POLITICS & POLICY

Police deployed a heavy presence on US university campuses Wednesday after forcibly clearing away some weeks-long protests against Israel's war with Hamas.

When Nepal suddenly announced a ban on TikTok last year, lawyer Sunil Rajan Singh was determined to fight what he said was a government effort to hide its wrongdoings.

Le Tuan Binh keeps his Moroccan soldier father's tombstone at his village home north of Hanoi, a treasured reminder of a man whose community in Vietnam has been largely forgotten.

Pro-EU demonstrators in Georgia built barricades outside parliament on Wednesday after police used tear gas and rubber bullets against thousands of protesters rallying for a third week against a controversial "foreign influence" bill, an AFP reporter saw.

Students who occupied a Columbia University building vowed Tuesday to fight back against efforts to evict them, as administrators struggled to contain pro-Palestinian protests that have launched dozens of campus demonstrations around the United States.

Cautious hopes were building Tuesday for a Gaza truce and hostage release deal as Hamas said it was studying the latest proposal and US top diplomat Antony Blinken was due to head back to Israel.

Hamas was studying Tuesday Israel's offer of a 40-day truce in the war in the Gaza Strip in exchange for the release of scores of hostages held since the Palestinian militant group's October 7 attacks.

At least 46 people including children died when a makeshift dam burst its banks in Kenya's Rift Valley in the early hours of Monday, a local official said, as torrential rains and floods battered the country.

Togolese voted in legislative elections on Monday after a divisive constitutional reform that opponents say allows President Faure Gnassingbe to extend his family's decades-long grip on power.

French police on Monday detained screen legend Gerard Depardieu for questioning after two women accused him of sexual assault, a source close to the case said.

Diplomatic efforts increased on Sunday to reach a long sought-after truce and hostage-release deal in Gaza, as Israel carried out further air strikes and shelling on the war-battered territory.

Saudi Arabia on Sunday called for regional "stability", warning of the effects of the ongoing Israel-Hamas war on global economic sentiment at the start of a summit attended by a host of Gaza mediators.

Washington's top diplomat will travel to Saudi Arabia on Sunday as the deadline approaches on a landmark -- and, analysts say, long-shot -- deal that would see the kingdom recognise Israel.

Palestinians in Rafah told AFP Saturday they were living in "constant terror" as Israel vows to push ahead with its planned assault on the south Gaza city flooded with displaced civilians.

The head of the International Olympic Committee Thomas Bach has backed the World Anti-Doping Agency in a row over its handling of positive drug tests by 23 Chinese swimmers.

Thousands of sub-Saharan migrants have huddled in Tunisian olive groves for months, living in makeshift tents and surviving on meagre rations while keeping their hopes alive of reaching Europe.

A delegation from mediator Egypt is travelling to Israel on Friday, a source close to the Israeli government told AFP, in what local media said is a bid to reignite stalled hostage-release negotiations.

Chinese President Xi Jinping on Friday told top US diplomat Antony Blinken that the world's two biggest economies should be "partners, not rivals", but that there were a "number of issues" to be resolved in their relations.

Olga drew her index finger abruptly across her neck as she recounted the threats her husband levelled at her after he returned to Russia, wounded from fighting in Ukraine.

Columbia University backed off late Thursday from an overnight deadline for pro-Palestinian protesters to abandon an encampment there as more college campuses in the United States sought to prevent occupations from taking hold.

Diagnosed with autism, Shoko Sakuma says she struggled working in accounting but now she is putting her childhood love of drawing to work in a special Japanese animation studio.

Pro-Palestinian protests spread to more college campuses in the United States on Thursday as authorities appeared to be running out of patience and police began to push back forcefully.

The US Supreme Court appeared skeptical on Thursday of Donald Trump's claim that a former president is "absolutely immune" from criminal prosecution but looked set to issue a ruling that could further delay his election subversion trial.

A key witness in the criminal trial of Donald Trump detailed Thursday how he worked with the former president's personal lawyer to kill a Playboy model's story about a sexual relationship with the Republican.

French President Emmanuel Macron on Thursday warned that Europe faced an existential threat from Russian aggression, calling on the continent to adopt a "credible" defence strategy less dependent on the United States.

Palestinians on Thursday mourned over people killed in Israeli bombardment of Rafah, the southern Gaza city where Israel says it is advancing plans for a ground invasion.

Portugal on Thursday marked 50 years since a military coup ended a decades-long dictatorship and 13 years of colonial wars in Africa, an anniversary that comes as a far-right party gains prominence.

Diving into the darkness of the Yangon River, Than Nyunt starts another murky sortie in his months-long mission to salvage a sunken ship using the power of the moon.