POLITICS

South Korean opposition leader Lee Jae-myung narrowly escaped death when he was stabbed in the neck, a party lawmaker said Wednesday, as police were granted a warrant to search his assailant's property.

Taiwanese President Tsai Ing-wen expressed hopes on Monday for Taipei and Beijing to seek "long-term peaceful coexistence" and said future relations should be decided by Taiwan's "democratic procedures".

President Xi Jinping said Sunday the Chinese economy had grown "more resilient and dynamic" in 2023, despite financial figures continuing to disappoint as the post-Covid recovery stalls.

The US state of Maine on Thursday blocked former president Donald Trump from its Republican presidential primary ballot, the second state to disqualify him over his role in the January 2021 assault on the US Capitol.

Thousands of Argentines took to the streets of Buenos Aires on Wednesday, clashing with police as they protested a decree of sweeping economic reform and deregulation published by President Javier Milei.

Top Mexican and US officials said that they made progress Wednesday in emergency talks on curbing a surge in migration, which has become a major headache for President Joe Biden as he enters an election year.

A Taiwanese man has been charged with violating the island's election laws by arranging sponsored visits to China ahead of the January poll.

Guatemala's supreme court on Tuesday ordered the release of former anti-corruption prosecutor Virginia Laparra, who was sentenced in December 2022 to four years in prison for abuse of authority in a trial criticized by the international community.

Exiled Senegalese opposition figure Karim Wade, an ex-minister and the son of former head of state Abdoulaye Wade, Saturday said he had filed papers to contest presidential elections in February.

Moldovan President Maia Sandu on Sunday said she would seek a second term next year as she looks to steer the former Soviet republic to EU membership.

Rudy Giuliani, Donald Trump's former personal lawyer, filed for bankruptcy on Thursday, just days after being ordered to pay $148 million in damages for defaming two Georgia poll workers.

Suriname's ex-president Desi Bouterse will be jailed after losing his appeal against a 20-year prison sentence for the murder of political opponents over four decades ago, the prosecutor's office said Thursday.

The US Supreme Court played a critical role in deciding the 2000 presidential election when it halted a vote recount in Florida with Republican George W. Bush holding a razor-thin edge over Democrat Al Gore.

Voters in DR Congo are due to go to the polls again on Thursday, in a general election marked by severe logistical troubles that meant some polling stations never opened.

Despite a fierce campaign from Guatemala's ruling class to block Bernardo Arevalo from taking office, the president-elect told AFP he is confident he will be sworn in next month, vowing to rule "without fear."

Britain's ruling Conservatives face another potentially bruising by-election early next year after voters in a central English constituency ousted its Tory lawmaker following his suspension from parliament over misconduct allegations.

An appeals court in Colorado on Tuesday ruled Donald Trump cannot appear on the state's presidential primary ballot because of his involvement in the attack on the Capitol in January 2021.

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said Monday that he would seek deeper ties with Hungary's Prime Minister Viktor Orban, during his second visit to the country within four months.

Former South African president Jacob Zuma on Saturday drove a new split in the ruling African National Congress, calling for a boycott of the party in a landmark 2024 election.

The Democratic Republic of Congo gears up for elections on Wednesday that could consolidate its democracy or unleash fresh violence as political tensions threaten to boil over.

The presidents of Venezuela and Guyana pledged after direct talks on Thursday not to resort to force to settle a long-simmering -- and recently reheated -- territorial dispute over the oil-rich Essequibo region, a joint statement said.

Four Japanese ministers tendered their resignations on Thursday as unpopular Prime Minister Fumio Kishida reels from a major corruption scandal in the ruling party.

The US House of Representatives voted Wednesday to formalize an impeachment inquiry into President Joe Biden, escalating Republicans' battle with Democrats ahead of the 2024 election in a move Biden himself slammed as a "baseless" stunt.

The three candidates vying to be Indonesia's next president clashed in their first debate on Tuesday over issues including corruption, human rights and separatist rebels in the world's third-largest democracy.

With cash handouts, pension rises and relentless appearances on state-backed media, Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic is looking to clinch another election victory on Sunday by leaning largely on his rural and impoverished base.

France's powerful Interior Minister Gerald Darmanin has indicated he is no longer interested in running for the presidency in 2027, saying that former prime minister Edouard Philippe is best placed to succeed Emmanuel Macron.

Federal prosecutors asked the US Supreme Court on Monday to rule quickly on whether former president Donald Trump has immunity from prosecution so his trial on charges of conspiring to overturn the 2020 election can go ahead as scheduled.

Donald Trump changed his mind about testifying in his own defense in his New York fraud case on Monday, he said, announcing that he will not take the stand as expected because he has "nothing more to say."

Argentina's President Javier Milei took office Sunday with a stark warning to citizens to brace themselves for painful austerity measures as he seeks to cut spending and curb triple-digit inflation, all with empty coffers.