At least 11 people have been killed at a school in Russia, including at least eight children, after two unknow gunmen opened fire with machine guns.

The best photos from the international wire agencies as chosen by our picture editors

Overnight, 24 Palestinians - including nine children - were killed in Gaza, most by air strikes, as Hamas fired more than 200 rockets toward Israel, injuring six civilians.

It is the long tail of the now-abolished One-Child Policy that has driven the result in the world’s most populous country. The coronavirus also played its part.

The 42-year-old has been charged with attempted murder of four people, two men and two women.

Whoever wins the June 18 vote will replace moderate Hassan Rouhani as nuclear pact talks resume and Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, now 82, battles ill-health rumours.

There’s been a rapid escalation of violence between Israelis and Palestinians this week. Here’s what you need to know.

Climbers and Sherpa guides have carried an estimated 3500 oxygen bottles this season. They often get buried in avalanches or are abandoned on the mountain.

Some believers have been going to cow shelters once a week to cover their bodies in cow dung and urine in the hope it will boost their immunity against,

Over the past decade Drew Weissman and Katalin Kariko have been working on a variety of vaccines. The pandemic accelerated the trials of their technology.

Israel’s military said it carried out strikes against armed groups in Gaza after militants there crossed a “red line”, firing rockets near Jerusalem.

The Hollywood Foreign Press Association has been under close scrutiny following an investigation that showed the group of 87 journalists had no black members.

Representative Adam Kinzinger said it should be Kevin McCarthy whose leadership is challenged, not Liz Cheney’s, who is expected to be purged by pro-Trump Republicans.

With COVID-19 cases and deaths decreasing, Italy is assessing loosening lockdown measures and plans to lift quarantine restrictions.

This is the second time in the last month US military vessels have had to fire warning shots because of what they said was unsafe behaviour by Iranian vessels.

An injured minke whale calf that became stranded in London’s River Thames has been put down after its condition deteriorated and hopes for its survival faded.

New research suggests Britain’s world-leading vaccine rollout slashes the risk of dying from COVID-19 by up to 97 per cent.

The ransomware group accused of crippling the leading US fuel pipeline operator says that its goal was to make money and not sow mayhem.

Palestinian medics say hundreds protesters have been hospitalised after clashes with Israeli police.

India has recorded 22.66 million COVID-19 cases and 246,116 deaths as hospitals run out of oxygen and beds and morgues and crematoria overflow.

Indonesian authorities have arrested Papuan independence leader Victor Yeimo over accusations that he orchestrated some of the most serious civil unrest in decades.

China and Indonesia staged a joint naval exercise in the Java Sea only days after Beijing offered to recover the sunken KRI Nanggala 402 off Bali without charge.

Witnesses inside the supermarket in the South Island city of Dunedin heard someone scream “he’s got a knife” before customers tried to pin down the attacker.

International Olympic officials, Tokyo planners and Japanese Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga himself have insisted the Games will go on in “a safe and secure” way.

The best photos from the international wire agencies as chosen by our picture editors

The worsening violence around the Temple Mount has prompted Jordan’s King and the US National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan to speak out.

The discovery of a prehistoric human skull in a cave in Italy has disproved macabre theories that Neanderthals indulged in ritual cannibalism – instead pointing to the prospect that they were eaten by giant hyenas.

The mangrove forest planted along this shrinking village’s riverbank is like a pillow that doesn’t stop but slows down the forces of nature.

The slow vaccine rollout has made Africa’s hunt for new variants, which tend to emerge where spread goes unchecked, more urgent.

“With the spread of inclusive writing, the English language - already quasi-hegemonic across the world - would certainly and perhaps forever defeat the French language.”

The Commission launched legal action against AstraZeneca for not respecting its contract for the supply of vaccines and for not having a plan to ensure timely deliveries.

The massacre is the latest in a resurgence of mass shootings in the US after such incidents seemed to recede during the height of coronavirus pandemic restrictions.

Like many others DarkSide seems to spare Russian, Kazakh and Ukrainian-speaking companies, suggesting a link to the former Soviet republics.

Cheney is under fire as a party leader because of her repeated criticism of ex-president Donald Trump’s lie that the 2020 election was stolen.

Mucormycosis is caused by a mould that thrives in wet environments and can attack through the respiratory tract, potentially eroding facial structures and harming the brain.

Israel faced international criticism after clashes between police and worshippers following protests over the potential eviction of Palestinians from a neighbourhood in East Jerusalem.

India’s COVID-19 deaths rose by more than 4000 for a second consecutive day on Sunday as calls for a nationwide lockdown to curb the spread of the virus mounted.

Once upon a time, a 7-year-old refugee living in a homeless shelter sat down at a chess board in school and learned how to play. Now 10, the boy is a champion.

The co-ordinates given by state media on Sunday, citing the China Manned Space Engineering Office, put the point of impact in the ocean, west of the Maldives archipelago.

The best photos from the international wire agencies as chosen by our picture editors

The Biden administration is examining ways to ensure that a waiver of COVID-19 vaccine patents to aid poor countries will not hand sensitive US biopharmaceutical technology to China and Russia.

Multiple blasts at a school in the Afghan capital Kabul on Saturday killed at least 40 people and wounded dozens more, mostly female students, officials said, in an attack President Ashraf Ghani blamed on the insurgent Taliban.

Melinda French Gates as frequently spearheaded efforts focused on women’s empowerment, an area where some experts say she could expand her giving.

Sadiq Khan has been re-elected London mayor as had been widely expected, providing some joy to the opposition Labour Party which has suffered a series of disappointing results in other local elections.

The rocket has been losing altitude since last month and will soon make what is called “uncontrolled re-entry” back to Earth.

Bo, the Portuguese water dog who became the first presidential pet in the Obama White House, romping in the halls of power, has died.

The incident is one of the most disruptive digital ransom operations ever reported.

First Minister Nicola Sturgeon is on course to win 64 seats but needed 65 for a SNP majority and a strong case for a new referendum.

Shaiz Javaid felt abandoned by Australia when borders closed. He is among thousands making up a record surge of university enrolments in Britain.

European Union leaders cranked up their criticism of the US call to waive COVID-19 vaccine patents Saturday, arguing the move would bring no short or midterm relief.