POLITICS & POLICY

Cash-strapped Sri Lanka was voting for its next president Saturday in an effective referendum on an unpopular International Monetary Fund austerity plan enacted after the island nation's unprecedented financial crisis.

EU chief Ursula von der Leyen on Friday announced plans for Brussels to lend Ukraine 35 billion euros backed by revenues of frozen Russian assets and promised to help Ukraine "keep warm" ahead of a third winter of war with Russia.

Kamala Harris held a star-studded rally hosted by talk show legend Oprah Winfrey on Thursday in a bid to bedazzle voters, as rival Donald Trump criticized Jewish Americans for not voting for him.

US President Joe Biden will host the leaders of Australia, Japan and India at his Delaware home this weekend to bid farewell to the so-called "Quad" group that he has pushed as a counterweight to China.

Dozens of women from across the world have accused late Harrods owner Mohamed Al-Fayed of sexual assault, lawyers said Friday, likening the allegations to those against fallen figures like Hollywood producer Harvey Weinstein.

As Sydney geared up to host NRL and AFL finals and the Bledisloe Cup rugby union fixture during the weekend, NSW Transport Minister Jo Haylen announced free services, including the metro, on Saturday and Sunday.

The reform was expected to improve the retirement benefits of 180,000 Australian families each year, according to Minister for Social Services Amanda Rishworth.

Outgoing NATO chief Jens Stoltenberg will caution the United States and Europe against "isolationism" in his parting speech on Thursday, as Donald Trump vies to return to the White House.

Canada announced Wednesday it was slashing international student permits next year, and tightening foreign worker rules to further bring down the number of temporary residents in the country.

Hezbollah was in disarray on Thursday after a second wave of deadly explosions swept through its strongholds across Lebanon, putting pressure on its leader to exact revenge for the operation it blames on Israel.

Subsidized food, without which most Cubans would not eat at all, is becoming ever more scarce and expensive as the government, battling sanctions, struggles to pay for imports.

Russia's counteroffensive to retake Ukrainian-held territory in the Kursk region has been "stopped", a spokesman from Ukraine's military administration there told AFP on Wednesday, after Moscow said it was beginning to repel the surprise incursion.

With full military honours and proud family members looking on, two Allied servicemen were laid to rest Wednesday, 80 years after giving their lives to liberate Europe from the Nazis.

A Chinese naval formation led by the Liaoning aircraft carrier sailed through waters northeast of Taiwan on Wednesday and continued towards the southeast of Japan's Yonaguni Island, Taipei's government said.

Russian operatives are ramping up disinformation operations to malign Vice President Kamala Harris's campaign by disseminating conspiracy-laden videos, Microsoft said Tuesday, amid heightened alert over foreign influence operations targeting the US election.

Addressing tens of thousands of trade workers in Melbourne, Electrical Trades Union's Victorian secretary Troy Gray said the Labor government was targeting the construction workers and risking 100 years of the union's achievements.

Each year the world produces around 400 million tonnes of plastic waste, much of it discarded after just a few minutes of use.

Hezbollah vowed on Wednesday to punish Israel for a deadly attack in which hundreds of paging devices used by the militant group's members exploded almost simultaneously across Lebanon.

As the female winemaker who put Chinese vintages on the map for the first time, Zhang Jing of Helan Qingxue winery is a trailblazer, but no anomaly.

North Korea fired a salvo of short-range ballistic missiles early Wednesday, Seoul's military said, Pyongyang's second such weapons test in a week.

The coalition, Greens, One Nation, and Ralph Babet of the UAP opposed the government's resolution, with only Jacqui Lambie voting in favor of it.

The United States, Spain and the Czech Republic on Monday demanded information from Venezuela about six of their citizens detained in the South American country over an alleged plot to assassinate President Nicolas Maduro.

The town of Springfield has seen some three dozen bomb threats as it endures being the center of Republican-boosted conspiracy theories about immigration, Ohio Governor Mike DeWine said Monday.

UN member states will debate Tuesday a push by the Palestinians to formally demand an end to the Israeli occupation of the Palestinian territories within 12 months.

"I am a rapist," said a Frenchman accused of drugging his wife so that he and dozens of strangers could sexually assault her, his first testimony in a trial that has horrified France.

Details of the charges against superstar rapper Sean "Diddy" Combs are expected to be revealed Tuesday, the US attorney for the Southern District of New York said following the music mogul's arrest in Manhattan.

War-weary Myanmar villagers salvaged crops from flooded fields Tuesday as the country's death toll in the wake of Typhoon Yagi doubled to 226 and the UN warned as many as 630,000 people could need assistance.

Japanese players are moving to English football in record numbers and more look set to follow with clubs attracted by their quality, strong work ethic and value for money.

Sean "Diddy" Combs -- the rap mogul whose star has plunged after a wave of sex trafficking accusations and assault lawsuits -- was arrested by federal agents in Manhattan late Monday, a US federal court said.