POLITICS & POLICY

President Emmanuel Macron faced an uphill battle Tuesday to launch fresh talks over a new government in France, with the political left refusing to take part after he rejected their candidate for prime minister.

UN nuclear watchdog head Rafael Grossi on Tuesday warned during a visit to Russia's Kursk nuclear plant that its proximity to ongoing fighting was "extremely serious" following Ukraine's unprecedented cross-border offensive.

British rock legends Oasis announced Tuesday they will reunite for a worldwide tour, as brothers Liam and Noel Gallagher ended an infamous 15-year feud.

The intake would be limited to 145,000 in publicly funded universities and 95,000 for vocational institutions, while each institution may set individual limits after consulting the government.

The arrest of maverick entrepreneur Pavel Durov has drawn global attention to the importance of his messaging app Telegram for Russian troops and propagandists as Moscow's war against Ukraine grinds into its third year.

The Dutch data protection watchdog said Monday it hit ride-hailing app Uber with a 290-million-euro ($324 million) fine over the transfer of personal data of European drivers to US servers.

After achieving a landslide victory in Saturday's election, Lia Finocchiaro stressed her government's priority will be drafting a suite of tough legal reforms before the parliament resumes in mid-to-late October.

The Fair Work Commission (FWC) will have the authority to determine whether the refusal by the employee is reasonable or not. It has the power to issue a cease and desist order, and non-compliance will fetch a fine of up to AU$19,000 for an employee or up to AU$94,000 for a company.

Israel's military struck the Gaza Strip on Monday a day after truce talks in Cairo coincided with a major but brief cross-border escalation involving Iran-backed Hezbollah in Lebanon.

France held the Russian-born founder of Telegram Pavel Durov in custody for a second day of questioning on Monday over alleged offences related to the popular but controversial messaging app, which insisted he had "nothing to hide".

HMS Victory has survived the cannonballs of Napoleon's navy, being rammed by another warship, a World War II bomb, even UK navy plans to scrap her.

A member of the Reuters news agency was missing and two others were wounded after a deadly strike on a hotel in the east Ukrainian city of Kramatorsk, the agency said Sunday, as Kyiv claimed further advances into Russia's Kursk region.

Police arrested a man suspected of setting fires and causing an explosion at a synagogue in southern France on Saturday in what officials suspect was a terror attack, the country's interior minister said.

German police on Saturday hunted a man who stabbed three people to death and wounded eight others at a street festival in the city of Solingen, with a terror motive for the attack "not excluded".

President Volodymyr Zelensky vowed more "retribution" against Russia on Ukrainian Independence Day Saturday, as Kyiv and Moscow announced the exchange of 230 prisoners just over two weeks into Ukraine's surprise offensive on Kursk.

Negotiators geared up for a crucial weekend of Gaza ceasefire talks Saturday, as Hamas said it was sending delegates to Cairo but would not participate in the discussions, and fighting raged in the Palestinian territory.

Flanked by smartphone-wielding peace activists, members of an evicted Palestinian family marched onto land seized by armed Israeli settlers, shouting "Out!

French President Emmanuel Macron began a round of thorny consultations with political leaders on Friday, hoping to cobble together a viable ruling coalition after last month's inconclusive election.

Since last November, Houthi rebels have increased their attacks on container ships using drones, ballistic missiles, and even an explosive unmanned vessel. Due to the attacks, many logistics companies were forced to halt the ship movement in the route that handles 12% of the world's seaborne cargo.

Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi met Ukraine's leader Volodymyr Zelenksy on a historic visit to Kyiv on Friday, where he is pushing for a solution to end more than two years of war with Russia.

Israeli negotiators were in Cairo Friday for talks on a Gaza truce, a spokesman said, but a dispute over the presence of Israeli troops on Gaza's southern border remained among sticking points.

"We know that trade unionists do a great job when they look after the wages and conditions of their members, but there's no place for corruption or intimidation in the building industry. To have a corrupt union, you need a corrupt employer to be paying them money and there's no place for it," Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said.

The stricter eligibility requirements were imposed to address skyrocketing costs, despite concerns from disability advocates about reduced support.

Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Thursday said no conflict could be resolved on a battlefield as he spoke in Poland on the eve of his historic visit to war-torn Ukraine.

The facility that will be built in the Newcastle Airport Precinct, will manufacture both air-launched Joint Strike Missile (JSM) and the ship-launched Naval Strike Missile (NSM).

Standing amid ruins in east Ukraine, Ruslan Mokrytskyi held a combat knife and concentrated on cutting onions without crying.

The Gaza Strip's first recorded polio case in 25 years has health workers and aid agencies grappling with the steep obstacles to conducting mass vaccination in the war-torn Palestinian territory.

Bayer Leverkusen are vowing to achieve great things again this season after an unprecedented unbeaten league and cup double last campaign.

Ukrainian civilians on Wednesday fled areas close to the front line as Russian troops steadily seized more territory across the eastern Donetsk region.