POLITICS & POLICY

The United States has taken a public distance from Israel as never before over the Gaza war but the decisive test will be Rafah and whether Israel heeds US warnings against an offensive in the packed city.

Prime Minister Gabriel Attal on Wednesday defended French secularism following the resignation of a Paris school principal who received death threats after asking a student to remove her Muslim veil on the premises.

Forced to discard its most popular election candidate, and then a proxy, Venezuela's opposition unity is now on the verge of crumbling ahead of July presidential elections.

Israeli forces pounded besieged Gaza on Wednesday in the war sparked by the October 7 attack and fought Hamas around several hospitals despite a UN Security Council demand for a ceasefire.

The southern Gaza Strip came under intense Israeli bombardment overnight, despite international pressure for an immediate ceasefire in the Palestinian territory where famine is looming.

Durga Phuyal had hoped to start anew when she landed in Croatia, but the Nepali migrant faced an uphill battle to adjust to life in the Balkan country.

Hunched in his market workshop in a northern Dakar suburb, Cheikh Lo recounted why he had pinned all his hopes on Senegal's anti-establishment president elect Bassirou Diomaye Faye.

Israeli troops battled Hamas militants in the Gaza Strip on Tuesday, with no sign of a let-up in the war despite a UN Security Council resolution demanding an "immediate ceasefire".

The UK on Monday accused Beijing-linked organisations of orchestrating two "malicious" cyber campaigns, calling in China's ambassador to protest and sanctioning those it branded responsible.

Russian President Vladimir Putin is refusing to blame the Islamic State (IS) for the Moscow attack despite a claim by the extremist group, instead insinuating a link to Ukraine in an apparent bid to limit the responsibility of the Russian security services.

The Philippines said Monday it had summoned a Chinese envoy over "aggressive actions" by the China Coast Guard and other vessels near a reef off the Southeast Asian country's coast, while Beijing lodged its own complaint.

Israeli forces fought Hamas militants in besieged Gaza on Monday including around at least two major hospitals, raising fears for the patients, medics and displaced people trapped inside.

The Kremlin refused to comment Monday on the Islamic State group's claims that it was behind the deadliest attack in Russia in two decades, as rescuers searched for bodies amid the rubble of the burnt-out Moscow concert hall.

The UN Security Council will vote Monday on a new draft resolution on an "immediate" ceasefire in Gaza, after Russia and China vetoed an earlier text proposed by the United States.

The final round of talks on a landmark pandemic accord faces a frantic last push this week, with countries still pulling in different directions on how to handle future global health crises.

For three decades Joe Lau has tied his racehorse training career to the rising and falling fortunes of the Macau Jockey Club, but in a few days it will all be over.

Russia's opposition has slammed Vladimir Putin's broken security promise in the wake of the Moscow concert hall attack, saying the country's intelligence agencies were too focused on hunting Kremlin critics instead of actual threats.

Ukraine's capital Kyiv and the western region of Lviv came under a "massive" Russian air attack early Sunday, officials said, while Poland said one of the Russian missiles breached its airspace.

The Senegalese go to the polls on Sunday to elect a new president in a totally unpredictable race after three years of turmoil and political crisis.

Russia on Saturday claimed a new territorial victory over Ukrainian forces struggling to find weapons and troops while the two sides staged deadly aerial attacks on each other.

UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres is expected to visit Egypt's border with Gaza on Saturday, after Israel said it would send in troops to fight Hamas in the nearby city of Rafah, even without US support.

Catherine, Princess of Wales, won plaudits Saturday for a highly personal video announcing her shock cancer diagnosis, which came just weeks after King Charles III revealed he too is battling the disease.

Catherine, Princess of Wales, on Friday announced that she has cancer and is in the early stages of chemotherapy, asking for "time, space and privacy" as she completes her treatment.

Dozens of Rohingya refugees are feared dead or missing after their boat capsized off Indonesia's westernmost coast this week, the United Nations said Friday, as local rescuers called off the search despite survivor accounts that many were swept away.

Newspaper clippings, books and first-hand accounts of people who said they visited other planets are catalogued in a giant Swedish archive on paranormal phenomena, attracting the curious and researchers from around the world.

Huge donations by firms under criminal investigation or suspected of being shell companies have been funnelled to India's ruling BJP and other parties, new data showed, highlighting the backscratching ties between corporate titans and the government.

Secretary of State Antony Blinken heads to Israel Friday to press for a truce in Gaza, ahead of a key UN Security Council vote on a US draft resolution calling for an "immediate" ceasefire.

Normally festive Ramadan nights have become rife with danger in the Israeli-occupied West Bank, said hospital director Wisam Bakr, as surging violence casts a long shadow over the Muslim fasting month.

Russia fired more than 30 missiles at Kyiv early Thursday, the largest attack on the Ukrainian capital in weeks after Russian President Vladimir Putin vowed retribution for escalating strikes on Russia's border regions.