WORLD

The humanitarian crisis and the mounting civilian death toll have triggered growing international calls for a ceasefire. Qatar's foreign ministry spokesman Majed al-Ansari said there were hopes of "good news" about a fresh pause to the fighting "in the next couple of weeks".

Firefighters managed to bring the blaze under control by around 9:00 am (0600 GMT), more than nine hours after it erupted, according to an AFP journalist at the scene.

But if Labor defeats the governing Conservatives by a majority at this year's nationwide vote, its leader Keir Starmer will replace Rishi Sunak inside 10 Downing Street within hours.

The world's second-largest economy last year saw some of its slowest growth in decades, as a debt crisis in the property sector added to geopolitical tensions and weakening global demand.

A proposal to free the hostages in exchange for a pause in Israel's offensive in the Palestinian territory is being studied by Hamas leaders after it was thrashed out by Israel, Qatar, Egypt and the United States.

The Verdi services trade union called on more than 90,000 workers at over 130 local companies operating buses, trams and underground services to join the walkout in an escalating dispute over pay and working conditions.

IMF chief Kristalina Georgieva praised the Milei government's "bold actions to restore macroeconomic stability and... address long-standing impediments to growth."

The abrupt about-face from Orban on the vitally needed four-year funding package for Kyiv came as after EU leaders offered a possible review of the spending in two years.

Sudan's war has already killed thousands, including between 10,000 and 15,000 in a single city in the western Darfur region, according to UN experts.

It was the most violent episode in the initial stage of the huge protests that upended the financial hub that year, with Beijing later imposing a sweeping national security law to snuff out dissent.

The leader of Hamas was expected in Cairo on Thursday for talks on a proposed truce in Gaza, as Israel kept up its offensive in the besieged Palestinian territory.

Cuba's government on Wednesday delayed a planned 500 percent surge in the fuel price after a "cybersecurity incident," an economy ministry official said.

American forces destroyed a missile belonging to Yemen's Iran-backed Houthi rebels on Wednesday that posed an "imminent threat" to US aircraft, the military said.

The United Kingdom government on Wednesday outlined its proposals to get the Northern Ireland assembly back up and running after a political deadlock of nearly two years caused by divisions over post-Brexit trade rules.

Washington and Beijing are at loggerheads over a raft of issues, from chips to tariffs, but both have been alarmed by the growing assertiveness of China's military in the Pacific.

Thailand's progressive Move Forward Party, which won most seats at the last election, was Wednesday ordered to stop campaigning to reform the kingdom's tough royal defamation laws, as a top court ruled the policy was unlawful.

While most of the world treats Afghanistan's Taliban government as a pariah, China is growing diplomatic and economic links -- and Kabul is happy for the attention.

Former Pakistan prime minister Imran Khan was sentenced Wednesday to 14 years in jail on a graft charge, a day after he was given a 10-year prison term in verdicts handed down just a week before national elections.

Weak sales, deserting advertisers, falling revenues and unpaid wages: Niger's newspaper industry has been buffeted by sanctions imposed on the country after military officers seized power in July.

After a drone attack killed three American soldiers in Jordan on Sunday near the Syrian and Iraq borders, Washington immediately accused "radical Iran-backed militant groups operating in Syria and Iraq".

The Israeli army said Tuesday it is channelling water into Gaza's tunnels in a bid to destroy the sprawling underground network used by Hamas militants to launch attacks on Israel.

Wavering world leaders were told Tuesday to speed up efforts to agree a global treaty on avoiding a new pandemic catastrophe -- four years to the day since Covid-19 was declared an international emergency.

North Korea said Wednesday it successfully test-fired a strategic cruise missile, part of a selection of recently launched weapons that analysts warn could be destined for Russia's war in Ukraine.

Anticorruption activists around the world have high hopes for a new US law that for the first time allows Washington to prosecute foreign officials who receive bribes.

Four Pakistan servicemen and two civilians were among 15 killed in an hours-long gun battle with Balochistan militants in the southwest of the country, the military said.

Once a byword for environmental disaster due to its heavy industry and mining, the city of Bitterfeld-Wolfen is poised to become a key site for Germany's ambitious green transition.

Retired nurse Nga put her life savings into a bond at Vietnam's SCB bank, but now cannot access her money after being caught up with tens of thousands in a multibillion-dollar scam that has shocked the nation.

One morning last October as the dawn light touched the cold hills of northern Myanmar a barrage of rockets and drones streaked through the sky and slammed into dugouts and bases housing military troops.

US President Joe Biden said Tuesday he had decided on a response to a drone strike that killed three American troops in Jordan, while insisting he did not want a wider war in the Middle East.