WORLD

Israel said Monday its army had readied a plan to evacuate Gazans ahead of a feared invasion of far-southern Rafah, leading the UN chief to warn a ground attack would "put the final nail in the coffin" of its aid operations.

Israeli air strikes targeted homes in the southern Gaza Strip, witnesses said on Friday, adding to what aid groups describe as an increasingly hopeless humanitarian situation despite efforts towards new truce talks.

Vice, the dynamic, fast-growing digital media company that gained a wide following with young readers, said Thursday it will no longer publish on its flagship website and is eliminating hundreds of jobs.

The United States plans to impose sanctions Friday on more than 500 targets involved in Russia's war in Ukraine, as Moscow claims fresh battlefield advances two years after its invasion.

A Spanish court on Thursday sentenced former Brazil international Dani Alves to four and a half years in prison after finding him guilty of raping a young woman at a Barcelona nightclub in December 2022.

As a casino-owning playboy who has been married three times and faced multiple sexual misconduct allegations over the years, Donald Trump is an unlikely role model for America's evangelical Christians.

Israel launched air strikes Thursday on southern Gaza's Rafah after threatening to send troops into the city, where around 1.4 million Palestinians have sought shelter from around the territory.

Pregnant women had C-sections cancelled and cancer treatments were postponed Wednesday as the number of South Korean trainee doctors to walk off the job over proposed reforms swelled, officials and local reports said.

Former US President George W. Bush believed he had a "sense of his soul".

Having rushed to join the Ukrainian army when Russia invaded, Ivan Zadontsev is now exhausted as the grinding campaign enters its third year.

Pakistan's two dynastic parties have reached a power-sharing agreement that will return Shehbaz Sharif to the premiership, leaving out politicians loyal to jailed former leader Imran Khan despite them winning the most seats in this month's vote.

WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange was Tuesday absent due to illness from a London court hearing his final appeal against extradition to the United States to face trial for publishing secret military and diplomatic files.

Israel hit Gaza with air strikes on Tuesday as world powers grappled with how to broker a ceasefire ahead of a UN Security Council vote that was expected to be blocked by a US veto.

Ukraine said Tuesday it was fighting off dozens of attacks, after President Volodymyr Zelensky said Russian forces were exploiting delays in Western military aid and called the situation "extremely difficult".

Julian Assange, the 52-year-old Australian fighting extradition from Britain to the United States, is for some a fearless campaigner for press freedom.

Dozens of bloodied bodies have been found along a remote stretch of road in Papua New Guinea's highlands, police said Monday, a gruesome escalation of long-running violence between warring clans.

Israel has threatened to invade Gaza's Rafah by the start of Ramadan if Hamas does not return the remaining hostages by then, despite international pressure to protect Palestinian civilians sheltering in the southern city.

The mother of late Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny is being refused access to his body for a third day, his team said on Monday as his widow prepared to meet European foreign ministers.

Digital companies will have nowhere to hide after the EU's landmark content law enters into full force from Saturday, with the risk of heavy fines for any violations.

Ukraine said Friday it was sending more reinforcements to the frontline city of Avdiivka, a main target for Moscow ahead of the second anniversary of the Russian invasion.

Britain's ruling Conservatives lost two more parliamentary seats to Labour in by-elections Friday, highlighting the mountain Prime Minister Rishi Sunak must climb to win a general election due this year.

There was growing concern Friday over a key Gaza hospital a day after a raid by the Israeli army, with the Hamas-run health ministry saying several patients had died there due to a lack of oxygen.

The European Union will have to double its military support to Ukraine to fill a gap left by the United States after months of blockage of new aid by Congress, a research institute that monitors assistance said on Friday.

Greece's parliament on Thursday overwhelmingly adopted a bill legalising same-sex marriage and adoption in a landmark reform promoted by the conservative government despite opposition from the powerful Orthodox Church.

Russia is developing a space-based anti-satellite weapon that is "troubling" for the United States but poses no immediate threat to people on Earth, the White House said Thursday.

Britain is in recession, official data showed Thursday, dealing another blow to embattled Prime Minister Rishi Sunak, whose Conservative party is forecast to lose a general election expected this year.

NATO chief Jens Stoltenberg said Thursday a delay in passing new US aid for Ukraine was already hurting Kyiv's forces on the battlefield against Russia.

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.

Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese on Thursday revealed his Valentine's Day engagement to girlfriend Jodie Haydon, after "she said yes" to a carefully planned marriage proposal.