POLITICS & POLICY

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.

Pope Francis marked 12 years as head of the Catholic Church on Thursday, celebrating with cake and slowly recovering after a month in hospital, but with his health casting a shadow over his future.

The father of a British-Pakistani girl jailed for 40 years for her murder should have been given a whole life sentence from which he would never be released, a top government lawyer argued in a court appeal hearing Thursday.

US negotiators travelled to Russia on Thursday to present their plan for a 30-day ceasefire in Ukraine, but Moscow warned in advance it would refuse any temporary deal that gave Kyiv a "breather".

Pope Francis, who has been in hospital since February 14 with pneumonia in both lungs, is stable and talk has turned to when he might go home.

Talks to form a new Greenland government tasked with mapping a timeline for independence from Denmark began Wednesday, a day after elections that saw support soar for a party seeking to cut ties swiftly.

The regulator stated that from July 1, 2019, to Oct. 18, 2024, the fund took between four months and four years to assess these claims. In 254 cases, AustralianSuper took between 15 and 213 days just to provide the claim form.

Pakistan forces launched a "full-scale" operation on Wednesday to rescue train passengers taken hostage by militants in the mountainous southwest, with security sources saying 155 had been freed in the past 24 hours.

As she watched her five-month-old son lying in intensive care, wires and tubes crisscrossing his tiny body, Uyanga cursed her hometown Ulaanbaatar and its chronic pollution.

If South Korea formally impeaches its suspended president over his martial law debacle, one firebrand pastor says he is ready for "revolution".

A committee formed by Syria's new authorities to investigate a wave of deadly violence said on Tuesday the country was determined to "prevent unlawful revenge".

Faced by a menacing Russia and unreliable United States, the EU is pushing a mammoth plan to boost its defences that Brussels says could unlock up to 800 billion euros ($860 billion).

Pope Francis was reported to be in good spirits on Tuesday, a day after the Vatican indicated he was out of danger and could be discharged in the near future after almost one month in hospital with pneumonia.

Ukrainian drones smashed into high-rise apartment blocks on the outskirts of Moscow in the early hours of Tuesday, with both sides saying it was the largest attack on the Russian capital of the three-year conflict.

Kyiv will propose an aerial and naval ceasefire with Russia during talks with US officials in Saudi Arabia this week, a Ukrainian official told AFP on Monday as President Volodymyr Zelensky was due to arrive in the kingdom.

Olfa Meriah stands, frustrated, before a smartphone shop near the capital Tunis.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky is due to arrive in Saudi Arabia on Monday, a day ahead of crucial talks between Ukrainian and US officials on ending the war with Russia.

Israel is due to send a delegation to Doha on Monday for a fresh round of talks on extending a fragile ceasefire in Gaza, after cutting off the electricity supply to ramp up pressure on Hamas.

Russia on Sunday announced it had captured territory in Ukraine's Sumy region for the first time since 2022 in a cross-border offensive, as Kyiv struggles to hold onto territory in Russia's neighbouring Kursk region.

Israel carried out an air strike on militants in northern Gaza on Sunday, rattling an already fragile ceasefire as it prepared for fresh talks in Doha on the future of its truce with Hamas.

Shipbuilding has been in steady decline in the US since the end of the Cold War but some in the industry now hope for a revival of the sector, as was promised last week by President Donald Trump.

Could support for Ukraine have survived the bitter and increasingly polarized politics of Washington?

US President Donald Trump said Friday that he has written to Iran's supreme leader pressing for new talks on its nuclear program, warning of possible military action if not.