POLITICS & POLICY

Countries bordering the eastern Democratic Republic of Congo sought to shore up defences on Wednesday as violence spreads through the region, with Burundi forced to pull back troops and Uganda securing a key city.

A US judge on Tuesday declined a request to temporarily block Elon Musk and his Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) from firing federal employees and accessing agency data, a victory for President Donald Trump in his bid to shrink the government workforce.

US President Donald Trump expanded his offensive against trading partners on Tuesday, threatening 25 percent tariffs on imported cars, and similar or higher duties on pharmaceuticals and semiconductors.

EU countries on Wednesday agreed a new round of sanctions on Russia, diplomats said, as the bloc looks to keep up pressure in the face of US talks with Russia.

Europe is struggling to make its voice heard as the United States barrels ahead with Russia on talks to end the war in Ukraine.

Made from solid oak using authentic Scandinavian plans, a Viking longship built by military veterans battling mental health issue is finally ready after a long labour of love.

Bogus child pornography claims, fabricated support for communism and fake posts showing Elon Musk calling for his removal -- a deluge of disinformation is targeting a top judge in suspended South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol's impeachment trial.

Russia and the United States agreed Tuesday to establish teams to negotiate a path to ending the war in Ukraine after talks that drew a strong rebuke from Kyiv over its exclusion.

Hamas said Tuesday that it would hand over all six living Israeli hostages due for release under the first phase of the Gaza ceasefire this week, as well as the bodies of four dead captives.

Turkey's Recep Tayyip Erdogan met with Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelensky in Ankara on Tuesday, as Kyiv seeks to shore up its position in response to US-Russia talks.

Radically changing the European economy is more urgent than ever after US threats of a trade war with the EU, the author of a seminal report, Mario Draghi, warned Tuesday.

Formal, tense and laced with distrust, the highly anticipated Saudi-hosted talks between the United States and Russia on Tuesday carried all the hallmarks of a major diplomatic showdown.

Twenty-five years ago, director Park Chan-wook risked jail to make a movie about friendship between North and South Korean soldiers, striking box office gold and beginning his actors' ascent to global stardom.

Top US and Russian diplomats will meet in Saudi Arabia on Tuesday for talks on resetting their countries' fractured relations and making a tentative start on trying to end the Ukraine war.

Top US and Russian diplomats will meet in Saudi Arabia on Tuesday for talks on resetting the countries' fractured relations and making a tentative start on trying to end the Ukraine war.

Israel was poised to again miss a deadline for withdrawing its troops from Lebanon after the military said Monday it would remain in five "strategic points" despite pushback from Beirut.

The head of the World Health Organization insisted on Monday it was "now or never" to strike a landmark global accord on tackling future pandemics, despite the United States withdrawing from negotiations.

Rights groups on Monday denounced an Australian plan to send three violent foreign criminals -- including a murderer -- to live on the tiny Pacific nation of Nauru.

Israel's security cabinet was set to discuss on Monday the next phase of the ceasefire with Hamas, as top US diplomat Marco Rubio began a visit to Saudi Arabia where he will push Donald Trump's proposal for a US takeover of Gaza.

The French presidency said Sunday that European countries should do more for their collective security, ahead of a top-level meeting in Paris to address growing concerns over US efforts to end the Ukraine war.

World number five Jessica Pegula believes the handling of high-profile doping cases involving Jannik Sinner and Iga Swiatek has shown that the "process is completely broken".

Lebanese media on Sunday reported that Israeli gunfire killed a woman as Washington pressed Beirut to disarm Hezbollah, two days before a deadline in the ceasefire between Israel and the Iran-backed group.

A year after Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny died behind bars, his supporters held memorial events on Sunday, with hundreds risking reprisals by visiting his grave in Moscow.

US Secretary of State Marco Rubio will discuss the Gaza ceasefire with Israel's prime minister in Jerusalem on Sunday, launching a Middle East tour a day after the latest hostage-prisoner exchange.

All other German parties see the far-right AfD as a threat to democracy, but the anti-immigration party has a powerful friend abroad: Elon Musk, the loudhailer voice of Team Trump.

An intense Israeli military raid had already sent Qusay Farahat fleeing his home in the occupied West Bank, but the offensive has since expanded, threatening a relative's house where he sought shelter.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said Friday that a Russian drone had struck a cover built to contain radiation at the Chernobyl nuclear power plant, adding that radiation levels were normal.

Mexico on Thursday threatened to sue Google over its changing the Gulf of Mexico's name to "Gulf of America" for Maps users in the United States to comply with President Donald Trump's executive order.

Donald Trump unveiled an extraordinary vision of a shake-up to the world order Thursday, eyeing a three-way summit with the Russian and Chinese leaders just a day after saying he had agreed with Vladimir Putin to start Ukraine peace talks.