POLITICS & POLICY

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.

Independent candidates linked to jailed former prime minister Imran Khan were outperforming expectations Friday in Pakistan's election, local TV tallies showed, as a slow trickle of official results sparked fears of a fix.

A majority of justices on the US Supreme Court appeared to be leaning on Thursday towards rejecting a ruling by a state court that would bar Donald Trump from running for president again.

In Israel's biblical city of Nazareth, the basilica is empty, restaurants and shops that usually thrive on Christian pilgrims are closed, and many hotels have been shut for months.

Iraq on Thursday condemned a US air strike that killed a senior commander from a pro-Iran armed group accused of having been involved in attacks on American troops in the region.

West African foreign ministers hold emergency talks on Thursday confronted by a major political crisis in Senegal and weakened by disputes with military rulers in three coup-hit countries.

Millions of Pakistanis began voting Thursday in an election marred by allegations of poll rigging, with the country's most popular politician in jail and a military-favoured candidate tipped to win.

Anger over rising prices and wages that don't stretch far enough brought thousands of casino workers onto the streets of Las Vegas in recent months, part of a wave of labor discontent in the United States.