WORLD

Soaring temperatures and strong winds have sparked new fires in the Australian state of Victoria, where tens of thousands of people were urged to flee. Many tourists have heeded warnings to leave the East Gippsland holiday region – but others remain. The worsening weather started blazes and fanned existing ones …

A list of more than 1,000 addresses of New Years Honours recipients, including those of senior police officers and politicians, has been accidentally published by the government. The file was uploaded to the official website, but has since been removed. The Cabinet Office told the BBC: “We apologise to all …

The man from Boston stared at the ocean and thought: Maybe I’ll never go back. He’d come to coastal Ghana for an adventure, he told friends, but his motivation ran deeper. Pierre Delva, 32, craved a fresh start without the question that had bothered him since childhood. “Is it because …

A passenger plane has crashed in Kazakhstan, killing at least 15 people. Officials say the aircraft from Bek Air – a Kazakh airline – went down shortly after taking off from Almaty airport on Friday morning local time, smashing into a building. At least 60 injured people, including children, were …

China will rewrite the Bible and Quran to ‘reflect socialist values’ amid crackdown on the country’s religious groups, a report has revealed. New editions must not contain any content that goes against the beliefs of the Communist Party, according to a top party official. Paragraphs deemed wrong by the censors …

A Pakistani court on Saturday sentenced a university professor to death for blasphemy under a law that critics say is often used to target minorities and liberal activists. Junaid Hafeez, 33, was arrested in March 2013 for allegedly posting derogatory remarks against Prophet Mohammed on social media. Blasphemy is a …

The top Democrat in the US Congress, Nancy Pelosi, has written to President Donald Trump inviting him to give his State of the Union speech on 4 February amid the partisan impeachment battle. The annual speech would come during or soon after his trial in the Senate, where he is …

A man has been sentenced to more than 16 years in jail for pulling down and burning an LGBTQ flag that was flying at a church in the US. Adolfo Martinez, 30, of Ames, Iowa, was sentenced to 15 years for the hate crime of arson, as well as 1 year for …

MPs have backed Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s plan for the UK to leave the EU on 31 January. They voted 358 to 234 – a majority of 124 – in favour of the EU (Withdrawal Agreement) Bill, which now goes on to further scrutiny in Parliament. The bill would also …

Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison has apologised for going on holiday in Hawaii this week while the nation’s bushfire crisis worsened. Crews are battling over 100 fires amid a heatwave which has produced the nation’s two hottest days on record. Two volunteer firefighters died in a road accident on Thursday …