Several hundred suicide bombers and 4,000 fighters belonging to Isis are preparing to defend Hajin in eastern Syria close to the border with Iraq. The town is the last stronghold of the Islamic State, the militarised Islamic cult that three years ago controlled territory the size of Great Britain. The ...

Undercover investigators easily found items from tusks of recently killed animals on sale in 10 countries Ivory from recently slaughtered elephants is being illegally sold across Europe, fuelling the extinction crisis, a study has found. New radiocarbon-dating tests proved that ivory items bought in many countries, including Britain, were from ...

Worst flood disaster hits Asian nation since 1983 More than 100 people have been killed and dozens are missing after record torrential rains unleashed floods and landslides in western Japan. Rescuers are searching for nearly 80 people who are still accounted for, most of them in the hardest-hit Hiroshima area. ...

AN operation to rescue the remaining nine people trapped in a flooded Thai cave system is in full swing as the same divers who brought the first four boys to safety go in again. AN operation to rescue the remaining nine people trapped in a flooded Thai cave system is ...

Iran will stop oil exports from the Strait of Hormuz, the world’s most important oil chokepoint, if the U.S. succeeds in halting crude sales from the Persian Gulf nation, a Revolutionary Guards official said. “Any hostile attempt by the U.S. will be followed by an exorbitant cost for them,” said ...

Beleaguered chancellor gives first speech to parliament since meeting with interior minister Angela Merkel has sought to defend her government’s migration policy in her first speech to parliament since a showdown with the interior minister, Horst Seehofer, over the policing of Germany’s borders. The German chancellor spoke up for the ...

Intelligence committee finds ‘further support’ to conclusion that Vladimir Putin and his government aimed to boost Trump A Republican-controlled Senate panel has said that further evidence has been found to support a US intelligence assessment that Russia interfered in the 2016 presidential election to help elect Donald Trump. The Senate ...

Baghdad declared victory over the militants last year, but fighters continue to launch attacks deep inside supposedly secure areas of the country Iraq is building a new security fence along its long desert border with Syria, the latest attempt to stop Isis fighters entering the country. Construction of the first ...

Syrian rebels in Daraa have rejected surrender conditions proposed by Russian negotiators to end days of violence in the country’s south, a rebel spokesman said on Saturday. “The talks collapsed because the Russians insisted on their conditions that want us to surrender,” rebel spokesman Ibrahim Jabawi said “The [rebels’] negotiating ...

‘Seabird capital of the world’ is home to dozens of endemic species, which are particularly vulnerable to plastics Seabirds are more at risk of dying due to plastic in New Zealand than anywhere else in the world, new research presented to parliament has shown. New Zealand is considered “the seabird ...