Severe floods hit the Turkey Black Sea coastal provinces of Bartin, Kastamonu, Sinop and Samsun, destroying homes and bridges.

At least 17 people have been killed in flash floods in Turkey’s Black Sea region that have sent water and debris cascading through streets, damaged bridges, and ripped up roads in the second natural disaster to strike the country this month.

The floodwaters brought chaos to northern provinces just as authorities were declaring that some of the wildfires that had raged through southern coastal regions for two weeks had been brought under control.

At least two people have died and dozens more are trapped under debris in a huge landslide in the northern Indian state of Himachal Pradesh.

Falling boulders have buried a truck, a passenger bus and other vehicles, according to local reports.

Police and local officials have begun rescue efforts, said Jairam Thakur, chief minister of Himachal Pradesh.

There have been several deadly landslides in India in recent months during an unusually heavy monsoon.

It's still unclear what caused Wednesday's landslide - it happened on a highway in Kinnaur district. Local reports say five people have been rescued, but around 30 others are still trapped.

A British man has been arrested in Germany on suspicion of spying for Russia.

German federal prosecutors said the man - named only as David S - worked at the British embassy in Berlin.

He allegedly passed documents to Russian intelligence "at least once" in exchange for an "unknown amount" of money.

He was arrested in Potsdam outside Berlin on Tuesday and his home and workplace have been searched.

A spokesman for Germany's foreign ministry quoted by AFP news agency said Berlin was taking the case "very seriously", and said spying by "a close alliance partner on German soil is unacceptable".

The arrest was the result of a joint UK-German investigation, the statement read.

It was intelligence-led and had been going on for some time leading up to the arrest, the BBC's Security Correspondent Gordon Corera says. MI5 and other UK agencies, as well as British police, had been working with the Germans to learn as much as they could about the alleged activity.

The exercises, involving ground troops and air forces, come amid growing instability in Afghanistan.

Chinese and Russian military forces are engaged in joint exercises in north-western China as ties grow between the two autocratic states amid uncertainty over instability in Afghanistan.

The exercises involving ground troops and air forces are due to continue through until Friday in the Ningxia Hui Autonomous region.

The region borders on Xinjiang, where China has detained more than one million Uyghurs and members of other Muslim minorities in what it calls a campaign against terrorism and extremism.

Xinjiang shares a narrow frontier with Afghanistan, and Beijing is concerned about violence spilling over its border if the Taliban take control in the country following the pullout of US and NATO troops.

While not part of a formal alliance, Russia and China have aligned their military and foreign policies largely in opposition to those of the US and its allies.

The official Xinhua News Agency said the exercises began on Monday and were presided over by Li Zuocheng, a member of the ruling Communist Party's Central Military Commission.

The exercise aims to "deepen the joint anti-terrorism operations between the Chinese and Russian militaries and demonstrate the firm determination and strength of the two countries to jointly safeguard international and regional security and stability", Xinhua said, citing Chinese and Russian officials.

"It reflects the new height of the China-Russia comprehensive strategic partnership of co-ordination for a new era and of the strategic mutual trust, pragmatic exchanges and co-ordination between the two countries," Xinhua said.

Russia has backed China in its claim to virtually the entire South China Sea, over which Beijing clashed with common rival the US at a high-level UN Security Council meeting on maritime security.

Men claiming to speak for Mexico's most powerful drug cartel have released a video threatening to murder a prominent female news anchor over what they deem to be unfair coverage.

The warning was made by a man who said it was on behalf of the leader of the Jalisco New Generation cartel (CJNG).

He complained that Milenio Television was favouring so-called self-defence groups organised to resist the CJNG.

In the video, journalist Azucena Uresti is threatened directly.

"I will make you eat your words even if they accuse me of femicide," the masked speaker, who is surrounded by six heavily armed men, warns.

He accuses Ms Uresti and the Milenio network of being biased in their coverage of the battle between the cartel and vigilante groups.

Hundreds of Belarusian exiles gathered in front of the country's embassy in Ukraine on Tuesday evening to honour activist Vitali Shishov, who was found dead in Kyiv in the morning.

Shishov ran the Belarusian House in Ukraine, a group helping Belarusians fleeing persecution.

The Belarusian activist went for his usual run on Monday, but he never returned. Friends were searching for him through the night. He was found hanged on Tuesday morning in a forest in the easternmost part of Kyiv.

Police have opened an investigation and are working on two theories, suicide or "murder disguised as suicide".

But the Belarusian community in Kyiv is convinced he was killed by people connected to Belarus' president. Alexander Lukashenko was reelected last August but critics say the vote was rigged. The election sparked widespread protests and a brutal crackdown on dissent, sparking some Belarusians to flee to other parts of Europe, including Lithuania, Poland and Ukraine.

Intense fighting is being reported in Ethiopia's Amhara state - the latest sign that the war that erupted in the Tigray region in November is spreading.

Federal forces as well as Amhara regional troops were involved in fighting Tigray rebels on three fronts, an Amhara official told the BBC. This is despite the government saying a unilateral ceasefire declared last month had not been suspended. All sides have accused each other of escalating the conflict.

