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Australia's most-decorated living soldier Ben Roberts-Smith has lost a historic defamation case against three newspapers that accused him of war crimes in Afghanistan. The outlets were sued over articles alleging he killed unarmed prisoners. The civil trial was the first time a court has assessed accusations of war crimes by Australian forces. A judge said four of the six murder allegations - all denied by the soldier - were substantially true. Justice Anthony Besanko found the newspapers had not been able to prove other reports that he assaulted a woman with whom he was ha

North Korea has said an accident happened as it planned to send up its first space satellite, causing it to crash into the sea. Pyongyang announced earlier it planned to launch a satellite by 11 June to monitor US military activities. It now says it will attempt a second launch as soon as possible. The launch sparked a false alarm in the South Korean capital Seoul, while in Japan a warning was issued to residents of Okinawa, in the south. There was chaos and confusion in Seoul as people awoke to the sound of an air raid siren and an emergency message telling them to prepare

Malaysia has detained a Chinese-registered vessel suspected of looting two British World War Two shipwrecks. The bulk carrier was seized on Sunday for anchoring illegally at the site in the South China Sea. Ammunition believed to be from the HMS Prince of Wales and HMS Repulse, which were sunk by Japanese forces more than 80 years ago, was then found on board. The UK Ministry of Defence had earlier condemned the alleged raid as a "desecration" of maritime war graves. Old shipwrecks are targeted by scavengers for their rare low-background steel, also known as "pre-war steel"

Ukraine has come under another wave of overnight drone and missile attacks, with most of the air strikes targeting Kyiv. City officials said Ukrainian forces destroyed more than 40 "aerial targets" over the capital. There were no casualties in Kyiv, but falling drone debris damaged buildings and caused fires. Explosions were also reported in the Lviv, Odesa, Vinnytsya and Khmelnytskyy regions. It was Russia's 15th air assault on the city this month and the second overnight attack in a row of similar intensity. In Khmelnytskyy, a strike on a military airfield damaged fi

At least two people have been killed and 23 injured in a missile strike on a medical clinic in the eastern Ukrainian city of Dnipro, the regional governor says. Of the 23 injured, 21 are in hospital and three are in a serious condition. Two boys aged three and six were also among the wounded, governor Serhiy Lysak said. Russian strikes on Ukraine have intensified in recent weeks ahead of an expected Ukrainian counteroffensive. Mr Zelensky posted a video of the damaged clinic that showed firefighters at the scene and smoke billowing from the building. "Russian terrorist

Maksym had been fighting for 200 hours without a break when he was killed by a Russian sniper in the city of Bakhmut. "For eight days he did not eat, or sleep," his mother Lilia says. "He couldn't even close his eyes for five minutes because the sniper could shoot." There's a reason why she now calls Bakhmut "hell". It's the city that took the life of one son and left her only other child seriously injured. Her one scant comfort - that one died saving the life of the other. Maksym and Ivan volunteered to fight when Russia invaded Ukraine last year. At the time Maksym was 22

After a prestigious career of more than three decades, trailblazing Aboriginal journalist Stan Grant hosted his final show on Monday and walked away from Australian TV screens indefinitely. "Racism is a crime. Racism is violence. And I have had enough," Grant wrote in a column last week explaining his decision. The Wiradjuri man made history in 1992 when he became the first Aboriginal presenter on prime-time commercial TV in Australia. He went on to win a slew of awards in Australian media, and was an international correspondent for CNN and Al Jazeera before returning home to the Aus

For Vinesh Phogat, the year 2023 was crucial in every sense. With just three months left for the World Championships and the Asian Games, the Indian wrestler would have been at the peak of her training regime right now. She calls it the "ultimate level", the kind of training where the body begins to move automatically and you know in your bones what you have to do. A two-time medal winner at the World Championships, this was Phogat's chance to score a third. But instead of mentally and physically preparing at a training camp, the wrestler has been living on a dusty pavement in I

It is the airport wait from hell. Paloich Airport, which usually buzzes with the sound of well-heeled workers serving South Sudan's oil fields, has turned into a camp for thousands of people fleeing the conflict in neighbouring Sudan - now more than a month old. There are no toilet facilities, no running water, no kitchens - just crowds of people living around their bags, resting on luggage trolleys, or sleeping under makeshift tents while waiting to catch a flight. They have ended up here, four hours from the border with Sudan, in the hope of finding a way out. But there a

How do you teach millions of people family planning? By getting them to say the word condom again and again till it shatters any form of shame or stigma around its use. Risqué as it might sound, that is exactly what advertisement writer Anand Suspi did 18 years ago when his team at Lowe Lintas designed the Condom Bindass Bol (Say Condom Freely) campaign in India. Launched in 2006, the public awareness campaign made in collaboration with the Indian government was created to overturn a decline in the sales and use of condom in eight states in northern India which together comprise

One TikToker, American Asian Soogia, expressed confusion over the meals that British people were sharing on the social media platform, as they little resembled the Chinese cuisine (including American Chinese dishes) she's familiar with. The conversation quickly descended into a general smearing of British Chinese takeaway food, with another TikToker asking, "Are the British eating out of a dumpster?" What seems to be getting these Americans in a tizzy are the meals consisting almost entirely of fried food with the inclusion of chips and curry sauce, two traditionally non-Chinese food stap

Theranos founder Elizabeth Holmes may soon be swapping California for a minimum-security women's prison facility, roughly 100 miles (160 km) from her Texas hometown. The disgraced former CEO has been ordered to report to prison at the end of the month, and a judge has recommended she serve her over 11-year sentence at the Federal Prison Camp in Bryan, Texas (known as FPC Bryan). This week, a judge rejected Holmes' latest bid to remain free while appealing against her conviction. She was found guilty of defrauding investors in her blood-testing start-up last year. Holmes has

During a trip to India many years back, a leading US-based specialist on South Asia had a conversation with a local analyst which he says still resonates with him. "If Pakistan fails, we need to make sure it doesn't take us down with it," the expert told Michael Kugelman, director of the South Asia Institute at the Wilson Centre think tank in Washington. In recent weeks, Pakistan has been convulsed by political and economic crises. The arrest of former prime minister Imran Khan on charges of corruption sparked violent clashes across the country, which is also reeling from high inflat

At Japan's Naha airbase in Okinawa, the roar of F-15 fighter jets dwarfs the sound of commercial planes that share the same runway. Three jets take off one after the other to start the day's training, mostly scenarios involving combat and aircraft interception - some have gone on "real life scrambles" or emergency calls to intercept suspected Chinese aircraft. These routine exercises have taken on a new sense of urgency, according to Lt Col Masatoshi Tanaka. "We're very nervous," he says. "We've been facing airspace violations of Japanese territory every day. Chinese activities

A Canadian man has been arrested in British Columbia for opening a mobile shop to sell cocaine, heroin and other hard drugs. Jerry Martin, 51, has said he plans to challenge his arrest in court, arguing contaminated drug supplies cause harm. Vancouver police said it arrested a man for "drug trafficking in connection with an illicit drug dispensary" but have not laid formal charges. The arrest on Thursday came one day after Mr Martin opened his shop. He began selling the drugs on Wednesday out of a mobile trailer parked in Vancouver's Downtown Eastside, a neighbourhood with