WORLD

After months of stop-start negotiations, Hamas has sounded an optimistic tone about the latest hostages-for-ceasefire proposal, raising hopes an agreement may soon be reached -- even as medics in the besieged strip reported fresh strikes on Gaza's southernmost city of Rafah on Friday.

A rocket carrying the Chang'e-6 lunar probe blasted off from the Wenchang Space Launch Centre in southern China's Hainan province just before 5:30 pm (0930 GMT), AFP journalists near the site said.

Israel's Iron Dome defence system has long shielded it from incoming rockets.

Illegal immigration on the US southern border is a top talking point among Republican politicians, but some are taking it a step further by promoting disinformation about non-citizens voting in the presidential election.

Work has begun in a small Japanese town to erect a barrier blocking views of the country's most famous sight, Mount Fuji, after locals complained of bad behaviour by photo-hungry tourists.

A US judge on Thursday pushed against the central pleas of both US government and Google lawyers as he heard their closing arguments at a landmark antitrust trial in Washington.

Dozens of overturned tents, "Free Palestine" signs strewn on the lawn, keffiyehs and flashlights discarded in haste: not much of the pro-Palestinian protest encampment was left Thursday morning at the University of California, Los Angeles.

President Joe Biden broke his virtual silence Thursday on the nationwide Gaza campus protests, saying the United States was not authoritarian but insisting "order must prevail."

The Gaza Strip is filled with more war debris and rubble than Ukraine, the head of UN demining operations for the narrow Palestinian territory said Wednesday.

Wearing a bulletproof vest and with a gun strapped to his waist, Constable Lennie McCloskey opens his folder and looks through the court orders: eleven evictions to be carried out today.

Police tore down a protest encampment at the University of Texas on Wednesday, arresting more than a dozen people, as unrest over Israel's war against Hamas in Gaza simmered on US campuses.

A Ukrainian man was sentenced to more than 13 years in prison in Texas on Wednesday for his role in ransomware attacks by the notorious Russia-based REvil hacking group, the US Justice Department said.

Five people were killed Wednesday as Russia struck Ukraine's eastern Kharkiv and Donetsk regions, local officials said.

A Saudi court's decision to sentence fitness influencer Manahel al-Otaibi to 11 years in prison highlights what activists describe as a fierce crackdown on even vaguely critical online speech.

Clashes broke out on Wednesday at pro-Palestinian demonstrations on the campus of the University of California, Los Angeles, as dozens of universities around the United States struggle to contain similar protests.

When Nepal suddenly announced a ban on TikTok last year, lawyer Sunil Rajan Singh was determined to fight what he said was a government effort to hide its wrongdoings.

Eruptions at a remote Indonesian volcano forced more than half a dozen airports to close with ash spreading as far as Malaysia, officials said Wednesday, while authorities rushed to evacuate thousands due to tsunami fears.

The oil industry's public relations strategy has evolved from climate science denial to "disinformation and doublespeak" to counter meaningful environmental policies, US congressional Democrats said in a report Tuesday.

Donald Trump set out a stark vision for an authoritarian second term in an interview with Time magazine published Tuesday, ranging from possible mass deportations of migrants by the US military and detention camps to pregnancy monitoring to enforce abortion bans.

Haiti's transitional ruling council, which is leading the Caribbean nation following the resignation of its prime minister amid a wave of gang violence, chose politician Edgard Leblanc Fils as its head on Tuesday.

Columbia University, the epicenter of pro-Palestinian protests that have upended college campuses across the United States, began suspending student demonstrators on Monday after they defied an ultimatum to disperse.

The Palestinian militant group whose October 7 attack started the Gaza war said it was considering a plan for a 40-day ceasefire and the release of scores of hostages for larger numbers of Palestinian prisoners.

The EU on Tuesday launched an investigation into Meta's Facebook and Instagram over concerns the platforms are failing to counter disinformation ahead of EU elections in June.

Indonesia's remote Mount Ruang volcano erupted several times on Tuesday, authorities said, issuing the highest level of alert and ordering thousands of people to evacuate due to the threat of a tsunami from debris sliding into the sea.

The Philippines said the China Coast Guard used water cannon on two of its vessels on Tuesday, causing damage to one of them, during a patrol near a reef off the Southeast Asian country.

At least 45 people died when a dam burst its banks near a town in Kenya's Rift Valley, police said on Monday, as torrential rains and floods battered the country.

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken called Monday for tighter defence integration among Gulf Arabs in response to Iran, part of efforts to encourage moderation by Israel by dangling the prospect of better ties with the region.

A Hamas delegation was due Monday in Egypt, where it will respond to Israel's latest proposal for a long-sought truce in Gaza and hostage release after almost seven months of war.

G7 environment ministers gathered in Turin on Monday for two days of talks, as the UN warned "excuses" for failing to take bold actions on climate change were "not acceptable".