Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney said on Friday he expects to conclude negotiations with the European Union in June on an unprecedented partnership that would make Canada the bloc’s first “associate member”, even though the designation was left out of a joint declaration launching a new economic and security alliance. Carney said he would attend a meeting of European leaders in June to conclude negotiations on the proposed relationship, which would stop short of full EU membership. “In...

Christa Pike said on Friday that she remained in constant pain and struggled to speak a month after surviving a lethal injection in Tennessee, a failure she blamed on “incompetence.” In her first public statement since the execution, Pike said she never contemplated a life beyond her execution date and was prepared to die in peace, but woke up alone and confused in a hospital bed. “There hasn’t been a moment since that night when I haven’t been in pain. My body hurts. My arms hurt. My hands...

Pope Leo has become the first pope to vote in a US general election. The Vatican confirmed on Friday that the Chicago-born pontiff had submitted a mail-in ballot in Chicago ahead of November’s midterm elections, citing his long-standing belief in civic participation. Leo, formerly Robert Prevost, “has exercised his right to vote as a United States citizen” and has done so “whenever he was eligible to do so”, the Holy See press office said. The statement said he had also voted while living in...

Saudi Arabia said on Friday it intercepted and destroyed a drone launched by Yemen’s Iran-backed Houthi rebels near Islam’s holiest city, a claim the Houthis denied. A coalition spokesman, Major General Turki al-Malki, said the drone was intercepted in the region surrounding Mecca, Islam’s holiest city and a destination for millions of Muslim pilgrims each year. In a statement, Houthi military spokesman Yahya Saree denied carrying out any operations targeting Mecca, saying the group’s military...

The Pentagon has accused a newly ousted three-star general of leaking sensitive information to the media just hours after officials confirmed his removal from a top military planning post. Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth fired US Army Lieutenant General Brett Sylvia as head of strategy, plans and policy for the Joint Chiefs of Staff, a defence official said late Wednesday. Typically, the general in the position and their staff are responsible for generating and coordinating military plans for...

A South Korean special prosecutor on Thursday demanded the death penalty for ousted president Yoon Suk-yeol, ahead of an appeal court verdict on rebellion charges over his brief imposition of martial law in December 2024. The Seoul High Court has yet to set a date for a verdict on Yoon’s appeal of a life sentence handed down in February by the Seoul Central District Court. The court found that he illegally mobilised troops and police to seize the legislature, arrest political opponents and...

US Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth has fired the Pentagon’s top military planner, a defence official said on Wednesday, the latest in a series of generals to be ousted and one that comes even as President Donald Trump weighed renewed strikes on Iran in the eight-month-long war. US Army Lieutentant General Brett Sylvia was removed as head of strategy, plans and policy on the Joint Chiefs of Staff. He is the second general to be ousted from the post, known in military circles as the “J5”, under...

The UN General Assembly condemned the US economic embargo of Cuba for the 34th year on Wednesday, even as Washington’s campaign to influence the outcome led to a number of countries voting against the resolution or sitting out the decision for the first time. The vote was 130-17, with 25 abstentions – a notable decrease in support from last year, when more than 160 nations supported the measure and only 12 abstained. While such resolutions at the UN General Assembly are not legally binding, they...

Kimi Antonelli is on the verge of becoming Formula 1’s youngest-ever champion, and the first Italian to win the title since Alberto Ascari in 1953. For a country full of passionate racing fans, the 73-year wait for an Italian champ is puzzling. Over decades without a title contender to cheer, Italy’s legions of passionate “tifosi” fans have worn red to support Ferrari as a team, rather than individual Italian drivers. Now the 20-year-old Antonelli, reportedly rejected by Ferrari as a child...

An assailant with knives attacked a police officer from an elite unit guarding the Israeli embassy in Belgrade just after midnight on Wednesday, police said. The officer responded by fatally shooting the attacker. Interior Minister Ivica Dacic said that police were treating the incident as a “terrorist attack” and had raised the terror threat to the highest level and stepped up police presence at key locations. He said the attacker was a minor and had two knives. He attacked the member of the...

A high-speed train slammed into another that had stopped on the tracks in Spain Wednesday, killing at least 68 people and injuring dozens in the second deadly rail collision this year. The regional government of Castilla La Mancha confirmed the death toll and said another 58 people were receiving medical treatment at hospitals. Rescuers searched the wreckage through the day for survivors and bodies. The collision came just nine months after another deadly crash involving high-speed trains...

Britain’s King Charles arrived in the Bahamas on Tuesday as part of a nine-day trip to the Caribbean, where he faces calls for an apology and slavery reparations. It is his first official visit to the Bahamas as king, with the archipelago’s government closing all public schools on the island of New Providence to welcome him. The Bahamian police and armed forces strode out to greet Charles in lockstep, some wearing pith helmets. Charles stepped out in a light grey suit and donned sunglasses as he...

Three once high-flying brothers convicted of exploiting their wealth and access to luxury real estate to drug and rape dozens of women were sentenced on Tuesday to 30 years in prison. US District Judge Valerie E. Caproni announced the punishment for Tal, Oren and Alon Alexander – known collectively as the Alexander Brothers – after 11 accusers spoke in court. “Your conduct was monstrous,” the judge told the men as she announced the sentences, saying their insistence that they have been...

A dinosaur that looks like a miniature T. rex is now one of the world’s most expensive fossils. The rare skeleton of a Nanotyrannus – recently confirmed to be a distant cousin of Tyrannosaurus rex, not just a young specimen – sold for US$47.3 million to a mystery buyer at auction in New York on Tuesday, according to Sotheby’s. The auction house had expected it to fetch anywhere from US$6 to US$9 million. The blockbuster price tag for “Jodi”, as the skeleton is nicknamed, makes it the...

DNA connects serial killer Ted Bundy to the death of a Utah teenager, authorities announced on Tuesday, exactly 52 years after her body was discovered in the woods by a hunter. Bundy has been dead since 1989, but the tally of his confirmed victims continues to grow due to advances in DNA testing. He killed at least 30 women and girls in multiple states in the 1970s, and many more escaped or survived with injuries. Investigators are satisfied that Bundy was responsible for killing 17-year-old...