WORLD

Chinese leader Xi Jinping struck a bullish tone during a speech on Monday ahead of Lunar New Year, after acknowledging "complex and severe situations" in recent months.

Taiwan has identified 52 "suspicious" Chinese-owned ships flying flags of convenience that require close monitoring if detected near the island, the coast guard said Monday, as Taipei seeks to protect its subsea telecoms cables.

Bird feathers and bloodstains were found in both engines of the Jeju Air plane that crashed in December, according to a preliminary investigation released Monday.

The world marks the 80th anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz on Monday, with some of the few remaining survivors attending ceremonies at the site of the notorious Nazi death camp.

Impeached South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol was indicted for his martial law declaration that plunged the country into political turmoil, with prosecutors accusing him of being a "ringleader of insurrection".

The chairman and president of Japan's Fuji Television resigned Monday, weeks after a celebrity presenter was accused of sexual assault, causing a public relations storm and the mass exit of advertisers.

One week into his second administration, Donald Trump has put technology at the forefront, featuring tech billionaires prominently at his inauguration and announcing major AI infrastructure deals from the White House.

Sweden on Sunday said it had seized a ship suspected of having damaged a fibre-optic cable under the Baltic Sea linking the country to Latvia, which sent a warship to investigate the latest apparent act of sabotage.

Hundreds of migrants in the United States were arrested Thursday and others flown out of the country on military aircraft as President Donald Trump's promised mass deportation operation got underway, the White House said.

Spanish business circles believe banking giant Sabadell's decision to return its headquarters to Catalonia will entice back the thousands of firms that fled after the region's botched 2017 independence bid.

Air pollution in the Thai capital forced more than 350 schools to close on Friday, city authorities said, the highest number in five years.

Helicopter pilot Tim Thomas has fought dozens of wildfires all over the world, but nothing prepared him for the scale and the challenge of the devastating blazes that ripped through Los Angeles.

Father Bashar Basiel moved freely in and out of his parish in the occupied West Bank until Israeli troops installed gates at the entrance of his village Taybeh overnight, just hours after a ceasefire began in Gaza.

Extreme weather disrupted the schooling of about 242 million children in 85 countries last year -- roughly one in seven students, the UN children's agency reported Thursday, deploring an "overlooked" aspect of the climate crisis.

US President Donald Trump said Thursday he would seek to bring interest rates lower by unleashing energy production, and would speak to the Federal Reserve if needed.

For years, as disputes over names on the map riled up nationalist passions in several parts of the world, US policymakers have watched warily, trying to stay out or to quietly encourage peace.

An explosive new wildfire erupted north of Los Angeles on Wednesday, forcing tens of thousands of people to evacuate their homes and setting nerves jangling in an area still reeling from two deadly blazes.

The Kremlin said Thursday it saw nothing new in US President Donald Trump's calls for Russia to end its military offensive in Ukraine, and that Moscow was ready for "mutually respectful" dialogue with him.

Negligence played a role in the deaths of 78 people who perished when a huge fire gutted a luxury ski resort hotel in northern Turkey this week, an expert said. There were safety failures on multiple levels at the Grand Kartal Hotel in the ski resort of Kartalkaya, the head of the Ankara Chamber of Architects said late on Wednesday.

Donald Trump is back in the White House, promising to use the United States's vast economic weight to hit back at China for its alleged unfair trade practices and role in the deadly American fentanyl crisis.

The United States' new top diplomat Marco Rubio reaffirmed the country's "unwavering support" for Israel, days into a fragile ceasefire in the Gaza Strip and a large-scale raid in the occupied West Bank.

Air pollution forced nearly 200 schools in Bangkok to close on Thursday, local authorities said, as officials urged people to work from home and restricted heavy vehicles in the city.

Donald Trump's return to the White House has darkened the mood in Germany a month before elections, as multiple crises shake the foundations on which Europe's biggest economy built its post-war prosperity.

South Korean investigators recommended Thursday that impeached President Yoon Suk Yeol be charged with insurrection and abuse of power, as they handed prosecutors the results of their probe into his ill-fated declaration of martial law.

There will always be border disputes in Asia, and China should not be singled out because of tensions in the South China Sea, Malaysian Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim said Wednesday.

Turkey was preparing to bury its dead Wednesday a day after a huge fire killed 76 people at a ski resort hotel, as questions grew over safety measures at the luxury establishment.

Masayoshi Son, the Japanese tycoon helming US President Donald Trump's big new AI push, is the son of an immigrant pig farmer with a spectacular but also sketchy investment record.

The top lawyer of late Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny, who died in a Russian prison in February last year, told AFP she regretted not finding the right words to stop him returning to Moscow in 2021.

South Korean authorities said on Wednesday they will change the concrete barriers used for navigation at some airports across the country after the Jeju Air crash that left 179 people dead.