NEWS

Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese says he has a "mountain to climb" in elections Saturday, despite leading the opinion polls, in a contest swayed by living costs and Trump tariffs.

Bushfires that erupted near Jerusalem were largely brought under control on Thursday, authorities said, with major roads reopened and firefighting teams still tackling lingering hotspots.

The estranged husband of an Australian woman accused of triple murder with a toxic mushroom-laced beef Wellington told a court on Thursday his father was "hunched" in pain before he died.

An Australian woman promised a "special meal" for her husband's family before dishing up a beef Wellington with death cap mushrooms that killed three of them, jurors heard Wednesday.

A US official on Wednesday told the International Court of Justice there were "serious concerns" about the impartiality of the UN agency for Palestinian refugees, UNRWA. ICJ judges are holding a week of hearings to help them formulate an advisory opinion on Israel's obligations towards UN agencies delivering aid to Palestinians in Gaza.

Asia's front-runner for the papacy, Cardinal Luis Antonio Tagle of the Philippines is a charismatic moderate often dubbed the "Asian Francis".

Three Chinese astronauts returned to Earth on Wednesday after six months on the country's space station, state media footage showed, as Beijing advances towards its aim to become a major celestial power.

Investors expect the Reserve Bank of Australia (RBA) to reduce rates by 0.25% on May 20, as global growth concerns, mainly due to US tariffs, grow. However, a higher-than-expected inflation reading has led some to reduce their bets on multiple rate cuts this year.

Rights group Amnesty International Tuesday accused Israel of committing a "live-streamed genocide" against Palestinians in Gaza by forcibly displacing most of the population and deliberately creating a humanitarian catastrophe.

Huthi rebel-controlled media in Yemen said Monday that US strikes targeted a migrant detention centre in the movement's stronghold of Saada, killing at least 68 people.

China and the Philippines on Monday defended their claims to a disputed reef in the South China Sea, after Manila accused Beijing of seeking to "intimidate and harass" with a state media report that suggested the area had been seized.

Two sources from Jaish al-Islam, a military faction now part of Syria's transitional authorities, told AFP on Monday that its leader had been arrested at Dubai airport several days ago.

India has signed a contract to purchase 26 Rafale fighter jets from France, New Delhi's defence ministry said Monday, with the multi-billion-dollar deal to include both single and twin-seat planes.

Over the weekend, 10 Australian sheep and goat abattoirs received approval to enter the Chinese market for the first time, following a rigorous and lengthy approval process by Beijing.

Donald Trump's online store is selling merchandise emblazoned with "Trump 2028," the year of the next US presidential election, in which the Republican is constitutionally banned from running.

An explosive device ripped through a parked car near Moscow on Friday killing a senior Russian general, investigators said, in an attack that resembled previous killings claimed by Ukraine.

The mistake, which occurred in 2023, only came to light in February 2024 when the biological parents of the child requested to transfer their remaining frozen embryos to another provider, triggering an internal review. Earlier this month, Monash IVF's share price dropped sharply -- from AU$1.08 to a low of 69 cents -- after news of the error became public.

The dawn service began at the Australian War Memorial in Canberra with a didgeridoo performance by Flight Lieutenant James Evans, a member of the Royal Australian Air Force.

As Russian missiles rained on Kyiv overnight in Moscow's biggest attack on Ukraine's capital in months, Anna Balamutova grabbed her children and ran to a shelter, saying they were saved by a "miracle".

Neither the Leader of the Opposition of Australia, Peter Dutton, nor other leaders have said how many jobs would be cut, but they have focused on reducing Canberra-based positions.

President Donald Trump's top diplomat Marco Rubio on Tuesday unveiled a restructuring of the US State Department that will cut positions and scale back human rights offices, saying the "bloated" organization was ideologically out of sync with the administration.

Ahead of his lying-in-state, Pope Francis's body was made ready to withstand Rome's warm spring weather with a temporary embalming and a touch of make-up, an expert told AFP. The body of the 88-year-old, who died on Monday, will be on display for three days in Saint Peter's Basilica from Wednesday before his funeral on Saturday.

The EU on Wednesday slapped Apple and Meta with 700 million euros in fines for breaking digital competition rules, risking the wrath of US President Donald Trump.

A populist party in New Zealand's governing coalition on Tuesday proposed a law to enforce a biological definition of men and women, condemning the existing "woke ideology" of "cancerous social engineering".

The first US official to visit Southeast Asia since Washington announced punitive tariffs on the region's countries on Tuesday issued a robust defence of President Donald Trump's foreign policy approach.

Jason Bryce, the founder of the group Cash Welcome, said this was a way for Australians to tell banks and politicians that they want to keep using cash and be able to access it easily.

Cardinals will meet Tuesday to decide the date for Pope Francis's funeral, starting a process that will culminate in the election of a new Catholic leader within three weeks.

Gaza's civil defence agency on Monday accused the Israeli military of carrying out "summary executions" in the killing of 15 rescue workers last month, rejecting the findings of an internal probe by the army.

​During the Australian federal election, voters will elect all 150 members of the House of Representatives and 40 of the 76 Senate seats.