POLITICS & POLICY

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.

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.