The Latest Breaking News from Reuters

Russia's Defence Ministry said on Friday that the "Akhmat" group of Chechen special forces were waging an offensive near the town of Mariinka, in the eastern Ukrainian region of Donetsk.

Poland and Ukraine have agreed to bring railway gauges in western Ukraine into line with European standards to eliminate an infrastructure bottleneck to transport, the top Polish official in charge of economic cooperation with Ukraine said.

India on Friday urged Germany to send back a 2-year-old Indian girl who has been in its foster case system for more than 20 months, saying it infringed on "her social, cultural and linguistic rights."

U.S. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin shook hands with China's Minister of National Defense Li Shangfu on the sidelines of a security summit in Singapore but the two did not have a "substantive exchange," the Pentagon said on Friday.

French Employment Minister Olivier Dussopt - who has played a key role in President Emmanuel Macron's decision to push through an unpopular change to the pension system - will face a court hearing in November over allegations of favouritism, France's financial prosecutor said on Friday.

Denmark's Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen will meet U.S. President Joe Biden in Washington on Monday, amid speculation that the White House will use the visit to vet her as the first female NATO secretary-general.

Armenia is not a Russian ally in the Ukraine war and is worried about the impact of that crisis on its relations with other countries, Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan said, drawing a cautious response in Moscow.

Kosovo opposition parties on Friday blamed Prime Minister Albin Kurti for worsening relations with Western allies over violence in the north in which NATO peacekeepers were injured, and they called for a no-confidence motion against the government.

Alexei Navalny, Russia's most famous opposition leader, on Friday shared letters showing how he has poked fun at prison authorities for several months with a host of bizarre requests for a kimono, a balalaika, a beetle and even to keep a kangaroo.

President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said on Friday he knew it would be "impossible" for Ukraine to join NATO while Russia was waging war on his country.

A Russian-installed official in Ukraine's Zaporizhzhia region said on Friday that Ukrainian forces shelled the Russian-controlled port city of Berdyansk on the Sea of Azov and that nine people had been reported injured.