France24.com (en)

The country will shortly trigger the EU Civil Protection Mechanism to bolster firefighting efforts with two Canadair water bomber planes, a government source told the Lusa news agency. The head of the regional government, Miguel Albuquerque, said 60 extra firefighters and first aid specialists had arrived from the Portuguese mainland on top of 76 already sent since the wildfire started on Wednesday last week. The fire had burned 4,392 hectares (10,850 acres) of land up to Tuesday, the European... Читать дальше...

The International Tennis Integrity Agency (ITIA) said on Tuesday that Sinner had provided an in-competition sample at the Indian Wells Masters on March 10 which contained the presence of clostebol at low levels. A further sample, conducted eight days later out of competition, also tested positive for low levels of the same metabolite. Sinner had explained that the substance had originated from a spray, containing clostebol, that had been used by a member of his staff to treat a cut finger. The... Читать дальше...

President Emmanuel Macron launches negotiations with different party leaders this Friday in a latest effort to bring an end to six weeks of political deadlock following snap legislative elections. Macron seems set on forging a broad coalition that would likely include his own defeated centre-right bloc – though whether he can successfully fracture the forces arrayed against him remains far from certain.

Lawmakers voted in favour of all 19 ministers chosen by Pezeshkian -- who was inaugurated in July after his predecessor Ebrahim Raisi died in a helicopter crash -- during a session broadcast on state television. In a speech in parliament ahead of the vote, Pezeshkian said he initially "had ideal (candidates) on my mind". "But when I saw that there was no mutual agreement on them, I backed down," said Pezeshkian, who later held his first sessions with the newly approved cabinet. "Because agreement... Читать дальше...

The Australian government approved on Wednesday an ambitious plan for a massive solar farm intended to power millions of homes domestically and supply electricity to Singapore. The project now depends on sign-offs from Singapore's energy market authority, Indonesia's government and Australian Indigenous communities.

In a little-known story linking the two countries, Digvijaysinhji Ranjitsinhji Jadeja sheltered Polish children evacuated from Siberia where they were deported by the Soviet Union when war broke out. The Indian leader, accompanied by families of some of the children saved, laid flowers at a red-marble monument crowned with a lotus sculpture, built in honour of the maharaja in the Polish capital. "For all the children in the camp, the maharaja was a substitute father," Agnieszka Michalowska, daughter of the late Wieslaw Stypula... Читать дальше...

A man was shot and seriously injured on Wednesday in Angoulême town hall in southwestern France after he set fire to the 19th century building using petrol, police and local authorities said. The fire was rapidly brought under control.

A survey published this week reports multiple cases of UK school librarians being asked to remove books dealing with LGBTQ themes and characters. The data comes from the non-profit 'Index on Censorship'. FRANCE 24’s Catherine Khédir-Clifford has been looking into the story.

Multiple pro-Palestinian demonstrators were arrested Tuesday after clashing with police during a protest that began outside the Israeli consulate and spilled out onto the surrounding streets on the second night of the Democratic National Convention. Story by Bryan Quinn.

Scuba divers searching for six missing people following the sinking of a superyacht off Sicily in a storm on Monday have found four bodies, bringing the confirmed death toll to five. It was not immediately clear who had been found. The missing include UK tech tycoon Mike Lynch and the chairman of Morgan Stanley International, Jonathan Bloomer.