A Bangladeshi known as the “Tree Man” because of bark-like growths on his body said yesterday he wanted his hands amputated to relieve him of unbearable pain. Abul Bajandar has had 25 operations since 2016 to remove growths from his hands and feet caused by a rare syndrome.

A US citizen was sentenced yesterday to 12 years in Vietnamese prison for “attempting to overthrow the state”, a lawyer and state media said, as the one-party country squeezes dissent.

Former vice president Joe Biden, who is seeking the Democratic presidential nomination in 2020, yesterday called for granting citizenship to ‘Dreamer’ immigrants brought to the United States illegally as children and to invest more in border technology.

Siblings from a famed circus family — the Flying Wallendas — walked a wire strung 25 stories over New York’s Times Square on Sunday, in a hair-raising balancing act performed across five city blocks.

The Supreme Court yesterday ordered an investigation into an outbreak of “brain fever” that has killed at least 122 children, after hearing a petition in which the state and central governments were accused of negligence.

Jeremy Hunt, the underdog in a bitter battle with Boris Johnson to become next prime minister, yesterday called on his rival not to be “a coward” trying to “avoid scrutiny” — over both a domestic row and his Brexit policy.

Nick Clegg, Facebook’s head of communications, has dismissed allegations that misuse of the social network influenced the Brexit referendum result.

Thousands of anti-government protesters rallied yesterday in the Georgian capital for the fifth consecutive day as the increasingly unpopular ruling party’s promise of sweeping reforms failed to appease mass demonstrations.

A Greek Cypriot army captain who murdered five women and two girls was handed seven life sentences yesterday in an unprecedented serial killing case that has shocked the Mediterranean island.

Fans flew off store shelves and water fountains offered relief from the heat as temperatures soared in Europe yesterday, with officials urging vigilance ahead of even hotter conditions forecast later in the week.

Sixteen leading Turkish civil society leaders went on trial yesterday, accused of seeking to overthrow the government during the “Gezi Park” protests of 2013 – charges dubbed an absurd sham by critics.

While political temperatures in parliament have somewhat lowered in the past week over debate on the national budget, after the initial rumpus in the National Assembly and Senate, it is certainly on the rise outside the legislature.