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A facelift that restored London's 166-year-old Big Ben clocktower to a sparkling shine was nominated on Thursday for Britain's leading architecture award. The RIBA Stirling Prize committee said the five-year refurbishment of the tower at Parliament is “a veritable masterclass in conservation and craftsmanship” that preserves a “defining symbol of British heritage.” The 96-metre structure, formally known as the Elizabeth Tower, houses Big Ben, the giant bell whose bong has sounded the hours since 1859. It fell silent in 2017 when the tower was covered in scaffolding for repairs. The original cost estimate of 29 million pounds ($39 million) more than doubled, but the renovation unveiled in 2022 has been widely praised. The Stirling Prize, organised by the Royal Institute of British Architects, usually goes to a new building, though last year's winner was a railway project, London's Elizabeth Line.

Thailand's influential former premier Thaksin Shinawatra left the country late on Thursday, according to two sources and Thai media reports, a day before a parliamentary vote for the next prime minister and ahead of a court ruling that could see him jailed. The departure of the billionaire Thaksin, who spent a total of 15 years in self-imposed exile, comes as the coalition government of the ruling Pheu Thai party he founded is in turmoil, facing a major challenge from a rival party ahead of Friday's house vote. On Tuesday, the Supreme Court will rule on a case involving Thaksin that could potentially see him serve prison time, which he avoided following his vaunted return to Thailand in 2023 by spending his entire detention in hospital on medical grounds. A Pheu Thai Party source told Reuters that Thaksin had travelled to Singapore for a medical check-up and was expected to return to Thailand on Friday.

Germany is leading a major military exercise that focuses on moving troops and equipment to Lithuania as tensions with Russia on the eastern fringe of NATO simmer. The German military leadership joined ambassadors of the Baltic nations and officers from other countries in the port of Rostock on Thursday to watch a ferry loaded with military vehicles leave the harbour headed for Klaipeda, Lithuania, escorted by police, a corvette, a minesweeper and a helicopter. Military experts also demonstrated the interception of drones in the air and on the water, and Eurofighter jets flew over the port. The exercise dubbed Quadriga is under the German navy's leadership and its various components, in which the army and air force also are participating.  It involves more than 8,000 service people from 14 countries. They include all the NATO allies with Baltic Sea coasts as well as the US, UK, France and Canada. The German military says 40 ships, 20 aircraft and more than 1,800 road vehicles are participating.

Democratic Republic of Congo on Thursday declared a new outbreak of the deadly Ebola virus after a case was confirmed in the southern Kasai province, saying there were now 28 suspected cases and 15 deaths. This will be the Central African country's sixteenth Ebola outbreak, the health ministry said in a statement. It said the presence of the virus had been confirmed in a 34-year-old pregnant woman who was hospitalised in August with symptoms including a high fever and repeated vomiting.