Twitter will roll out verified gold and grey check marks as it relaunches the coveted blue check service next Friday, Chief Executive Officer Elon Musk said in a tweet, after holding off the rollout earlier this week.
"Gold check for companies, grey check for governments, blue for individuals (celebrities or not). Painful, but necessary," Musk said in a tweet.
All verified accounts will be manually authenticated before the check is activated, Musk said.
"Individuals can have a secondary tiny logo to show they belong to an organisation if verified as such by that organisation," Musk said in another tweet, adding that he will give a longer explanation next week.
The company had paused its recently announced $8 blue check subscription service as fake accounts mushroomed, and had said the sought-after blue check subscription service will be relaunched on November 29.
The blue check mark was previously reserved for verified accounts of politicians, famous personalities, journalists and other public figures.
Kuwait's Ministry of Defence said an Iranian attack targeted a building belonging to a Chinese company in the north of the country on Thursday, killing one worker and causing extensive material damage to the facility.
India's Central Bureau of Investigation has filed charges against 13 people in connection with leaked question papers for the national medical college entrance test, days after youth-led protests over the scandal forced the education minister to quit.
A preliminary investigation by relevant authorities has found that a drone caused the fire involving two vessels at Damietta Port on Wednesday, Egypt's Cabinet said.
Russia pounded Ukraine with dozens of missiles and hundreds of drones, killing eight people in overnight attacks on Thursday, President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said, decrying shortages of air defence supplies and urging allies to help.
France, Spain and Greece battled major wildfires on Thursday, with Spain bringing one blaze under control but facing new threats as intense heat, dry vegetation and powerful winds kept much of southern Europe on alert.