The situation has intensified since the Tigray People's Liberation Front (TPLF) rebels recaptured much of Tigray in a spectacular offensive against the national army in June.

Australia has deployed hundreds of soldiers to Sydney to help enforce a Covid lockdown. A Delta outbreak which began in June has produced nearly 3,000 infections and led to nine deaths.

Australian Defence Force soldiers will undergo training on the weekend before beginning unarmed patrols on Monday. But many have questioned whether the military intervention is necessary, calling it heavy-handed.

The lockdown - in place until at least 28 August - bars people from leaving their home except for essential exercise, shopping, caregiving and other reasons. Despite five weeks of lockdown, infections in the nation's largest city continue to spread. Officials recorded 170 new cases on Friday.

Soldiers will join police in virus hotspots to ensure people are following the rules, which include a 10km (6.2 miles) travel limit. State Police Minister David Elliott said it would help because a small minority of Sydneysiders thought "the rules didn't apply to them".

Information provided by health officials indicates the virus is mainly spreading through permitted movement.

As global travel opens up getting an understanding of the infection rates around the world is useful to understand the risk. The US, India and Brazil have seen the highest number of confirmed cases, followed by France, Russia, the UK and Turkey. Very few places have been left untouched.

The Biden administration is investigating a recent spate of mysterious health incidents reported by American diplomats and other government employees in Vienna, say US officials.

Some of the symptoms are similar to those first reported by US diplomats and spies in Havana, Cuba, in 2016 and 2017, for which no definitive cause has yet been determined.

US officials said more than 20 new cases are being looked at by medical teams at the State Department and elsewhere, including the Pentagon and the CIA.

"In co-ordination with our partners across the US government, we are vigorously investigating reports of possible unexplained health incidents (UHI) among the US Embassy Vienna community," the State Department said.

"Any employees who reported a possible UHI received immediate and appropriate attention and care."

Some believe the unexplained injuries, which include brain damage, are the result of microwave or radio wave weapons, but despite years of study, there is no consensus as to what or who might be behind the incidents or whether they are actual attacks.

Beijing has been accused of sponsoring an attack on Microsoft Exchange email servers earlier this year which "recklessly" exposed thousands of businesses to criminal hackers.

The Chinese government has been accused of "systematic cyber sabotage" in statements by the UK and allies, including the US and Canada.

The allies are announcing that they believe Chinese state-sponsored hackers were responsible for an attack earlier this year which "indiscriminately" compromised an estimated 400,000 servers worldwide, leaving them exposed to criminals.

More than 70 organisations in the UK were compromised by the hack, perpetrated by a group associated with Beijing according to the National Cyber Security Centre. This attribution has been supported by allies.

Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab described the hacking campaign - which is believed to have compromised the on-premise email servers indiscriminately with an intention to subsequently target specific victims - as "a reckless but familiar pattern of behaviour" from the Chinese government.

Four Iranian intelligence officials have been charged with plotting to kidnap a New York-based journalist critical of Iran, US prosecutors say. The indictment did not name the target, but Masih Alinejad, an Iranian-American author and activist, says it was her.

The conspirators, who all live in Iran and remain at large, also allegedly plotted to lure a person in the UK and three others in Canada to Iran. All of the targets had been critical of Iran, according to the indictment.

The US justice department says the Iranian officials sought to lure the New York-based journalist to a third country where the abduction was planned. The plotters even offered money to the writer's relatives in Iran to betray them, which they refused to do, the indictment contends.

They hired private investigators to spy on the target's Brooklyn home and family, and set up a live video feed of the property. They also researched a service offering military-style speedboats for evacuation from New York City, and maritime routes to Venezuela, an ally of Iran.

There was no immediate response from the Iranian government.

Australian police have issued a fresh appeal for help to find the remains of Peter Falconio, the British backpacker murdered in the outback 20 years ago.

The 28-year-old was shot dead when he and his girlfriend Joanne Lees were ambushed near Alice Springs in 2001. His body was never found. Australian man Bradley Murdoch was found guilty of his murder in 2005.

Despite pleas, he has refused to tell authorities where he disposed of Mr Falconio's body. The Northern Territory police renewed their search appeal on Wednesday, the 20th anniversary of Mr Falconio's disappearance.

They urged "anyone out there with any information" to come forward to police to help "assist Peter's family in gaining some sort of closure".

"We are thinking of Peter's family and friends on this anniversary and remain hopeful that such a milestone may jolt some information and progress the investigation," said Det Snr Sergeant Karl Day.

The head of MI5 is to urge the public to be as vigilant about threats from "hostile states" as from terrorism. These include disruptive cyber-attacks, misinformation, espionage and interference in politics - and are usually linked to Russia and China.

In a speech on Wednesday, Ken McCallum will say these "less visible threats... have the potential to affect us all". He will say these threats are affecting UK jobs and public services and could even lead to a loss of life.

