POLITICS & POLICY

Young, urban women in Afghanistan are increasingly ditching the all-enveloping blue burqa with a face mesh that has become a symbol of the Taliban's oppression of women.

Malaysia is making great strides in its effort to become a major player in the global semiconductor industry as it looks to capitalise on a surge in demand driven by the AI explosion but analysts warn it faces headwinds.

Hungarian lawmakers passed a bill on Tuesday aimed at banning Budapest's annual Pride march, the latest in a series of measures under Prime Minister Viktor Orban's government, which critics say curtail the rights of the EU country's LGBTQ community.

Hit by massive funding cuts and a crackdown on student protesters, Columbia University is under fire from US President Donald Trump, putting the world of higher education on tenterhooks.

A motorbike rider inches slowly over bumpy terrain deep in Cambodia's Virachey national park, carefully adjusting the basket strapped behind him.

Israel on Tuesday unleashed its most intense strikes on the Gaza Strip since a January ceasefire, with rescuers reporting 220 people killed, and Hamas accusing Benjamin Netanyahu of deciding to "resume war" after a deadlock on extending the truce.

Dressed in a floral shawl, Benji Dezaval carefully places hallucinogenic mushrooms on the tongues of the faithful of his Colorado "psychedelic church," as if they were communion wafers.

For Volodymyr Zelensky, his Oval Office clash with Donald Trump was a stark demonstration of how important personal ties with Donald Trump will be to his chances of ending the war with Russia on acceptable terms.

In a war-ravaged neighbourhood of Sudan's capital Khartoum, the stench from a gaping sewage pit is unbearable as Red Crescent workers pull a bloated body from deep underground.

Russian President Vladimir Putin and US counterpart Donald Trump will speak by phone on Tuesday, as one US official expressed hope the two could agree a Ukraine ceasefire within "weeks".

The Reserve Bank of Australia (RBA) revealed that the redesign will focus on replacing the Queen's portrait with an image that reflects Australia's history and growth, especially the strong bond First Nations peoples have with the land.

With Canada's economy and even sovereignty under unprecedented threat from its southern neighbour the United States, its new leader has embarked on a trans-Atlantic trip to strengthen ties with traditional friends France and Britain.

Yemen's Iran-backed Huthi rebels said they attacked an American aircraft carrier group twice within 24 hours as they prepared for huge rallies on Monday after US strikes left dozens dead.

Prime Minister Keir Starmer and President Emmanuel Macron teaming up to lead Europe's backing of Ukraine during Donald Trump's tumultuous second presidency highlights a warming British-Franco relationship, insiders and analysts say.

Pope Francis acknowledged being fragile and "facing a period of trial", as he thanked well-wishers Sunday for prayers in a message from hospital, where he has been slowly recovering from pneumonia.

Yemen's Iran-backed Huthis vowed to meet "escalation with escalation" after a wave of deadly US air strikes, with witnesses to the bombing saying Sunday they were taken aback by its intensity, even after years of war.

Israel and Hamas are set for more indirect talks Sunday on the Gaza ceasefire, but deep divisions persist between the two warring sides on the terms of the fragile truce.

The first US strikes against Yemen's Huthis since Donald Trump took office killed 31 people, the rebels said Sunday, with the US president warning "hell will rain down upon" the Iran-backed group if it did not stop attacking shipping.

Frightened by the prospect of US security disengagement and three years of Moscow's war against Ukraine, European countries are debating reinstating compulsory military service to boost their defences in the face of Russian aggression.

Tens of thousands of protesters converged in Serbia's capital Belgrade Saturday during the latest in a series of anti-corruption demonstrations to upend the Balkan country in recent months.

UK premier Keir Starmer said the "ball was in Russia's court" and that President Vladimir Putin would "sooner or later" have to "come to the table," after a virtual summit on Saturday to drum up support for a coalition willing to protect any eventual ceasefire in Ukraine.

A grisly discovery of charred bones, shoes and clothing at a suspected drug cartel training ground has prompted demands for answers and justice from relatives of the more than 100,000 people missing in Mexico.

Hamas said on Friday it was ready to free an Israeli-American hostage and the remains of four others, after the Palestinian militants and Israel resumed indirect Gaza ceasefire negotiations.

The change is expected to benefit nearly nine million Australians, adding an estimated AU$7,700 to their retirement savings.

Former Philippine president Rodrigo Duterte's deadly war on drugs has always faced strong opposition on the home front.

Nepali police officer Jiwan Subba still feels pangs of regret decades after he bludgeoned a strange creature he found wandering in his barn, not realising it was an endangered red panda.

Minutes after former Philippine leader Rodrigo Duterte was bundled onto a plane bound for The Hague to face a charge of crimes against humanity, President Ferdinand Marcos said of the arrest: "Politics doesn't enter into it."

More than a million people have fled Myanmar's brutal civil war to seek shelter and work in neighbouring Thailand, where experts say nationalists are using disinformation to fuel prejudice against them.

A new graft scandal rocked the European Parliament after police carried out raids Thursday in Belgium and Portugal, detaining multiple suspects in a probe into suspicions of corruption under the guise of lobbying for the benefit of Chinese tech giant Huawei.