NEWS

Russia's central bank hiked interest rates to 21 percent on Friday, taking borrowing costs to their highest level in more than 20 years as Moscow's Ukraine offensive has triggered rapid price rises at home.

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken held talks Thursday in Qatar, a key mediator in the Gaza war, as he seeks to build momentum for a ceasefire after Israel's killing of the leader of Hamas.

An Irish regulator helping to police European Union data privacy said Thursday it had fined professional networking platform LinkedIn 310 million euros ($335 million) over breaching users' personal data for targeted advertising.

North Korean leader Kim Jong Un inspected a strategic missile base, state media said Wednesday, releasing images of him viewing transport and launch vehicles for the country's largest and most powerful intercontinental ballistic weapons.

King Charles III landed in Samoa Wednesday to join his first Commonwealth summit as monarch, hoping to breathe new life into a bloc seen by critics as "a leftover of empire".

The World Health Organization said Wednesday that "intense bombardment" and "escalating violence" in northern Gaza had forced it to postpone the final phase of a child polio vaccination drive.

Ukraine on Wednesday called on any North Korean troops fighting for Russia to surrender, after South Korea said over a thousand more had been deployed by Pyongyang.

China's military began a live-fire exercise near Taiwan on Tuesday, maintaining pressure on the self-ruled island after staging large-scale drills and President Xi Jinping called for troops to prepare for war.

North Korea has not sent troops to Russia to help Moscow fight Ukraine, one of its United Nations representatives said Monday, dismissing Seoul's claims as "groundless rumour".

Apple CEO Tim Cook was in China for the second time this year, he said on social media Tuesday, as the US technology giant seeks to shore up slumping sales in a crucial overseas market.

The SM-2 IIIC introduces advanced active seeker technology, greatly improving defense against missile threats. Meanwhile, the SM-6 offers extended-range air defense against both air and missile threats, adds offensive anti-ship capability, and, for the first time, provides terminal ballistic missile defense.

King Charles visited Australia's capital Canberra on Monday, where he was sneezed on by a suit-wearing alpaca, heckled by an Indigenous senator, and applauded for a speech on the country's climate perils.

A US and a Canadian warship have passed through waters separating Taiwan and China, a week after Beijing held large-scale military drills in the sensitive passage.

Up to 1,000 women and children needing medical care will shortly be evacuated from Gaza to Europe, the head of the World Health Organization's Europe branch said in comments published on Monday.

White House candidate Donald Trump on Thursday blamed US ally Ukraine for Russia's invasion, arguing that President Volodymyr Zelensky had failed in his duty to halt hostilities before they started.

King Charles III touched down in Australia Friday, kicking off the most strenuous foreign trip since his life-changing cancer diagnosis eight months ago.

North Korea has decided to send a "large-scale" troop deployment to support Moscow's war in Ukraine, with 1,500 special forces already in Russia's Far East and undergoing training, Seoul's spy agency said Friday.

More than one billion people are living in acute poverty across the globe, a UN Development Program report said Thursday, with children accounting for over half of those affected.

The speaker of the French Senate -- the country's second most senior figure under the constitution -- said Thursday he was "astounded" by remarks attributed to Emmanuel Macron on Israel and accused the president of showing his "ignorance" of history.

Tech billionaire Elon Musk's X platform will not face the EU's stringent competition rules aimed at keeping digital markets open, the European Commission said on Wednesday.

North Korea claimed Wednesday that more than a million young people had signed up for or rejoined the army this week after Pyongyang accused Seoul's military of sending drones into its airspace.

Rising living costs and postponed family planning were cited as the main causes of Australia's birth rate plummeting to a 17-year low, a 4.6% decrease from 2022, and a total fertility rate of 1.5 infants per woman.

Russia will likely be capable of launching an attack on NATO by 2030 and is ramping up efforts to disrupt Ukraine's Western supporters through sabotage, German intelligence chiefs warned Monday.

Thousands of US and Filipino troops launched joint exercises in the northern and western Philippines on Tuesday, after China held huge drills around Taiwan and a Chinese vessel collided with a Filipino patrol boat.

Kamala Harris and rival Donald Trump campaigned in battleground states Sunday seeking 11th-hour advantages in a deadlocked White House race, as new polling shows the vice president underperforming among some traditional Democratic voter demographics.

The Labor government had earlier granted AU$1 billion toward improving the country's biosecurity if the avian influenza strain was detected on Australian shores.

The Holy Family Medical Centre in Dulwich Hill has notified about 1,208 patients, including 394 children, who received a vaccine between Dec. 4, 2019 and July 30, 2024, that their protection may have been compromised due to incorrect storage of the vaccines at the clinic.

Concerns about national security have been raised by the Albanese government's decision to award a tourist visa to a Palestinian man who is suspected of having ties to Hamas.

Australia moved Tuesday to protect a swathe of ocean territory by expanding an Antarctic marine park that is home to penguins, seals, whales and the country's only two active volcanos.