Zelenskiy tells UN: Stop Russia or face most destructive arms race ever

UNITED NATIONS (Reuters) -Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy urged world powers to help stop Russia's war in his country in a speech to the United Nations on Wednesday, warning of a dangerous arms race that he said the fighting was helping unleash. He called for global rules to curb the use of artificial intelligence in weapons while...

Iran’s president tells UN: Tehran will never seek to build nuclear bomb

UNITED NATIONS (Reuters) -Iran has no intention to build nuclear weapons, Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian told the U.N. General Assembly on Wednesday, just days before international sanctions could be reimposed on his country over Tehran's nuclear ambitions. "I hereby declare once more before this assembly that Iran has never sought and will never seek to build...

Ukrainian civilians suffer systematic torture in Russian facilities, UN says

GENEVA (Reuters) -Russia has systematically tortured Ukrainian civilians in over 100 detention centres in Russia and occupied Ukraine since the start of the war, the U.N. human rights office said on Tuesday. Its report detailed cases of mock executions, electric shocks and the use of prolonged stress positions on Ukrainian citizens for non-criminal acts, such as...

Lithuania authorises army to shoot down drones violating its airspace

VILNIUS (Reuters) -Lithuania's parliament granted the Baltic country's armed forces powers on Tuesday to shoot down any unmanned drone violating its airspace following incidents in which it said two Russian drones crashed on its territory. Lithuania's army is currently able to target drones only if they are determined to be armed or pose an imminent danger...

UK loses appeal over block on removal of asylum seeker under UK-France deal

LONDON (Reuters) -The British government on Tuesday lost its attempt to overturn a temporary block on the removal of an asylum seeker under Britain's "one in, one out" deal with France. A 25-year-old Eritrean man, who arrived in Britain on a small boat on August 12, last week won an interim injunction preventing his removal to...

Trump warns drug traffickers: ‘We will blow you out of existence’

NEW YORK (Reuters) -U.S. President Donald Trump on Tuesday said recent U.S. strikes on boats carrying alleged Venezuelan drug traffickers delivered a powerful warning to anyone seeking to bring drugs into the United States. "To every terrorist thug smuggling poisonous drugs into the United States of America, please be warned that we will blow you out...

Xi Story: All ethnic groups closely bound like seeds of a pomegranate

URUMQI, Sept. 22 (Xinhua) -- Each autumn, the streets of northwest China's Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region come alive with the sight of bright red pomegranates, long cherished as one of the local people's favorite fruits. During President Xi Jinping's 2014 visit to the region, a Uygur resident shared with him the belief that people of different...

Charities end links with ‘Fergie’, UK’s Duchess of York, over Epstein email

LONDON (Reuters) -Several charities said on Monday they had cut their links with Sarah Ferguson, Britain's Duchess of York, after media reports that she had described the late sex offender Jeffrey Epstein as a "supreme friend" in an email. According to the Sun on Sunday newspaper, Ferguson, 65, the ex-wife of King Charles' brother, Prince Andrew,...

UK PM Starmer says people have a right to ‘peaceful protest’ after anti-migrant march

LONDON (Reuters) -British Prime Minister Keir Starmer said people have a right to peaceful protest after more than 100,000 demonstrators joined an anti-immigration march through London on Saturday, but he condemned assaults on police and said Britain was built on tolerance and diversity. Far-right activist Tommy Robinson organised a march attended by around 110,000 people on...

Pope Leo criticises high, Musk-style corporate pay packages

VATICAN CITY (Reuters) -Pope Leo criticised corporate pay packages that offer executives much higher salaries than their employees in excerpts from his first media interview released on Sunday, citing Tesla's recent $1 trillion compensation plan for CEO Elon Musk. Leo, originally from Chicago, also spoke about the United Nations, his decades working as a missionary in...