Germany on Friday commemorated 60 years since the day East German authorities started building the Berlin Wall, where at least 140 people were killed over three decades trying to flee to the west.

German President Frank-Walter Steinmeier called its construction from Aug. 13, 1961, onward the "beginning of the end" for the communist regime, which claimed at the time that the wall was designed to protect the country from fascism.

The British Embassy Beirut has announced the opening of applications for Chevening Scholarships to study in the UK between 3 August and 2 November 2021, with applications to be submitted via www.chevening.org/apply

Indonesia's army has stopped imposing so-called "virginity tests" on female recruits, its chief said Thursday, following calls from rights groups to ban the invasive vaginal exams.

The military had long defended the unscientific "two-finger test" to check if a cadet's hymen was intact as a way to weed out recruits whose past sexual behavior, they said, would damage its image.

Coldplay, Billie Eilish and Ed Sheeran are among the stars announced Tuesday for a day of concerts across multiple cities on September 25 to raise awareness about climate change, poverty and vaccine distribution. 

New York, Paris and Lagos are the first cities to be announced for Global Citizen Live, which will run for 24 hours and be screened around the world via TV stations and social media. 

Japan on Friday marked 76 years since the world's first atomic bomb attack, with low-key ceremonies and disappointment over a refusal by Olympics organizers to hold a minute's silence.

Survivors, relatives and a handful of foreign dignitaries attended this year's main event in Hiroshima to pray for those killed or wounded in the bombing and call for world peace.

Australia's Prime Minister Scott Morrison announced Thursday one-off payments to many Indigenous Australians who were forcibly removed from their homes as children.

The federal government redress scheme is part of a Aus$1 billion (US$740 million) plan to reduce the sharp disadvantages faced by Indigenous Australians.

Long revered by the Maya people as sacred and today a magnet for tourists, local indigenous communities fear the water-filled sinkholes of Mexico's Yucatan Peninsula are under threat from industrial pig farms.

Known as cenotes, the thousands of cavities are part of a vast labyrinth of caves connected to a giant aquifer under the lush jungle of a region known as the "Riviera Maya."

Today is Wednesday, Aug. 4, the 216th day of 2021. There are 149 days left in the year.

Today's Highlight in History

Israel's first gold-medal Olympic gymnast Artem Dolgopyat returned from Tokyo on Tuesday to a hero's welcome and controversy over his inability to marry in his adopted country.

Dolgopyat, 24, was born to a Jewish father and non-Jewish mother, meaning he is not considered Jewish in Israel, where marriage is performed only by religious authorities who require couples to be of the same faith. 

Shares of Tencent and other major Chinese gaming companies plummeted Tuesday after a state-run media article described online games as "spiritual opium", prompting the tech giant to consider a playing ban on children under 12 altogether.