "but despite supe...

By Jessie Pang, Reuters Jimmy Lai Photo: AFP Hong Kong's top court on Monday unanimously dismissed the bid to overturn the convictions of media tycoon Jimmy Lai and six other pro-democracy campaigners for an unauthorised assembly in 2019. Lai, 76, the founder of the pro-democracy newspaper Apple Daily, and six others including veteran democrat Martin Lee had been found guilty of organising and participating in an unauthorised assembly in August 2019 during months-long pro-democracy protests in the China-ruled city. While a lower court had overturned their conviction for organising the unauthorised assembly, but their conviction for taking part in an unauthorised procession was upheld. Their appeal centred on whether the conviction was proportionate to fundamental human rights protect...

Medals Per Capita website has New Zealand has fourth Photo: medalspercapital.com The man behind a website tallying Olympic medals per capita, conveniently vaulting New Zealand to one of the top nations, is, not surprisingly a Kiwi. Medals Per Capita is a website set up by New Zealand computer scientist Craig Nevill-Manning revealing the truth - that New Zealand is a far more decorated nation for Olympic medals than heavy hitters like the US, China and - and YES - Australia. New Zealand came fourth on the per capita medal tally in Paris behind the even tinier island nations of Grenada, Dominica and Saint Lucia. At position nine, Australia barely makes the top 10. The US is at 47 and China, with its massive billion-plus population, is all the way down at 75. "It is my little contribution ...

This photograph released on August 11, 2024 on the official Telegram account of Kursk Mayor Igor Kutsak shows a fire in a residential building following a missile attack in Kursk, Russia. Photo: AFP PHOTO / Telegram account @glavaigorkutsak By Oleksandr Kozhukhar of Reuters President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said Ukraine had launched an incursion into Russian territory to "restore justice" and pressure Moscow's forces, in his first acknowledgement of Kyiv's surprise offensive into the western Kursk region. Moscow's forces on Sunday (local time) were in their sixth day of intense battle against Kyiv's largest incursion into Russian territory since the start of the war, which left southwestern parts of Russia vulnerable before reinforcement started arriving. Russian authorities rushed to evacu...