Colombia’s presidential race is headed for a high-stakes runoff, with right-wing outsider Abelardo De La Espriella poised to face leftist Ivan Cepeda after first-round results showed a razor-thin margin between the two men, while Mr Cepeda and his allies said they would hold off on accepting the outcome until the count is formally confirmed. Less than two percentage points separated the candidates, according to data from the country’s national registry office, in an election shaped by anxieties over security, a struggling…

Fears that central Africa’s Ebola outbreak could ripple beyond the region sharpened after Brazilian health officials said they are tracking two possible cases in Sao Paulo and Rio de Janeiro. In Sao Paulo, authorities said a 37-year-old man from the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) — the center of the current outbreak — "exhibited symptoms such as fever, meeting the definition of a suspected case" of Ebola, according to a state government statement issued yesterday. Although initial tests did not detect the Ebola…

The war’s reach stretched deep into Russian territory again as Ukrainian drones struck an oil depot in the south and a pumping station hundreds of kilometres from the front, according to Kyiv, with Russian officials also acknowledging attacks in the targeted areas. Now in its fifth year, the war has seen Ukraine intensify its campaign against Russian infrastructure, targeting sites far from the battlefield, including locations near the Urals in recent weeks. Ukraine’s military said the operation hit a "dispatch station of a…

Trust, Iran’s chief negotiator made clear, remains in short supply. Tehran will not sign off on any agreement with Washington, he said, unless it can prove that Iranian rights are fully protected. The comments from Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf came as fresh reports suggested US President Donald Trump had returned a more hardline peace proposal to Iran, highlighting just how much distance still separates the two sides. Any further revisions to the draft risk slowing an already fragile push to formally end the Middle East war and…

From a shared hospital room, survivors pulled from a half-flooded cave in Laos after more than a week underground are now helping drive the next phase of the rescue: guiding teams toward the final two men still believed to be trapped deeper inside. Rescuers, including foreign cave divers, said today they were mapping out a perilous search for the missing pair, drawing on fresh details from the men who made it out alive - including one survivor who described the ordeal as a period of simply "waiting to die" in the darkness. A…

Celebrations over Paris Saint-Germain’s Champions League victory over Arsenal spilled into violence across France, where authorities said 780 people were arrested after clashes broke out in several cities. Officials deployed about 22,000 police officers nationwide for the match, including 8,000 in Paris, after disorder also shadowed PSG’s triumph in the competition last year. In the capital, tram services were suspended, several metro stations were closed and some bus routes were halted as officials tried to contain the…

A dramatic cave rescue in Laos gathered pace this morning as Thai rescuers said four more men had been brought out alive after 10 days trapped in a semi-submerged cavern. The breakthrough came ‌hours ⁠after another man was pulled from the flooded cave last night, though two others are still missing. Lee Kian Lie, a Malaysian rescue diver, said the four were freed after crews pumped water out of the cavern. Video recorded by Mr Lee at the scene showed teams working beneath a makeshift tent as they tended to four people on…

A sharper warning from Washington echoed through Singapore on Saturday as US Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth called on Asian allies to spend more on their militaries, arguing that only a stronger regional front can check China’s rising power and stop any slide toward dominance. Addressing the Shangri-La Dialogue, Asia’s leading gathering of defence ministers, military officials and diplomats, Mr Hegseth said the region needs a more capable and more self-reliant network of partners to deter aggression and keep the strategic…

A drone strike reported by Russia at the Russian-controlled Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant has revived fears around the safety of Europe’s largest nuclear facility, even as officials said critical equipment was not damaged. Rosatom, Russia’s state nuclear energy company, said a Ukrainian drone hit the turbine hall of Power Unit No. 6 and exploded, leaving a hole in the wall but sparing the plant’s main systems. "This afternoon, a Ukrainian kamikaze combat drone struck the turbine hall building of Power Unit No. 6,…

Lebanon’s prime minister has sharply accused Israel of waging a “scorched-earth policy” in the country’s south, pressing for an end to the fighting as Israeli warplanes launched new strikes and the military ordered evacuations across more than a dozen areas. His warning came a day after Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Israeli troops had pushed further into Lebanon. Responding in a televised address, Nawaf Salam described the intensifying campaign as a “dangerous” escalation and appealed for “a swift and real…