Firefighters are battling a major fire at one of Australia's two operating oil refineries. The fire broke out just after 11 p.m. local time (1300 GMT/UTC) on Wednesday at the Viva Energy Group's refinery near Geelong in the Australian state of Victoria.
Iran's nuclear program has been at the heart of tensions between the US and the Islamic Republic for more than two decades. Washington has said Tehran is working toward developing nuclear weapons, something it wants to prevent at all costs. Iran has denied seeking the bomb, but insists on its right to a civilian nuclear program.
German Defense Minister Boris Pistorius and his British counterpart John Healey both expressed a desire for deescalation in Iran, the Persian Gulf and the Strait of Hormuz at a Ukraine defense meeting in Berlin on Wednesday.
Over the past three years, the most severe humanitarian catastrophe in the world has been unfolding in Sudan — largely unnoticed by the global community. Rival factions of the country's ruling military are engaged in bitter fighting, with around 150,000 people lost in the conflict so far.
Germany hosted an international conference on Wednesday to raise funds to help those affected by the war in Sudan. Wednesday also marks the third anniversary of the war between the Sudanese military under Abdel-Fattah Burhan and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) led by Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo.
South African President Cyril Ramaphosa has appointed veteran politician Roelf Meyer as the country's ambassador to the United States, after a year when the post was vacant amid difficult ties with Donald Trump's administration in Washington. Ramaphosa's spokesman Vicent Magwenya announced the appointment in a message to the Associated Press and other news outlets.
German Health Minister Nina Warken, of the ruling conservative Christian Democrats (CDU), has outlined key features of the government's planned reforms for ailing health care system. Warken's draft legislation, on track to be passed this summer, aims to prevent further increases to the health insurance contributions.
A small river has become a flashpoint in a broader regional conflict: The course of the 145-kilometer (90-mile) Litani River in Lebanon mirrors the front lines of the conflict between Hezbollah and Israel. The Litani River also highlights the current fragility of international law.