
Tobacco use has declined markedly since 2000, according to a new WHO report, but the reduction is insufficient to meet globally agreed targets aimed at protecting people from death and suffering from cardiovascular and other non-communicable diseases (NCDs).

About 1.2 billion children face severe risks from conflict, poverty or sexual discrimination, said Save the Children rights organization in a report published on Wednesday. The main threats to childhood are child labor, exclusion from education, early pregnancy and child marriage, with conflict often inflating the risks.

The European Union has proposed spending more on Italy and other member countries hit by the economic and migrant crises, but less on increasingly wealthy eastern states like Poland. The European Commission, the bloc's executive arm, proposed the regional shift in the “cohesion” portion of the post-2020 multi-year budget as Italy faces political chaos.

More than 120 pregnant whales were slaughtered in the latest Japanese whale hunt in Antarctica's Southern Ocean, new documents show, reigniting calls to step up efforts to stop the annual killing spree. A further 114 immature whales were killed as part of the so-called “scientific” whaling program, according to meeting papers from the International Whaling Commission's scientific committee meeting this month.

Foreign banks and funds are set to benefit from a move by U.S. regulators to simplify a trading rule that foreign banks and regulators say has inadvertently complicated firms operating as far afield as Europe and Asia. The Federal Reserve, alongside other U.S. regulators, on Wednesday proposed rewriting the “Volcker Rule” introduced following the 2007-2009 financial crisis in a bid to simplify the regulation and make it easier for banks to comply.

The remains of yet another Argentine combatant fallen during the Falklands conflict in 1982, and buried at the Argentine military cemetery in Darwin, have been identified bringing the number to 91, out of a total of 121 only a year ago.

By Boris Johnson (*) The Foreign Secretary writes in the Telegraph about his recent trip to Latin America, and the unique opportunities the region presents for the UK. Much have I travelled in the realms of gold, and many goodly states and kingdoms seen – 67, to be exact, since I have been Foreign Secretary.

Asian equities and the euro sank Wednesday as turmoil in Italy sparked a frantic dash for safety, while investors have also been spooked by fresh worries about the China-US trade row. Global markets have been sent into a tailspin as a political crisis unfolding in Rome has thrust the stability of the Euro zone and European Union back on to the agenda.

Senior Italian politicians on Tuesday called for EU budget commissioner Gunther Oettinger to resign over an absurd comment in which he voiced the hope that the country's poor economic situation will keep populist parties out of government.

Anti-Brexit billionaire George Soros has urged the EU to transform itself into an association that countries like Britain would want to join. Soros said in a speech that Brexit was an immensely damaging process for both sides that would probably take more than five years to sort out. He warned the EU was facing an existential crisis on several fronts.