The head of the Security Service wants to challenge the idea that activity by so-called "hostile states", usually taken to mean primarily Russia and China, only affects governments or certain institutions. Instead, he will argue, in an annual threat update, that the British public are not immune to the "tentacles" of covert action by other states.

South America is always a challenge to work in. This will more than likely create protests/violence and further challenges. Understanding the geopolitical landscape is important.

Venezuelan agents have arrested a key opposition figure on charges of terrorism and treason.

Freddy Guevara was in his car when he was detained on a highway in the capital Caracas. The left-wing government accuses him of having ties to "extremist groups" and foreign governments.

Mr Guevara is a close ally of opposition leader Juan Guaidó, who said that he was threatened by armed men as he went to help Mr Guevara. Mr Guaidó's wife Fabiana Rosales tweeted that hooded men with weapons entered the basement of their home and surrounded Mr Guaidó's vehicle. He was not however detained.

Venezuela's Attorney-General Tarek Saab said Mr Guevara would be charged with "the crimes of terrorism, attacks against the constitutional order, conspiracy to commit a crime and treason".

The 35-year-old broadcast live on social media from the car as he was detained, apologising to his family for their "suffering". His current whereabouts are unknown, his staff posted on Twitter.

Thousands of Cubans have joined the biggest protests for decades against the island's Communist government. They marched in cities including the capital Havana, shouting, "Down with the dictatorship!". Images on social media showed what appear to be security forces detaining and beating some of the protesters.

Cubans have been angered by the collapse of the economy, as well as by restrictions on civil liberties and the authorities' handling of the pandemic. The protesters were demanding a faster coronavirus vaccination programme after Cuba reported a record of nearly 7,000 daily infections and 47 deaths on Sunday.

Last year, Cuba's largely state-controlled economy shrank by 11%, its worst decline in almost three decades. It was hit hard by the pandemic and US sanctions.

Thousands of pro-government supporters also took to the streets after the president went on television to urge them to defend the revolution - referring to the 1959 uprising which ushered in decades of Communist rule. President Miguel Díaz-Canel said the protests were a provocation by mercenaries hired by the US to destabilise the country.

South Africa is deploying the military to tackle riots that have broken out over the jailing of former president Jacob Zuma.

Shops were looted and buildings set on fire on Monday as Zuma challenged his sentence at a hearing in the top court. At least six people have been killed and 200 arrested since the unrest began last week. Zuma was convicted of contempt of court after failing to attend an inquiry into corruption during his presidency.

The 79-year-old, who denies corruption, handed himself in to police last week to begin his 15-month sentence. He is hoping to get the sentence rescinded or reduced at the Constitutional Court hearing. However, legal experts say his chances of success are slim.

The case has sparked an unprecedented legal drama in South Africa, which has never seen a former president jailed before.

An expected escalation of violence from militant groups in Afghanistan and the region is expected with the withdrawal of NATO troops. Turkmenistan prepares for this challenge.

Turkmen military reservists are heading off to training exercises for the first mass mobilisation since the country attained independence in 1991.

In accordance with an October 30 decree by President Gurbanguly Berdymukhamedov, Turkmen reservists have been fulfilling their new obligations since the beginning of 2015, local and international media reported a few days ago.

“This is the first large-scale and serious … mobilisation of reservists in the nearly 24 years of the country’s independence,” Defence Ministry official Agamyrat Garakhanov told Central Asia Online, calling the number of called-up reservists a “state secret”.

Authorities summoned 200 reservists from Ashgabat and each of the country’s five provinces, making about 1,200 in all, other sources at the Defence Ministry told Central Asia Online. Turkmenistan has about 30,000 active-duty troops.

Haiti's President Jovenel Moïse has been killed in an attack on his home in the nation's capital, according to the country's interim prime minister.

Claude Joseph said the president's residence in Port-au-Prince was stormed by unidentified armed men at 01:00 local time (05:00 GMT).

The First Lady was reportedly also injured in the attack.

Mr Joseph said that "all measures had been taken to guarantee the continuance of the state".

Jovenel Moïse, 53, had been in power since February 2017, after his predecessor, Michel Martelly stepped down.

At around midday on 11 May, Dario Kopenawa, an indigenous leader, received a desperate phone call from a remote village in the Brazilian Amazon. Palimiú has a population of about 1,000, who live in large communal houses on the banks of a river called Uraricoera. You can only reach it by plane, or after a long journey on a boat.

Kopenawa, a member of the Yanomami tribe, is used to hearing pleas for help from communities in the rainforest, but this one was different. "They attacked us," a man said, "they almost killed us". They, Kopenawa was told, were garimpeiros, or illegal gold miners, who had arrived on seven motorboats, some carrying automatic weapons, and started shooting indiscriminately.

Hiding behind trees, the Yanomami fought back, using shotguns and bows. An indigenous man was grazed by a bullet in the head, Kopenawa learned, and four miners were injured. The attackers left after half an hour, but threatened to come back for revenge. Terrified, women fled into the dense jungle with their children to seek refuge.