POLITICS & POLICY

South Korea summoned the Russian ambassador Monday to criticise Pyongyang's decision to send thousands of soldiers to support Moscow's war in Ukraine, the foreign ministry said, calling for their immediate withdrawal.

You can't walk very far through a forest in this part of the United States without stumbling upon a mushroom, an eruption from a vast fungal kingdom that all life depends on, but about which we know very little.

Moldovans voted on Sunday in a presidential election and a referendum on joining the European Union, with fears of Russian meddling amid the war in neighbouring Ukraine.

Fighting raged on two fronts Sunday as Israel targeted what it said was a Hezbollah "command centre" in the Lebanese capital, while in Gaza rescuers reported 73 people killed in a single air strike.

Former general Prabowo Subianto was sworn in Sunday as president of Indonesia, seeking a more prominent position on the global stage for the world's fourth most populous nation.

Fujio Uemura has to rest after driving fish all night to Tokyo, under new rules that trucking firms and experts say are crippling Japan's logistics sector and risk pushing up prices for consumers.

During the first parliament sitting on Thursday, the Northern Territory's new conservative Country Liberal Party government passed legislation lowering the criminal age to 10, fulfilling a key election promise.

Donald Trump and Kamala Harris will lead dueling rallies Friday in Michigan, a crucial battleground state where Arab American voters angered by US support for Israel may hold the key to a deadlocked race.

The 105-page report outlines several policy options, including the possibility of Australia dropping the purchase of U.S. submarines in favor of American vessels carrying out missions on its behalf, while continuing to build the SSN-AUKUS fleet.

US President Joe Biden and European leaders meeting during his farewell visit to Germany on Friday were expected to renew calls for a Gaza ceasefire after Israel said it killed Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar.

Israel has inflicted an immense blow on Hamas by killing the Palestinian group's chief Yahya Sinwar, but whether his death will bring the end of the Gaza war any closer is unclear.

The United States on Wednesday conducted multiple B-2 bomber strikes on weapons storage facilities in areas of Yemen controlled by the Iran-backed Huthi rebels, according to the US military and defense department.

Some 345,000 Gazans face "catastrophic" levels of hunger this winter due to falling aid deliveries, UN agencies said Thursday, warning of the persistent risk of famine across the Palestinian territory.

President Volodymyr Zelensky was headed to Brussels Thursday to defend his "victory plan" for Ukraine to both EU leaders and NATO defence ministers, with the outlook on the battlefield bleak in Kyiv's battle to repel the Russian invasion.

EU leaders will discuss tightening rules on migration as they meet in Brussels on Thursday for a summit that is set to crystallize a rightward shift in the bloc's rhetoric.

Israel's latest bombardment of Hezbollah targets caused widespread destruction in southern Lebanon, ahead of US and Israeli strikes in the wider region Thursday.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky on Wednesday unveiled his long-awaited Victory Plan to end Russia's invasion, rejecting any territorial concessions and urging ramped-up Western backing, including an invitation to join NATO. After pushing back Russian troops at the start of the invasion in February 2022, Kyiv is now facing mounting pressure to find an exit strategy as its troops suffer battlefield losses and Moscow intensifies its strikes on infrastructure.

Former US president Donald Trump's cryptocurrency platform had a faltering sales launch Tuesday, with only a fraction of its digital tokens that went on the market finding a buyer.

North Korea claimed Wednesday that more than a million young people had signed up for or rejoined the army this week after Pyongyang accused Seoul's military of sending drones into its airspace.

The new precinct will be capable of servicing nuclear-powered submarines and building warships, creating around 10,000 high-tech jobs.

North Korea blew up sections of the deeply symbolic roads and railways connecting it to the South on Tuesday, Seoul's military said, adding it had conducted a "counter-fire" operation in response.

Standing in the ruins of his home, Nidal al-Arabeed took stock after more than 10 of his family members were killed by Israeli air strikes on the city of Jabalia, as the army tightened its seige on northern Gaza.

For supporters, biodiversity credits could unlock billions in much-needed funding for nature, but critics fear a repeat of scandals that have dogged other financial approaches to protecting the environment.

"We now advise do not travel to Israel and the Occupied Palestinian Territories due to the volatile security situation, armed conflict, civil unrest and terrorism," the Australian government's advice reads.

Israel's military launched strikes Tuesday on eastern Lebanon, official Lebanese media reported, as Hezbollah fought Israeli soldiers after Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu vowed no mercy for the militant group.

Along the waterfront of East Timor's capital, buzzing restaurants sell local dishes and Portuguese colonial fare facing turquoise waters where the Indonesian military launched an invasion nearly half a century before.

Canada's Prime Minister Justin Trudeau accused India Monday of making a "fundamental error," as an escalating row over the killing of a Sikh separatist on Canadian soil last year saw both countries expel each other's ambassadors.

Clinging to a fluffy toy twice her size, orphaned koala joey Ajooni made a snuffling noise as she drank milk from a tiny syringe.

King Charles III this week begins his first tour of Australia as monarch, reigniting debate about whether the country should sever ties with the British monarchy and become a republic.