POLITICS & POLICY

Living on canned beans and meat, the 70-year-old Egyptian has been hiding out in a Mecca apartment for weeks, hoping to evade a Saudi dragnet and perform the hajj pilgrimage illegally.

Every year, nearly 800,000 tourists wander through the alleys of Binibeca Vell, a tiny whitewashed village nicknamed "the Spanish Mykonos" for its resemblance to the famous Greek island which attracts huge crowds of visitors.

The leaders of Britain's two main political parties faced off in the first live TV debate of the general election campaign on Tuesday, a month before voters go to the polls and with predictions of a record win for the main opposition Labour party.

President Joe Biden is expected to announce Tuesday that he will temporarily close the US-Mexican border to migrants whenever numbers of illegal crossings become excessive, in a dramatic bid to address one of his political weak spots in the reelection battle against Donald Trump.

A parliamentary inquiry into mental health care across NSW has also recommended improved mental health training for police officers and exploring options of them to become second responders in such health crises.

US, UK, Canada and New Zealand nationals who are permanent residents of Australia will be eligible for recruitment.

Vote counting was underway in India's election Tuesday, with Prime Minister Narendra Modi all but assured victory for his Hindu nationalist agenda that has thrown the opposition into disarray and deepened concerns for minority rights.

The language sounds like something from an authoritarian state or the US anti-communist purges of the 1950s, but Donald Trump is increasingly focused on one target: "the enemy within."

Congratulations poured in from around the world Monday after Claudia Sheinbaum was elected Mexico's first woman president, sparking hope for change in a country where gender-based violence has long been rife.

Nigel Farage, who announced on Monday an eighth bid to become a British MP, has risen from fringe eurosceptic rabble-rouser to an attention-grabbing figurehead who wants to "reshape" right-wing UK politics.

Treasurer Jim Chalmers has ordered five companies to sell their shares totaling 10.4% of rare earth miner Northern Minerals Limited on suspicions of share trading among Chinese shareholders.

Hunter Biden, the long-troubled son of Joe Biden, went on trial Monday on gun charges in a historic first prosecution of a sitting president's child -- and potential threat to his father's reelection.

Giles made the claim last week while speaking to the media when he was asked why the 153 released detainees were not being placed under electronic monitoring.

Western leaders will this week mark on the beaches of northern France 80 years since Allied troops surged into Nazi occupied Europe in the World War II D-Day landings, haunted by the war again raging on the continent as Ukraine battles Russian invasion.

Fair Work Commission increased the minimum weekly wages to AU$915.90, and hourly wages to AU$24.10, based on a 38-hour working week.

Feebly shaded by trees in the blistering heat, desperate civilians throng a displacement camp in tents and ramshackle shelters after fleeing jihadist violence in northeastern Burkina Faso.

India's six-week election was staggering in its size and logistical complexity, but also in the "unprecedented" scale of online disinformation.

South Africa's ruling ANC said Sunday that it would enter talks with other parties to form a new government, after losing its three-decade-old absolute majority in a watershed election.

Alexander Zverev came back from the brink of defeat to reach the French Open last 16 for a seventh successive year on Saturday as Novak Djokovic took aim at equalling Roger Federer's record for Grand Slam match wins.

It was predicted to go badly but turned out to be worse: South African President Cyril Ramaphosa led the ANC to its worst election result since the end of apartheid, one which threatens his survival.

Israeli forces hammered Rafah in southern Gaza with tanks and artillery Saturday, hours after US President Joe Biden said Israel was offering a new roadmap towards a full ceasefire.

Cricket ventures into uncharted territory on Saturday as the first ever major tournament to be staged in the United States gets under way in Texas with the opening game of the T20 World Cup.

Israeli forces on Friday struck targets across the Gaza Strip, with witnesses reporting air raids around the southern city of Rafah, the latest focus of the nearly eight-month war.

Gutted buildings, vacant windows and blocks bombed to rubble show the price paid by the western Myanmar town of Pauktaw for victory against the junta in the country's civil war.

Russian strikes killed three people in the Ukrainian city of Kharkiv, authorities said Friday, after the United States had authorised Kyiv to use American weapons to hit targets inside Russia in defence of the region.

Donald Trump became the first former US president ever convicted of a crime after a New York jury found him guilty on all charges in his hush money case, months before an election that could see him yet return to the White House.

Spain's parliament gave the final green light to a controversial amnesty bill for Catalan separatists Thursday, paving the way for the return of their figurehead Carles Puigdemont after years of self-imposed exile.

Like millions of Ukrainian children, Kyiv teenager Sofia Klochko is finishing up a third school year marked by war and the constant stress of air raid sirens and strikes.

Australian Border Force officials told Senate estimates that of the 153 immigration detainees released, 76 were under electronic monitoring and 68 subject to curfews, which were generally from 10pm to 6am.