Israeli warplanes pounded the northern Gaza strip for a second day yesterday in a fierce assault that has shattered weeks of comparative calm, and Israel said it was moving forward with plans for an all-out assault on Rafah in the south.

A portrait of a young woman by Gustav Klimt that was long believed to be lost was sold at an auction in Vienna on Wednesday for 30 million euros.

Spain's Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez said on Wednesday he would step back from public duties for a week to decide whether he wants to continue leading the government after a court launched a business corruption probe into his wife's private dealings.

Ukraine for the first time has begun using long-range ballistic missiles provided secretly by the United States, bombing a Russian military airfield in Crimea last week and Russian forces in another occupied area overnight, American officials said on Wednesday.