POLITICS & POLICY

US President Donald Trump called his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin "crazy" on Sunday after Moscow launched a deadly barrage of drones against Ukraine, even as the warring countries completed a large-scale prisoner exchange.

Gaza's civil defence agency said Saturday that an Israeli strike in the southern city of Khan Yunis killed nine children of a pair of married doctors, with the Israeli army saying it was reviewing the reports.

Syrian authorities on Saturday announced an interior ministry restructuring that includes fighting cross-border drug and people smuggling as they seek to improve ties with Western nations that have lifted sanctions.

As the Cannes film festival hands out its prizes, AFP looks back at some of the highlights of a politically charged fortnight of screenings and celebrity sightings.

Stripped naked, beaten until she could no longer walk, sexually assaulted and covered in excrement: award-winning Ugandan activist Agather Atuhaire told AFP of the torture she suffered at the hands of security forces in Tanzania this week.

The United Nations chief said Friday that Palestinians were enduring "the cruelest phase" of the war in Gaza, where more than a dozen food trucks were looted following the partial easing of a lengthy Israeli blockade.

A French court on Friday convicted a gang of robbers who stole $10 million in jewellery from reality TV star Kim Kardashian in a Paris hotel in 2016, although they will not return to jail and the verdicts were more lenient than requested by the prosecution.

Iran's foreign minister described nuclear talks with the United States as "complicated", following the conclusion of a fifth round of discussions in Rome on Friday.

A French prosecutor on Friday requested the maximum 20-year sentence for a former surgeon who admitted to sexually abusing almost 300 patients, mostly children.

Ukraine and Russia began a major prisoner exchange Friday, which if completed would be the biggest swap since Moscow invaded more than three years ago.

Donald Trump's administration on Thursday revoked Harvard's ability to enroll foreign nationals, putting the future of thousands of students at risk and threatening the prestigious university with a huge financial blow.

Plumes of smoke rose Thursday over the northern Gaza Strip where Israel's military urged civilians to evacuate, as rescuers said Israeli strikes across the territory killed more than 50 people.

Lyudmila Vasilyeva, 84, survived the Siege of Leningrad in World War II as a child.

Director Joachim Trier found himself crying behind the camera as he shot "Sentimental Value", his moving new tale about a quietly fractured family that got an extraordinary 19-minute standing ovation Thursday at the end of its premiere at the Cannes film festival.

Two Israeli embassy staffers were shot dead late Wednesday outside a Jewish museum in Washington by a gunman who shouted "free Palestine," authorities said, with US, Israeli and other world leaders expressing outrage over the killings.

A major accident occurred at the launch ceremony for a new North Korean naval destroyer, state media reported Thursday, with leader Kim Jong Un calling the mishap a "criminal act".

For world leaders an invitation to the Oval Office used to be a coveted prize.

President Donald Trump ambushed South African President Cyril Ramaphosa on Wednesday by playing him a video that he claimed proved genocide is being committed against white people, driving farmers to flee to the United States.

Gazans waited desperately for vital supplies on Wednesday after Israel said it let in dozens of UN trucks but faced mounting international pressure to increase the aid flow and abandon its intensified military campaign.

A day after Vladimir Putin and Donald Trump spoke by phone on Ukraine, showering each other with compliments, Russian home-maker Anastasia had one wish: for Moscow to finish what it started in 2022.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky accused Russia on Tuesday of delaying peace talks in a bid to pursue its three-year invasion, even as US President Donald Trump pushes for an immediate ceasefire.

Dissident Iranian filmmaker Jafar Panahi makes his first appearance at an international film festival in 15 years at Cannes on Tuesday, with a story about political prisoners trying to get back at their jailers.

Twin Gazan filmmakers Arab and Tarzan Nasser said they never thought the title of their new film "Once Upon A Time In Gaza" would have such heartbreaking resonance.

Gaza's civil defence agency said Israeli strikes killed at least 44 people on Tuesday across the war-ravaged Palestinian territory, where Israel has intensified a military offensive aimed at crushing Hamas.

The trial of former Brazilian president Jair Bolsonaro on charges of planning a coup d'etat will open Monday afternoon as the nation's Supreme Court hears from key witnesses, with the far-right politician potentially facing decades in prison.

Young Cameroonian voters hoping for change in this year's elections still face the possibility that 92-year-old President Paul Biya could announce a bid to extend his more than four decades in power.

With its pristine swimming pool, manicured lawns and lush forest backdrop, Villa Baviera, a German-themed settlement of 122 souls in southern Chile, looks like the perfect holiday getaway.

Donald Trump will speak by phone Monday with Russia's Vladimir Putin as part of the US leader's effort to end the grinding war set off by Moscow's 2022 invasion of Ukraine.

Israeli strikes killed at least 22 people in Gaza on Monday, rescuers said, after Israel pledged to let a "basic amount" of food into the territory to avert a hunger crisis.