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Rics surveyors report inquiries from new buyers, agreed sales and house prices were less negative in JanuaryThere are “tentative signs” that the housing market in England and Wales is recovering from a months-long slowdown after uncertainty around the autumn budget and economic pressures, estate agents and surveyors have reported.The Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors (Rics) said its members were feeling more optimistic about the year ahead than at any time since December 2024, as inquiries from new buyers, agreed sales and house prices became less negative in January. Continue reading...

Writer made international breakthrough with 1980 novel Rituals and won acclaim for his travel writingThe Dutch writer Cees Nooteboom, whose novels, travel writing and translations made him a prominent literary figure in postwar Europe, has died aged 92.Publishing house De Bezige Bij said in a statement on Wednesday evening that Nooteboom had “passed away very peacefully on his beloved island Menorca”. The statement was made on behalf of the author’s wife, the photographer Simone Sassen. Continue reading...

Holly Morton-Bowles and Bianca Jones were travelling in Laos in late 2024 when they were fatally poisoned with methanol at Nana Backpackers Hostel in Vang ViengFollow our Australia news live blog for latest updatesGet our breaking news email, free app or daily news podcastAustralia will send a special envoy to Laos as it investigates the methanol poisoning deaths of two teenagers.The foreign affairs minister, Penny Wong, announced the appointment on Thursday after the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade apologised earlier this week for not providing more information to the victims’ families. Continue reading...

Mexico's president said Wednesday that her government was investigating the US shutdown of a border airport, which US officials linked to a Mexican cartel drone breach of US airspace.

More than 25 people injured, including two with life-threatening injuries, after shooting at secondary school and local residenceTumbler Ridge school shooting: latest updatesWhat we know so far about the Tumbler Ridge shootingNine people have been killed and dozens injured after an assailant opened fire at a school in western Canada, in one of the deadliest mass shootings in the country’s history. The suspect was later found dead from what appeared to be a self-inflicted injury.Police found six people dead inside the high school in the remote town of Tumbler Ridge in British Columbia, with a further two bodies found at a residence believed to be connected to the incident. Continue reading...

The Federal Aviation Administration reopened the airspace around El Paso International Airport in Texas on Wednesday morning, just hours after it announced a 10-day closure that would have grounded all flights to and from the airport.

Cross-party UK MPs campaigning for senior Fatah leader’s release from Israeli jail, saying he is unifying figureThe son of Marwan Barghouti, the Palestinian prisoner often described as the Nelson Mandela of the Palestinian movement, has called on the British government to put his father’s release at the heart of Palestinian democratic renewal.Arab Barghouti warned the UK government that its recent recognition of a Palestinian state risks providing nothing but false hope unless it follows through by using diplomatic channels to secure his father’s freedom. Continue reading...

Closure of airspace draws attention to crime groups’ high-powered weapons – and may give Trump an excuse to attackAn alleged incursion by Mexican cartel drones into US airspace and the sudden closure of El Paso’s airspace has drawn renewed attention to the use of high-powered weapons by organized crime groups in Mexico.There were conflicting accounts on Wednesday about whether the city’s airspace was shut down due to cartel drones or a disagreement over the Pentagon testing of counter-drone technology, but experts say the use of drones by drug gangs at the border has become increasingly common. Continue reading...