POLITICS & POLICY

Asian markets sank Monday after US President Donald Trump reignited his trade war with Beijing by threatening last week to impose 100 percent tariffs on goods from China.

A Red Cross convoy was on its way to pick up a first group of Israeli hostages to be freed by Hamas as part of a Gaza ceasefire deal, the Israeli military said Monday.

From the age of 10, Amina has been scrubbing, sweeping and cooking in a middle-class home in Pakistan's megacity of Karachi.

Hamas was set to release all surviving hostages on Monday in exchange for Palestinian prisoners held by Israel, as US President Donald Trump headed to the region for a peace summit having declared the war "over".

Hamas will release its remaining hostages on Monday and will play no role in Gaza's future government, the group told AFP, as US President Donald Trump and other world leaders prepared to convene in Egypt for a major peace summit.

A military contingent joined thousands of anti-government demonstrators in Madagascar on Saturday, calling on security forces to "refuse orders to shoot" and condemning police action to quell over two weeks of youth-led protests that have rocked the Indian Ocean island.

Thousands of displaced Palestinians returned to a devastated Gaza City on Saturday, the second day of a ceasefire between Israel and Hamas, with many stunned by the destruction even as others were relieved to find their homes still standing.

Drones flying over airports, commercial sites and other sensitive infrastructure in Europe is a growing phenomenon which EU leaders blame on Russia, and preventing the disruption they cause will prove a tough technical challenge, observers say.

The Nobel Peace Prize was on Friday awarded to Venezuela's opposition leader and democracy activist Maria Corina Machado, a "unifying" figure in what has become a "brutal" state, the Nobel jury said.

Before a Myanmar student descends into a classroom entombed in a concrete bunker, she prays for compassion and her community's safety, knowing her appeal will go unanswered.

The Nobel Prize for Literature was on Thursday awarded to Laszlo Krasznahorkai considered by many as Hungary's most important living author, whose works explore themes of postmodern dystopia and melancholy.

Israel and Hamas on Thursday agreed a Gaza ceasefire deal to free the remaining living hostages, in a major step towards ending a war that has killed tens of thousands of people and unleashed a humanitarian catastrophe.

French President Emmanuel Macron was on Thursday racing to find a new prime minister within a two-day deadline after the resignation of outgoing premier Sebastien Lecornu tipped the country deeper into political crisis.

French President Emmanuel Macron will name a new prime minister within the next 48 hours, his office said on Wednesday, after the resignation of outgoing premier Sebastien Lecornu tipped the country deeper into political crisis.

Hamas said Wednesday that "optimism" was prevailing in indirect talks with Israel aimed at ending the Gaza war, with the militant group submitting a list of prisoners it wants released in exchange for freeing Israeli hostages as part of an agreement.

At the foot of the Simandou mountains in southeast Guinea's lush tropical forest, thousands of workers, trucks and excavators are digging up the hills.

President Emmanuel Macron was on Tuesday under pressure even from allies to find a rapid solution to France's political deadlock, after his first prime minister and one-time ally urged him to resign for the sake of the country.

Israel marks the second anniversary of the October 7, 2023 attack on Tuesday, as Hamas and Israeli negotiators hold indirect talks to end the two-year war in Gaza under a US proposed peace plan.

Frenchwoman Gisele Pelicot, whose ex-husband recruited dozens of strangers online to sexually assault and rape her while drugged, arrived in court Monday for an appeal trial triggered by the bid of one man to overturn his conviction.

Delegations from Hamas, Israel and the United States are due to convene in Egypt for talks on Monday, with President Donald Trump urging negotiators to "move fast" to end the nearly two-year war in Gaza.

Gisele Pelicot, 72, who became an icon for women in a mass rape trial last year that resonated around the world, is to reluctantly break months of silence to face in court the one man in the case who still denies he raped her.

French President Emmanuel Macron named a new government on Sunday, putting together a team of largely familiar faces under Prime Minister Sebastien Lecornu as he struggles to pull the country out of a political crisis.

Members of local committees in Syria began on Sunday selecting members of a transitional parliament, in a process criticised as undemocratic, with a third of the members appointed directly by interim leader Ahmed al-Sharaa.

Negotiators were converging on Cairo on Sunday ahead of talks aimed at ending nearly two years of war in Gaza, with Israel's leader expressing hope that the hostages still being held there would be released in a matter of days.

Georgia's ruling party won local elections Saturday and police fired tear gas and water cannons at anti-government protesters who tried to enter the presidential palace, as tens of thousands of people rallied to the opposition's call to save democracy.

The families of Israeli hostages held in Gaza on Saturday said it was "essential" to end the Gaza war immediately, as Israel bombarded the territory even after US President Donald Trump called on it to stop.

Sean Combs, once a music world powerhouse, took a deep breath. An outsider viewing the clip might have thought Combs was running for mayor.

A man who launched a car-ramming and stabbing attack on a British synagogue on Yom Kippur may have been inspired by Islamist extremism, police said on Friday, as emotions ran high after the atrocity.

Hundreds of thousands of people protested across Italy on Friday during a large-scale strike over the treatment of the Gaza aid flotilla and far-right Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni's cautious stance on the conflict.