Russia puts pets at centre of spy row

Zero asylum seekers — that is essentially the Danish government's ultimate goal. Now, it is ordering Syrian refugees to return to Damascus, which Copenhagen says is safe.

As a teenager in Syria, Ibrahim al-Hussein dreamt of becoming an Olympic swimmer before he lost a leg in the war. Now a refugee in Greece, he is training for a place at the Tokyo Paralympics.

Syrian President Bashar al-Assad and first lady Asma al-Assad cast their votes at a polling station in the war-torn town of Douma just outside of Damascus. Voters flocked to polls across Syria for a presidential election in which few doubt Assad will extend his grip on power for a fourth term, in a war-battered country mired in economic crisis.

A security agency chief has warned that Moscow has a "very complex intelligence interest in Germany." However, far-right extremism is the country's current "greatest threat," he said.

Diving into the pool at the Athens Olympic Aquatic Centre, Ibrahim Al Hussein is a natural. The swimmer is aiming for Tokyo this summer, a journey that has been far from simple. Originally from Syria, Ibrahim lost his leg and had a metal rod inserted into the other. Ever since, he's been on a mission to turn his life around.

In the ancient Syrian village of Maalula, whose residents still speak the language of Jesus, volunteers rake stones and scrub graffiti in preparation for the return of Christian pilgrims after years of war. Nestled among towering cliffs in the mountains north of Damascus, Maalula is one of the world's oldest Christian settlements.

Syrian weightlifter Maan Asaad and high jumper Majd Eddin Ghazal are preparing to participate in the Tokyo Olympics after a 2 year hiatus from competing internationally because of COVID-19. The lack of international participation has impacted Maan according to his brother and trainer, Qays.

The shocking image of a violently ill Alexander Litvinenko as he lay dying from radioactive poisoning in a London hospital bed is how much of the world remembers the ex Russian spy. But a new opera in London based on a book by his wife Marina and composed by former London financier, Anthony Bolton seeks to tell more of his story. A British public inquiry in 2016 concluded that Russian President Vladimir Putin had "probably approved" Litvinenko's killing, which it said was likely to have been FSB-directed, but no one has ever been brought to justice.

Foreign paragliding pilots fly over Syria's war-scarred city of Homs, as part of a festival to showcase the safety of Syrian skies after years of civil war.

Hurling a javelin, leaping over hurdles and sprinting beyond rows of tents to win gold, displaced children in the northwest of war-torn Syria stage their very own Olympics.

A report by Amnesty International contradicts some governments' views that Syria is now safe to return for refugees. Returnees have faced detainment, torture, disappearance, and sexual violence.

"I didn't know what a marathon was until today", says one of a group of Syrian orphans taking part in a race in the rebel-held northwestern city of Idlib. The event has been organised by an NGO in a bid to introduce children who have lost their parents in Syria's ongoing conflict to different kinds of sports. Nearly 500,000 people have died in the conflict since it started in 2011 with the brutal repression of peaceful demonstrations.