POLITICS & POLICY

Iran's government has proposed tripling its military spending, an official said Tuesday, as tensions with arch-rival Israel rise following recent tit-for-tat missile strikes.

The inquiry report also highlighted the nation's "grossly inadequate" handling of the COVID pandemic. "The first lesson from this report is that like most countries, frankly, our pandemic plans were grossly inadequate for the scale of the challenge that COVID-19 presented to us," Health Minister Mark Butler said.

Israeli bombardment of Lebanon forced Mohammed Fawaz and his family to flee so often that they finally moved many kilometres (miles) away to find respite in central Iraq.

Negotiators meet in less than a month to agree on the world's first treaty to end plastic pollution, but countries remain so far apart that a deal may prove impossible.

The UN agency for Palestinian refugees, whose operations in Israel were banned by the Israeli parliament on Monday, is seen by some as an "irreplaceable" humanitarian lifeline in Gaza, but as an accomplice of Hamas by others.

Manchester United sacked manager Erik ten Hag on Monday after a disastrous start to the season and are reportedly set to appoint Portuguese coach Ruben Amorim as their next boss.

Georgia's pro-European president Salome Zurabishvili in an interview with AFP Monday alleged that parliamentary polls -- whose results have been rejected by the opposition -- were marred by widespread voting fraud bearing the hallmarks of Russia's influence.

A book named "The Chairman's Lounge" revealed that Albanese declared flight upgrades on around 20 Qantas flights between 2009 and 2019, during his time as transport minister, shadow transport minister, and opposition leader.

A record number of women have been elected to Japan's house of representatives, projections showed Monday, but at less than 16 percent they remain a minority.

A nail-biting US presidential campaign heads into its final week Monday, with polls showing little daylight between the two candidates as they ramp up appeals to their respective bases to turn out and vote.

This move follows Federal Labor's industrial relations reforms' referendum for labour hire workers to receive equal pay as regular employees across various sections, including mining, aviation, and meat processing.

Georgia braced for protests on Monday after the pro-EU opposition called for mass demonstrations, accusing the ruling party of "stealing" this weekend's parliamentary election with Russian help.

Afghanistan's morality ministry is gradually introducing a ban on images of living beings in media, with multiple provinces announcing restrictions and some Taliban officials refusing to be photographed or filmed, journalists across the country told AFP. Since mid-October the Ministry for the Propagation of Virtue and the Prevention of Vice (PVPV) has held meetings with journalists in one province after another.

Israeli forces launched deadly strikes on Lebanon and Gaza on Monday, pressing their offensive against militants after Egypt's president proposed a two-day truce in the Israel-Hamas war.

Actor Gerard Depardieu on Monday asked for a delay to the start of his trial on sexual assault charges, saying his health prevented him from attending the proceedings, with numerous other complaints and a possible second court case already lying in wait.

Japanese Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba faced the prospect of minority rule Monday after his gamble of snap elections backfired with the ruling party's worst election result in 15 years.

Hundreds died in the student-led revolution that toppled Bangladesh's autocratic leader Sheikh Hasina, but those impacted in the violent aftermath fear the new authorities' promise of justice will exclude them.

"It barely exists anymore," said the mayor of Vovchansk, an industrial town razed by a Russian onslaught shocking even for the killing fields of eastern Ukraine.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu declared on Sunday that Israel's "precise and powerful" strikes on Iran had been a success, as his country's forces pounded targets in Gaza and Lebanon.

Bulgarians voted Sunday in their seventh election in less than four years, with little hope of an end to political turmoil that has favoured the country's far right.

Israel bombarded Hezbollah and Hamas targets in Lebanon and Gaza on Sunday, with no respite in the conflict one day after its strikes on Iran raised fears of a broader war.

Georgia's ruling party was on course to win a closely watched election Saturday, according to partial results that were rejected as "falsified" by pro-Western opposition parties which denounced a "constitutional coup".

The deployment of North Korean troops to help Russia in its war against Ukraine is unlikely to have a significant impact on the fighting on the ground but could affect security interests in Asia, Europe, and elsewhere, analysts said.

Israel said it conducted air strikes against Iran on Saturday that hit military bases and missile sites in retaliation for the Islamic republic's attacks, warning it would "pay a heavy price" if it responds.

When Georgia's richest man first burst into politics 12 years ago, he vowed to "astonish Europe" with the democracy he would bring to the Black Sea nation.

The US election takes a detour from the swing state circuit to decamp to Texas on Friday as Kamala Harris rallies with pop superstar Beyonce and Donald Trump sits down with the world's biggest podcaster.

"We share a vision for a modern and transformed Australia-United Kingdom relationship, which delivers tangible benefits and prosperity to both our nations and the Indo-Pacific," Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said.

Winding through the lawless, rugged hills of northern Myanmar, National Highway 3 links a stunning series of victories by ethnic rebels and pro-democracy fighters in their war against the junta.

United Nations leader Antonio Guterres pleaded on Thursday for a "just peace" in Ukraine, calling in a speech in front of Russian President Vladimir Putin for an end to more than two years of fighting.