POLITICS & POLICY

As winter sets in, diseases and viruses such as COVID-19, the flu and RSV are weighing on the health systems across Australia, Health ministers stated.

France's snap elections have sparked reconciliation within the country's most prominent far-right family, the latest episode in the saga of the tempestuous Le Pens.

France's left put up a united front on Friday, vowing a "total break" with President Emmanuel Macron's policies if it wins historic polls that could propel the far right to major gains in parliament.

Russian President Vladimir Putin said Friday that Moscow would only halt its offensive on Ukraine if Kyiv effectively surrenders by pulling its troops out of the east and south and dropping its bid for NATO membership.

South Africa's newly elected parliament met Friday and was expected to re-elect President Cyril Ramaphosa to form an unprecedented coalition government after his humbled ANC cobbled together a deal.

Israeli strikes hit Gaza on Friday as truce talks with Hamas militants failed to progress and tensions surged on Israel's northern border with Lebanon.

Russians on the streets of the capital shrugged off new US sanctions on dollar and euro trading Thursday, claiming they had no need for Western currencies in their heavily targeted economy.

Israeli helicopters struck Gaza's Rafah on Thursday, residents said, with Hamas militants reporting street battles in the southern city after top US diplomat Antony Blinken said a truce was still possible.

Facilities at Gordonstoun School in northeast Scotland include a climbing wall, rifle range and a five-hole golf course, while pupils can even avail themselves of bagpipe lessons.

Far from Parisian bistros serving up Burgundy snails, one Japanese man has figured out how to farm the slimy species -- a feat that has long eluded the French.

NATO chief Jens Stoltenberg and Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban agreed on Wednesday that Budapest would "not block" the defence alliance from contributing more to Ukraine's fight against Russia's invasion.

Britain's economy stagnated in April after emerging from recession in the first quarter of the year, official data showed Wednesday, dealing a setback to Prime Minister Rishi Sunak ahead of next month's general election.

US consumer inflation continued to cool last month, according to US government data published Wednesday, giving the US Federal Reserve some positive news shortly before it publishes its latest interest rate decision.

Deadly fighting rocked Gaza on Wednesday as US top diplomat Antony Blinken on a Middle East tour pushed for an elusive truce and hostage release deal to end the war raging since October 7.

While Liberal MP Bridget Archer called Dutton's stance on reducing the target of emission levels as "regressive," some called the party's discussion on the topic "nonsense" and "messy."

Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni's battle with migrant rescue charities is increasingly ending up in court, with judges often siding with NGOs but not yet calling the law into question.

Hundreds of thousands of Muslims have flocked to the Saudi holy city of Mecca for the hajj pilgrimage unfolding this year in the shadow of the Gaza war.

After the roar of Israeli warplanes terrified her baby grandson, Umm Hassan's family sought solace on a south Lebanon beach, hoping to escape the escalating cross-border violence.

French singer Francoise Hardy, whose crystalline voice and melancholy lyrics shot her to international stardom in the 1960s, has died at the age of 80, according to her son.

Norway's Karsten Warholm fired out a broadside at Olympic contenders in the run-in to the Paris Games by winning a third successive European title in Rome on Tuesday as a galaxy of global stars showcased some scintillating form.

When Hong Kong author Kay So left her home city in 2020, she had in her luggage two short stories she had written about the huge, at times violent democracy protests that upended the city in 2019.

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken will hold talks with key Israeli opposition figures on Tuesday, a day after he arrived in the country to push a ceasefire plan for the war in Gaza.

President Emmanuel Macron said Monday that he was confident French voters would make the "right choice" in snap elections he called after the far right crushed his centrist alliance in Sunday's EU ballot.

Environments groups have warned that if Australia breached the climate agreement, it could affect trade negotiations and harm international relations in the Pacific.

Russia on Monday claimed the capture of another village in Ukraine's eastern Donetsk region, the latest in a string of gains ahead of a major Ukraine summit in Switzerland.

North Korea has sent hundreds more trash-carrying balloons toward South Korea, Seoul's military said Monday, after Kim Jong Un's powerful sister warned of further responses if the South keeps up its "psychological warfare".

World leaders from countries around the world will gather in Switzerland this weekend to try to work out a way towards a peace process for Ukraine -- albeit without Russia.

At her lowest point, fighting burnout and depression in her Chinese hometown, Huang Bingbing says she found comfort in watching the escapist love story of two young men on a then-unknown Thai TV drama.

The United States stepped up pressure Monday for a Gaza ceasefire with a call for a UN Security Council vote on a truce as it redeployed Washington's top diplomat to the region scarred by eight months of war.