UN

More than two-thirds of UNWTO's 160 member states backed the resolution suspending Russia's membership.

The high-profile rebuke of Moscow marks only the second ever suspension of a country from the council.

Journalists over the weekend found corpses in civilian clothes, some with their hands bound, in the town of Bucha outside Ukraine's capital after Kyiv's forces retook it from Russia's army.

The world has seen a crescendo of deadly extreme weather amplified by rising temperatures and a torrent of recent climate science projects worse to come.

The Taliban seized power in Afghanistan on Aug 15 amid the hasty withdrawal of US-led foreign forces, and the country's humanitarian crisis has rapidly worsened since.

The speed and scale of the exodus is unprecedented in Europe since World War II, and has seen a wave of empathy extended to the women, children and elderly men who have made it across the border.

The investigation will add to global pressure on the military to halt its crackdown on opponents and the use of air strikes and shelling in civilian areas.

The United Nations and other global aid agencies have said that more than half of Afghanistan's 38 million people are facing hunger this winter.

China was among the 35 countries which abstained, while just five – Eritrea, North Korea, Syria, Belarus and Russia itself – voted against it.

Medical needs are already acute, with the World Health Organization warning on Sunday that oxygen supplies were running out.

The US mission to the UN described the Russian diplomats as 'intelligence operatives' who had been 'engaging in espionage activities that are adverse to our national security.'

Speaking before the UN Human Rights Council, UN human rights chief says her office has recorded 406 civilian casualties in Ukraine, including 102 deaths, since Russia began its full-scale attack last Thursday.