The legendary daredevil, best known for his record-breaking jump from the stratosphere, lost control of his paraglider and crashed into a hotel pool. Renowned extreme athlete Felix Baumgartner, most famous for jumping from a record 39 kilometres (24 miles) at the edge of space in the 2012 Red Bull Stratos project, has died in a paragliding accident in Italy on Thursday. The 56-year-old Austrian crashed his paraglider in...

On Wednesday afternoon, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu issued a video message to his country’s Druze minority. He implored them not to cross into southwestern Syria to support Syrian Druze militiamen in their fight against local Bedouin and government forces in Suwayda. And yet, as Netanyahu made the statement, his own forces were bombing the Syrian capital Damascus, hitting the country’s Ministry of Defence, and killing at least...

Heavy security presence in Lome amid public anger over leader Gnassingbe’s alleged power grab. Togo has voted in municipal elections amid reports of voter apathy, after the country was rocked by deadly protests last month. Polling stations in Togo’s capital Lome were largely deserted on Thursday. The low turnout came after June’s protests against constitutional reforms that could keep leader Faure Gnassingbe in power indefinitely. Rights groups blamed...