POLITICS & POLICY

Fears mounted Saturday for people trapped in one of Gaza's main hospitals after Israeli troops raided the facility and the Hamas-run territory's health ministry said several patients had died there from a lack of oxygen.

Lilian was 20 when her newborn baby died of medical complications at a hospital in El Salvador, where abortion is a crime and even the suspicion of one can land a woman in jail.

Prominent Kremlin critics and ordinary Russians in self-exile blamed President Vladimir Putin for the "murder" of opposition leader Alexei Navalny Friday.

Ukraine on Friday said it was pulling back from a position on the southern outskirts of frontline city Avdiivka, a main target for Moscow ahead of the second anniversary of the Russian invasion.

Israel faced renewed calls from key ally the United States on Friday against launching a large-scale attack on Gaza's southern city of Rafah, where nearly 1.5 million Palestinians are trapped.

Ukraine has rushed soldiers to the embattled eastern town of Avdiivka, surrounded on three sides by Russian forces, where the military said the situation was "extremely critical".

Indonesian Defence Minister Prabowo Subianto on Thursday looked set to become the new president of the world's third-largest democracy, likely avoiding a runoff vote against election rivals who have yet to concede.

Israel's vow to push ahead with a "powerful" operation in Gaza's Rafah was met with a growing chorus of international condemnation Thursday, with leaders warning against catastrophic consequences for the 1.5 million Palestinians trapped there.

In an Argentine soup kitchen, empty plastic containers are piling up from hungry visitors, and the cooks are worried their limited supply of pasta will not be enough to fill them.

NATO chief Jens Stoltenberg said Wednesday 18 of the alliance's 31 countries are set to hit its defence spending target this year, after Donald Trump threatened to encourage Russia to attack members not coughing up enough.

From makeshift bamboo polling stations in remote tribal areas to the flooded streets of the capital, tens of millions of Indonesians went to the polls Wednesday in one of the world's biggest one-day elections.

Israel faced growing international pressure on Tuesday to agree to a ceasefire with Hamas, as it planned an incursion into the southern Gaza city Rafah where more than a million Palestinians are trapped.

The world's trade ministers could put the final touches to a historic fisheries deal when they meet in Abu Dhabi later this month, but other landmark agreements will likely prove more elusive.

There were hugs and tears at Israel's largest hospital on Monday as two Gaza hostages were reunited with their families after being rescued in a deadly military raid.

Tributes poured in on Monday for Kenyan running sensation Kelvin Kiptum after the marathon world record-holder was killed in a car crash at the age of 24.

Pakistan has weeks of political uncertainty ahead following its indecisive election, analysts said Monday, with dozens of constituency results facing challenges in court and rival parties negotiating possible coalitions.

After two years of war in Ukraine, there is no prospect of negotiations to find a breakthrough as Russian President Vladimir Putin, emboldened by the erosion of Western support for Kyiv, girds for a long conflict. 2024 will be another year of war as Ukraine is determined to keep on fighting to recapture territory while Putin will only be satisfied with Kyiv's full surrender, analysts and diplomats say.

Ahead of the second anniversary of Russia's invasion of Ukraine, the Ukrainian army is increasingly on the defensive against more numerous and better armed Russian forces, but hoping that a recent military leadership change can make a difference.

Israel announced on Monday the rescue of two hostages in the southern Gaza city of Rafah, where the Hamas-run health ministry said 52 Palestinians including children were killed in heavy overnight air strikes.

Glittering with sequins and sweat, thousands of performers shimmying to sultry samba beats danced their way down an avenue in Rio de Janeiro Sunday as the Brazilian beach city's famed carnival parades got under way.

The threat of an Israeli incursion into Gaza's southernmost town of Rafah persisted Sunday, with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu promising "safe passage" to civilians displaced there.

Indonesia will hold one of the world's biggest one-day elections next week -- a mind-boggling feat that involves shifting votes by boat, plane and horseback across the vast archipelago of more than 278 million people.

Indonesians vote in a presidential election Wednesday with Defence Minister Prabowo Subianto the clear favourite after a campaign mixing nationalist rhetoric and pledges to continue the era of popular outgoing leader Joko Widodo.

They are only teenagers, but a pair of New Jersey high school students -- one Jewish and one Muslim -- are tackling an issue much bigger than themselves, bridging divides in their suburb shaken by the Israel-Hamas war.

Senegalese security forces on Friday used tear gas to disperse people attempting to gather in the capital after being urged to mobilise against a last-minute delay of presidential elections.

Israel launched new air strikes Friday on the city of Rafah in Gaza's far south, after US President Joe Biden said its response to Hamas's October 7 attack has been "over the top".

A Nazi henchman as a drooling gorilla with a swastika armband. Bloch outlived the Nazi regime but his mother and sisters were rounded up and murdered in the camps.

Israel conducted fresh strikes on southern Gaza's overcrowded border town of Rafah on Friday, where more than a million displaced Palestinians have sought shelter, with key backer the United States warning of a looming "disaster".

More than two decades after the outbreak of war in Darfur, fears are growing that the world has abandoned its people as a new conflict ravages Sudan and the perpetrators of atrocities act with impunity.