POLITICS & POLICY

Feebly shaded by trees in the blistering heat, desperate civilians throng a displacement camp in tents and ramshackle shelters after fleeing jihadist violence in northeastern Burkina Faso.

India's six-week election was staggering in its size and logistical complexity, but also in the "unprecedented" scale of online disinformation.

South Africa's ruling ANC said Sunday that it would enter talks with other parties to form a new government, after losing its three-decade-old absolute majority in a watershed election.

Alexander Zverev came back from the brink of defeat to reach the French Open last 16 for a seventh successive year on Saturday as Novak Djokovic took aim at equalling Roger Federer's record for Grand Slam match wins.

It was predicted to go badly but turned out to be worse: South African President Cyril Ramaphosa led the ANC to its worst election result since the end of apartheid, one which threatens his survival.

Israeli forces hammered Rafah in southern Gaza with tanks and artillery Saturday, hours after US President Joe Biden said Israel was offering a new roadmap towards a full ceasefire.

Cricket ventures into uncharted territory on Saturday as the first ever major tournament to be staged in the United States gets under way in Texas with the opening game of the T20 World Cup.

Israeli forces on Friday struck targets across the Gaza Strip, with witnesses reporting air raids around the southern city of Rafah, the latest focus of the nearly eight-month war.

Gutted buildings, vacant windows and blocks bombed to rubble show the price paid by the western Myanmar town of Pauktaw for victory against the junta in the country's civil war.

Russian strikes killed three people in the Ukrainian city of Kharkiv, authorities said Friday, after the United States had authorised Kyiv to use American weapons to hit targets inside Russia in defence of the region.

Donald Trump became the first former US president ever convicted of a crime after a New York jury found him guilty on all charges in his hush money case, months before an election that could see him yet return to the White House.

Spain's parliament gave the final green light to a controversial amnesty bill for Catalan separatists Thursday, paving the way for the return of their figurehead Carles Puigdemont after years of self-imposed exile.

Like millions of Ukrainian children, Kyiv teenager Sofia Klochko is finishing up a third school year marked by war and the constant stress of air raid sirens and strikes.

Australian Border Force officials told Senate estimates that of the 153 immigration detainees released, 76 were under electronic monitoring and 68 subject to curfews, which were generally from 10pm to 6am.

The LGBTQ community faces "relentless opposition" across the globe despite some progress, said a report published on Thursday by an international advocacy group, with one-third of the world still criminalising same-sex acts.

The letter came as Labor senator Fatima Payman resigned from her position on two parliamentary foreign affairs committees. Earlier in May, Payman had broken ranks from her party, demanding the Labor government to impose trade sanctions against Israel.

Chinese President Xi Jinping called on Thursday for a peace conference to end the war between Israel and Hamas, as he addressed Arab leaders at a forum aimed at bolstering ties with the region.

Hong Kong activist Chan Po-ying became one of the city's only pro-democracy voices after her prominent husband's arrest in 2021, refusing to give up the struggle they had waged together for decades.

In December 2023, China had eased exports from three local shippers, while limiting two others.

On the edge of the Afghan border with Uzbekistan, where the railway abruptly stops, throngs of young men transfer sacks of wheat or flour from freight trains to trucks.

Rafah residents reported intense artillery shelling and gunfire Thursday in Gaza's far-southern city after Israel said it had seized a strategic corridor on the Palestinian territory's border with Egypt.

The US and Chinese defence chiefs are set to hold rare direct talks in Singapore this weekend, offering hopes of further military dialogue aimed at preventing flashpoint disputes from spinning out of control.

Israel carried out fresh strikes on Wednesday in the southern Gaza city of Rafah, where its forces are battling Hamas militants, after the UN Security Council met to discuss a deadly attack that sparked global outcry.

President Vladimir Putin said Tuesday that there would be "serious consequences" if Western countries allowed Ukraine to use their weapons to strike targets in Russia, as sought by Kyiv.

France's President Emmanuel Macron on Monday raised the alarm over the "ill wind" of the rise of the far right in European politics, during a state visit to Germany ahead of key EU elections.

Georgian lawmakers geared up on Tuesday to overturn a presidential veto and push through a controversial "foreign influence" bill that opponents say will place onerous restrictions on foreign-funded NGOs and derail the country's path to the European Union.

DNA tests by scientists revealed nine of the 91 fillets sold were scalloped hammerhead, greeneye spurdog or school shark -- all considered threatened species in Australia.

Closing arguments began Tuesday in the hush money trial of Donald Trump with the White House hopeful facing the prospect of becoming the first criminally convicted former president in US history.

Israel again bombarded Gaza's far-southern Rafah area on Tuesday despite a global storm of outrage over a strike that set ablaze a crowded tent city, killing 45 people according to Palestinian officials.