POLITICS & POLICY

When an Indonesian mother dropped off her daughter at school in May, she did not expect her to become violently sick after eating lunch from the government's new billion-dollar free meal programme.

Ukraine appealed to the United States for clarity on Wednesday after it was caught off-guard by a White House announcement that Washington was halting some arms shipments to the war-battered country.

Iran on Wednesday officially suspended its cooperation with the UN nuclear watchdog, a move the world body described as "obviously concerning".

Music mogul Sean "Diddy" Combs was found not guilty of racketeering and sex trafficking Wednesday but convicted of a less serious prostitution charge after a high-profile marathon trial in New York.

Israel's top diplomat on Wednesday said any chance to free hostages held in Gaza "must not be missed", after US President Donald Trump urged Palestinian group Hamas to agree to a 60-day ceasefire that he said had Israel's backing.

US President Donald Trump urged Hamas on Tuesday to accept a 60-day ceasefire in Gaza, saying that Israel had agreed to finalize such a deal, as its forces also stepped up operations in the Palestinian territory.

Emmanuel Macron and Vladimir Putin on Tuesday spoke by telephone for the first time in over two-and-a-half years, with the French president urging a ceasefire in Ukraine but the Russian leader hitting back that the West was to blame for the conflict.

More than 14 million of the world's most vulnerable people, a third of them small children, could die by 2030 because of the Trump administration's dismantling of US foreign aid, research projected on Tuesday.

Israel's military said Tuesday that it had expanded its operations in Gaza, where residents reported fierce gunfire and shelling days ahead of a planned trip to Washington by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

The memory of Bangladeshi police with shotguns twice blasting the young protester beside him still haunts Hibzur Rahman Prince, one year after a revolution that has left the country mired in turmoil.

Gaza's civil defence agency said Israeli forces killed at least 48 people on Monday, including 21 at a seafront rest area, as fresh calls grew for a ceasefire in the war-ravaged Palestinian territory.

Hajjar Shademani's family waited for hours in the heat and dust after crossing the border into Afghanistan, their neat pile of suitcases all that remained of a lifetime in Iran after being deported to their homeland.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said his country's recent war with Iran had created "opportunities" for freeing hostages held by Hamas militants in Gaza, where witnesses and rescuers reported more than 30 people killed Sunday.

Iran warned Sunday that it had little faith in Israel's commitment to a fragile ceasefire that ended the most intense and destructive confrontation between the two foes to date.

Around 140,000 protesters rallied in Belgrade, the largest turnout in recent months, as student-led demonstrations mount pressure on the populist government to call early elections.

Rwanda and the Democratic Republic of Congo signed a peace agreement Friday in Washington to end fighting that has killed thousands, with the two countries pledging to pull back support for guerrillas -- and President Donald Trump boasting of securing mineral wealth.

Iran will hold a state funeral service Saturday for around 60 people, including its military commanders, killed in its war with Israel, after Tehran's top diplomat condemned Donald Trump's comments on supreme leader Ali Khamenei as "unacceptable".

US President Donald Trump said Friday he had saved Iran's Ayatollah Ali Khamenei from assassination and lashed out at the supreme leader for ingratitude, declaring he would order more bombing if the country tried to pursue nuclear weapons.

Jailed pro-democracy activist Joshua Wong shrugged and shook his head after a Hong Kong court this month announced a fresh charge of breaching the city's national security law.

Tibetans in exile celebrate the 90th birthday of spiritual leader the Dalai Lama next week, an occasion overshadowed by uncertainty about the future of the role and what it means for their movement.

Spain's Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez on Thursday became the most prominent European leader to describe the situation in Gaza as a "genocide", as rescuers in the war-ravaged Palestinian territory said Israeli forces killed 35 people.

Supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei on Thursday said US President Donald Trump "exaggerated" the impact of US strikes on Iranian nuclear sites, in his first appearance since a ceasefire in the war with Israel took hold.

At a church in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, hundreds of people gathered recently for a weeknight charity fundraiser hosted by a celebrity guest.

US President Donald Trump said Wednesday that "great progress" was being made to end the Israel-Hamas war in Gaza as a new ceasefire push began more than 20 months since the start of the conflict.

President Donald Trump insisted Wednesday that US strikes led to the "total obliteration" of Iran's nuclear capabilities and set the country's atomic programme back "decades", while Israel said it was still early to fully assess the damage.

Will he play nice?

With his surprise announcement of a ceasefire between Israel and Iran, US President Donald Trump has turned his flair for social media into diplomatic deftness, despite continued uncertainty in the Middle East.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu declared a "historic victory" on Tuesday after agreeing a ceasefire with Iran and insisted that his country's arch-foe would never achieve a nuclear weapon.

Gaza's civil defence agency said Israeli forces killed another 46 people waiting for aid in the Palestinian territory on Tuesday as rights groups and UN agencies slammed the US-backed food distribution system.