WORLD

New York City police arrested a man suspected of setting fire to a woman on the subway in Brooklyn who died from the incident, authorities said, calling it "one of the most depraved crimes" a person could commit.

Beijing on Monday promised to continue "cooperation" with regional authorities over a Chinese ship linked to the recent severing of two undersea cables in the Baltic Sea.

Social media users in Vietnam on platforms including Facebook and TikTok will need to verify their identities as part of strict new internet regulations that critics say further undermine freedom of expression in the communist country.

A US health boss's murder sparked a torrent of online misinformation and calls for violence against other executives, suggesting a failure of social media moderation that analysts fear could translate into real-world harms.

Just 12 trucks distributed food and water in northern Gaza in two-and-a-half months, aid group Oxfam said on Sunday, raising the alarm over the worsening humanitarian situation in the besieged territory.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Sunday vowed to retaliate against Yemen's Huthi rebels after they fired a missile at Tel Aviv, warning that Israel would target what he described as the last remaining arm of "Iran's axis of evil".

Two US Navy pilots were shot down over the Red Sea early Sunday in "an apparent case of friendly fire," the US military said.

The man accused of gunning down a US insurance executive in Manhattan -- a killing that tapped into widespread anger with the American health care system -- appeared in a New York court Thursday to face federal charges including murder.

Elon Musk's role in wrecking a bipartisan Congress deal to avert a US government shutdown has underlined his extraordinary influence over the Republican Party and the incoming administration of Donald Trump.

President Emmanuel Macron faced accusations of racism Friday over an alleged comment on problems in French hospitals which the Elysee strongly denies he made.

Italian Deputy Prime Minister Matteo Salvini was defiant Friday as he arrived for the verdict in his long-running trial for blocking a migrant rescue ship at sea, for which he risks six years in jail.

Taiwanese lawmakers tackled and doused each other with water on Friday as President Lai Ching-te's party tried to block the passage of bills they say could harm the self-ruled island's "democratic system".

Malaysia announced on Friday it has agreed to launch a new search for Malaysia Airlines flight MH370, which disappeared 10 years ago in one of aviation's greatest enduring mysteries.

US diplomats have arrived in Syria to speak directly to the new Islamist-led rulers, hoping to encourage a moderate, inclusive path and to find clues on missing Americans, the State Department said Friday.

Rescuers say they have expanded a search for trapped survivors in quake-rocked Vanuatu to "numerous places of collapse" beyond the capital on Friday, after the death toll climbed to at least 10.

Investigators probing suspended South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol over his foiled martial law bid on Friday ordered him to appear before the country's corruption watchdog on Christmas Day -- after he snubbed a previous summons this week.

Donald Trump's imminent return to the White House and uncertainty about his policy proposals has begun weighing on the US Federal Reserve, raising concerns of a reckoning between the central bank and the president-elect.

Overseas rescuers joined a hunt for survivors in the rubble of shattered buildings in earthquake-struck Vanuatu on Thursday, with officials saying the toll of nine dead is set to rise.

A court on Thursday sentenced a French man to the maximum term of 20 years jail for committing and orchestrating the mass rapes of his now former wife Gisele Pelicot with dozens of strangers he recruited online.

Human Rights Watch on Thursday accused Israel of committing "acts of genocide" in the Gaza Strip by damaging water infrastructure and cutting off supplies to civilians, calling on the international community to impose targeted sanctions.

At least 100 North Koreans deployed to support Russia's war effort in Ukraine have been killed since entering combat in December, South Korean lawmaker Lee Seong-kweun told reporters Thursday.

In his first post-election news conference, President-elect Donald Trump vowed to "straighten out" the "corrupt" US press.

Concerns are growing in the UK as tech billionaire Elon Musk takes an increasingly close interest in Britain's political scene, appearing to cosy up to hard-right firebrand lawmaker Nigel Farage.

Russian President Vladimir Putin will hold his annual end-of-year press conference Thursday, almost three years into his Ukraine offensive and two days after a Kyiv-orchestrated killing of a general on the streets of Moscow.

US President-elect Donald Trump urged Republican lawmakers Wednesday to scupper a cross-party deal to avert a fast-looming US government shutdown, as the White House accused him of "playing politics."

Tech billionaire Elon Musk is in talks with UK anti-immigration firebrand Nigel Farage about donating to his hard-right party, the British lawmaker has said.

UK annual inflation climbed further above the Bank of England's target rate in November, official data showed Wednesday, firming expectations that it will avoid cutting interest rates this week.

The first commercial flight since the ouster of president Bashar al-Assad took off from Damascus airport on Wednesday, offering Syrians a glimmer of hope after years of war and decades of oppression.

When a US warship docked in Cambodia this week, it moored just a few kilometres from a base where China has built an extended new pier and two of Beijing's own vessels have been berthed for about a year.