POLITICS & POLICY

Five months after the shock scrapping of presidential elections, Romanians go back to the polls on Sunday -- with a key far-right contender excluded and criticism by the US administration looming over the tense vote.

Talks on Russia's war in Ukraine entered a "critical week" on Monday, according to the United States, as it increases the pressure on Kyiv to give up on Crimea in exchange for peace.

Arne Slot says sky-high expectations at Liverpool will not allow for any let-up next season after they won the Premier League title in style.

Liverpool are primed for a spectacular Premier League title party as they aim to seal a record-equalling 20th English top-flight crown against Tottenham at Anfield on Sunday.

Iran's president visited on Sunday the scene of a massive port blast that killed 28 people and injured more than 1,000, as fires still blazed more than 24 hours after the explosion.

With Pope Francis laid to rest, all eyes turn now to the conclave, the secretive meeting of cardinals set to convene within days to elect a new head of the Catholic Church.

Hamas is open to an agreement to end the war in Gaza that would see all hostages released and secure a five-year truce, an official said Saturday ahead of talks with mediators.

Donald Trump and Volodymyr Zelensky met briefly in the hush of St Peter's basilica on the sidelines of Pope Francis's funeral on Saturday in their first encounter since a noisy White House clash, as the US president pushes the Ukrainian leader to make a peace deal with Russia.

Pope Francis, champion of the poor and the Church's first Latin American leader, will be honoured Saturday with a funeral attended by world leaders and tens of thousands of Catholic faithful.

The United States and Iran were to hold a fresh round of technical and high-level nuclear negotiations in Oman on Saturday, after both sides reported progress in previous meetings.

The UN's World Food Programme said Friday it had depleted its food stocks in war-ravaged Gaza where Israel has blocked all aid for more than seven weeks.

US envoy Steve Witkoff and Vladimir Putin on Friday discussed the "possibility" of direct talks between Russia and Ukraine during a meeting in Moscow, the Kremlin said Friday.

President Donald Trump has defied international norms on the nascent field of deep-sea mining, signing an executive order Thursday expanding the practice for rare earth minerals in domestic and international waters.

Russia's central bank kept borrowing costs at a two-decade high of 21 percent on Friday to combat rampant inflation, despite banks and businesses warning the economy was headed for a slowdown.

The United Nations urged India and Pakistan to show "maximum restraint" as the nuclear-armed rivals imposed tit-for-tat diplomatic measures over a deadly shooting in Kashmir.

A decade has passed since a massive earthquake ripped through Nepal, but in Ram Bahadur Nakarmi's home the damage is still visible -- and so is the fear another might strike.

A sea of flowers blanketed the cold concrete of the brutalist memorial to the Armenian genocide on the Tsitsernakaberd hill, overlooking the capital Yerevan.

Gaza rescue teams and medics said Israeli air strikes killed at least 53 people on Thursday, as the military issued fresh evacuation orders ahead of a planned attack.

The European rights court condemned France on Thursday for failing to protect the rights of three teenagers who reported rape, including one who accused 14 firemen of abuse.

A coalition of 12 American states filed a lawsuit Wednesday to challenge the Trump administration's tariffs, saying the president cannot institute the levies without the approval of Congress.

President Donald Trump's various U-turns are leaving Americans disillusioned -- especially after he was elected on vows of guaranteeing economic prosperity.

Australia will stockpile critical minerals in a new strategic reserve, Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said Thursday, as nations scramble to source rare earths and coveted metals outside China.

A "massive" Russian missile attack on Kyiv on Thursday killed at least nine and wounded dozens in one of the deadliest strikes on the Ukrainian capital since Moscow launched its invasion more than three years ago.

Just under five months into her job as the EU's top diplomat, Kaja Kallas admits it has been a rollercoaster start as US President Donald Trump has turned the global order on its head.

China said on Wednesday the door was "wide open" for trade talks with Washington, a day after US President Donald Trump signalled the possibility of a "substantial" lowering of tariffs on Beijing.

US President Donald Trump said Tuesday he had no plans to fire the Federal Reserve chief, in apparently conciliatory remarks after berating him and triggering market turmoil.

US Attorney General Pam Bondi hosted the opening meeting of an "anti-Christian bias" task force Tuesday, as the government pressed federal workers to inform on work colleagues engaging in discriminatory behavior.

Gaza's civil defence agency on Wednesday said its crew recovered charred bodies from a school-turned-shelter for displaced people, as Israeli strikes killed 17 people in the Hamas-run territory since dawn.

Envoys from Washington, Kyiv and European nations gathered for talks in Britain on Wednesday amid a new US push to end Russia's war in Ukraine, where a brief Easter truce was shattered by fresh air strikes.