POLITICS & POLICY

Pope Francis, an energetic reformer who inspired widespread devotion from Catholics but riled traditionalists, died on Monday aged 88.

Gold prices hit a fresh record Monday while the dollar weakened further and stocks were mixed amid worries about Donald Trump's tariff blitz and bubbling row with the Federal Reserve.

Salvadoran President Nayib Bukele offered Venezuela Sunday a trade of 252 Venezuelans deported to his country by the United States for an equal number of political prisoners held by President Nicolas Maduro's regime.

An Israeli military probe into the killing of 15 Palestinian emergency workers in Gaza admitted Sunday that mistakes led to their deaths and that a field commander would be dismissed.

Trent Alexander-Arnold fired Liverpool to the brink of the Premier League title as his late strike sealed a 1-0 win that relegated Leicester after Arsenal's 4-0 rout of Ipswich delayed the leaders' coronation on Sunday.

Chaplain Volodymyr was in the middle of his Easter prayer near the front in Ukraine's Donetsk region when another explosion blasted out, piercing the air despite a 30-hour truce announced by Russia for the holiday.

Pope Francis appeared in front of thousands of Catholic faithful at St Peter's Square on Sunday for Easter, despite the 88-year-old pontiff's frail health that has kept him from most Holy Week events.

The fate of a US-Israeli hostage who Hamas said had featured in an Israeli truce proposal remains unknown, the group said on Saturday, separately releasing a video of another captive alive.

Russian President Vladimir Putin on Saturday announced a surprise Easter truce in Ukraine, set to last until midnight on Sunday in what would be the most significant pause in the fighting throughout the three-year conflict.

The United States and Iran are set to resume high-stakes talks Saturday on Tehran's nuclear programme, a week after an initial round of discussions that both sides described as "constructive".

President Donald Trump said Thursday that the United States was in talks with China on tariffs, adding that he was confident the world's largest economies could make a deal to end a bitter trade war.

The United States unveiled new port fees on Chinese built and operated ships Thursday, in a bid to boost the domestic shipbuilding industry and curb China's dominance in the sector.

American Senator Chris Van Hollen said Thursday he had met with a Salvadoran man wrongfully deported to his home country by the Trump administration, in a case that has sparked outrage in the United States.

Seated on the pavement outside a bank in central Damascus, Abu Fares's face is worn with exhaustion as he waits to collect a small portion of his pension.

It had been nearly two years since AFP journalist Abdelmoneim Abu Idris Ali set foot in his home in war-torn Khartoum, after the sound of children playing in the street gave way to the fearsome fire of machine guns.

While China's leaders use their economic and political might to fight Donald Trump's trade war "to the end", its army of social media soldiers are embarking on a more humorous campaign online.

Hamas late Thursday signalled rejection of Israel's latest truce proposal and called for a "comprehensive" deal to end the 18-month-long war.

France on Thursday hailed talks on the Ukraine war between top US and European officials during which US Secretary of State Marco Rubio reaffirmed a US peace plan.

French President Emmanuel Macron on Thursday hailed rare talks involving top US, European and Ukrainian officials as a "very important occasion for convergence" as Kyiv's allies seek to rekindle stalled ceasefire efforts amid transatlantic tensions.

UN nuclear watchdog chief Rafael Grossi said Thursday that Iran and the United States were running out of time to secure a deal as they prepare to hold fresh nuclear talks this weekend.

As President Donald Trump's tariffs threaten the US economy, questions are being asked about how long the dollar can maintain its status as the world's key trading and reserve currency.

According to the Australian Academy of Science president, professor Chennupati Jagadish AC, Australia must act quickly to capitalize on what he called an "urgent and unparalleled opportunity" to attract the smartest minds leaving the United States."

Gaza's civil defence agency said Thursday that a series of Israeli air strikes killed at least 37 people, most of them in encampments for displaced civilians, as Israel pressed its unrelenting military offensive in the Palestinian territory.

US President Donald Trump called Harvard a "joke" Wednesday and said it should lose its government research contracts after the prestigious university refused demands that it accept outside political supervision.

Astronomers announced Thursday that they had detected the most promising "hints" of potential life on a planet beyond our solar system, though other scientists expressed scepticism.

Assailants targeted cars and a building lobby linked to prison staff in France overnight, the authorities said Wednesday, the latest in a series of coordinated attacks that have put the government on edge.

Between June 28, 2023 -- the day the inquiry released its report -- and March 28, 2025, when parliament was dissolved, lawmakers from both major parties accepted 312 complimentary tickets to sporting events.

Cod and herring are normally more likely to be on the dinner menu than the negotiating table at European security talks.

Like thousands of senior citizens in Ukraine, Zinaida Gyrenko was spending the sunset years of her life in a shelter, her retirement upended by Russia's invasion.