POLITICS & POLICY

HMS Victory has survived the cannonballs of Napoleon's navy, being rammed by another warship, a World War II bomb, even UK navy plans to scrap her.

A member of the Reuters news agency was missing and two others were wounded after a deadly strike on a hotel in the east Ukrainian city of Kramatorsk, the agency said Sunday, as Kyiv claimed further advances into Russia's Kursk region.

Police arrested a man suspected of setting fires and causing an explosion at a synagogue in southern France on Saturday in what officials suspect was a terror attack, the country's interior minister said.

German police on Saturday hunted a man who stabbed three people to death and wounded eight others at a street festival in the city of Solingen, with a terror motive for the attack "not excluded".

President Volodymyr Zelensky vowed more "retribution" against Russia on Ukrainian Independence Day Saturday, as Kyiv and Moscow announced the exchange of 230 prisoners just over two weeks into Ukraine's surprise offensive on Kursk.

Negotiators geared up for a crucial weekend of Gaza ceasefire talks Saturday, as Hamas said it was sending delegates to Cairo but would not participate in the discussions, and fighting raged in the Palestinian territory.

Flanked by smartphone-wielding peace activists, members of an evicted Palestinian family marched onto land seized by armed Israeli settlers, shouting "Out!

French President Emmanuel Macron began a round of thorny consultations with political leaders on Friday, hoping to cobble together a viable ruling coalition after last month's inconclusive election.

Since last November, Houthi rebels have increased their attacks on container ships using drones, ballistic missiles, and even an explosive unmanned vessel. Due to the attacks, many logistics companies were forced to halt the ship movement in the route that handles 12% of the world's seaborne cargo.

Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi met Ukraine's leader Volodymyr Zelenksy on a historic visit to Kyiv on Friday, where he is pushing for a solution to end more than two years of war with Russia.

Israeli negotiators were in Cairo Friday for talks on a Gaza truce, a spokesman said, but a dispute over the presence of Israeli troops on Gaza's southern border remained among sticking points.

"We know that trade unionists do a great job when they look after the wages and conditions of their members, but there's no place for corruption or intimidation in the building industry. To have a corrupt union, you need a corrupt employer to be paying them money and there's no place for it," Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said.

The stricter eligibility requirements were imposed to address skyrocketing costs, despite concerns from disability advocates about reduced support.

Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Thursday said no conflict could be resolved on a battlefield as he spoke in Poland on the eve of his historic visit to war-torn Ukraine.

The facility that will be built in the Newcastle Airport Precinct, will manufacture both air-launched Joint Strike Missile (JSM) and the ship-launched Naval Strike Missile (NSM).

Standing amid ruins in east Ukraine, Ruslan Mokrytskyi held a combat knife and concentrated on cutting onions without crying.

The Gaza Strip's first recorded polio case in 25 years has health workers and aid agencies grappling with the steep obstacles to conducting mass vaccination in the war-torn Palestinian territory.

Bayer Leverkusen are vowing to achieve great things again this season after an unprecedented unbeaten league and cup double last campaign.

Ukrainian civilians on Wednesday fled areas close to the front line as Russian troops steadily seized more territory across the eastern Donetsk region.

Backed by the tech billionaire Mike Cannon-Brookes, the project aimed to build a solar farm in NT's outback, an 800 km transmission line to Australian city, Darwin, and 4,300 km of underwater cables to supply electricity to Singapore.

Criticizing the deal to pass the bill, Independent senator Lidia Thorpe said, "Bill Shorten has blood on his hands for doing this dirty deal with the coalition. Labor and the coalition have teamed up to characterize NDIS participants as fraudsters, criminals and sexual deviants."

Top US diplomat Antony Blinken headed home on Wednesday after failing to secure a Gaza ceasefire, warning both Israel and Hamas his plan may be the last chance to avert a broader war.

Bangladeshi student Omar Faruq believes the future of his country is bright but all he can see is darkness, after police trying to crush a student-led revolution blinded him with rubber pellets.

Saving lives was the childhood dream for 28-year-old Indian doctor Radhika, but after the brutal rape and murder of a colleague her own safety has increasingly become a top concern.

Ukraine's military incursion into Russia, a first in the two-year-old war, has handed Kyiv the initiative on the battlefield, but its outcome remains highly uncertain, analysts say.

Top US diplomat Antony Blinken was in Egypt on Tuesday for talks on a Gaza ceasefire after saying Israel had accepted a US "bridging proposal" for a deal and urging Hamas to do the same.

Russia's prosecutor general on Monday said it had banned a foundation started by US film star George Clooney and his human rights lawyer wife Amal.

Indonesian President Joko Widodo reshuffled his cabinet on Monday just weeks before he steps down in an effort to ease the transition to his successor, Defence Minister Prabowo Subianto, his office said.

Youth unemployment in China ticked up to 17.1 percent in July, official figures showed, the highest level this year as the world's second-largest economy faces mounting headwinds.